Having written this column since mid-2021, I sometimes forget what I’ve covered. In some ways, I haven’t written anything new in the world of book censorship because the tactics, goals, and outcomes have not changed much at all over the course of this significant era of censorship, even if the trends in how those means are achieved have.
This week, rather than drafting something fresh, let’s take the time to look back at some of the Literary Activism columns you may have missed from the previous several Septembers and Octobers. Catch up on what you may have missed, and remember that there is nothing exceptionally new in the book—just different names and faces trying to get their 15 minutes of manufactured outrage fame. We are seeing the results of these actions play out and if you’ve been watching or engaged, nothing is surprising. That doesn’t mean it isn’t infuriating, disgusting, or not in need to pushback. It just means that the groundwork’s been being laid so it is simply not surprising in the least.
With Banned Books Week now long in the rearview and with the midterm elections next week, here’s your reminder to take small actions to defend the right to read and how to vote for pro-library, pro-book leaders and legislation.
Throughout these excerpts, you’ll see editor’s notes, too–many of these pieces can be updated already and/or deserve a longer update in the future.
The Banning of Banned Books Week (October 2025)
“In 2025, we saw more bans on Banned Books Week than in any recorded memory. Thanks to the library workers who participated in an anonymous survey distributed throughout October, we have some insight into what was — and what was not — permitted as a means of raising awareness of book censorship.”
Editor’s note: Keep your eyes out for an update to this story for 2026.
The Average Age of America’s Most-Banned Books Is Older Than a High School Senior (October 2025)
“The average banned book in America was published in 2003, making the average age of the books being banned most frequently right now 22 years old. Again, this is a lot older than just two years ago.
If you want to go with median, there are two middle dates, 2006 and 2009, again averaging 2007.5. let’s make it 2008 for simplicity’s sake. The median publication date is 2008, making the median age of the books being banned in US libraries 17 years old.“
Editor’s note: In looking at the 2025-2026 data, this has changed very little. There’ll be a post with fresh, up-to-date stats coming up later this year.
We Can’t Forget People Experiencing Incarceration in Our Fight for Readers’ Rights (September 2025) – Guest post from Michelle Dillon
“Volunteer groups like BTP have operated since 1972. For fifty years, we’ve assisted tens of thousands of incarcerated readers. However, we face constant battles to maintain our services. Jails and prisons sporadically restrict access from publishers and community groups like ours (what advocates have termed “content-neutral censorship”), and facilities have incredible latitude to censor the contents of books under an all-purpose rationale of “safety and security”. Under such questionable “security concerns”, prisons have banned maps of the moon, encyclopedias of dog breeds, and books about learning to draw birds, among many other plainly overreaching bans. Even more troubling, research shows that jails and prisons routinely target books about Black history and civil rights activism under those same alleged security concerns. The result is that prison book programs spend substantial time trying to stay ahead of new restrictions and carefully stocking their libraries with books most likely to make it past censors—all of which takes away from the core mission of providing free books upon request to incarcerated readers.”
Editor’s note: If you haven’t, spend some time with the Five Year Report on Prison Censorship.
Book Challenges Are Financial Strains on Libraries—That’s The Point (October 2024)
“Back in 2021 and 2022, I wrote a lot about how book bans weren’t about the books specifically. They’re about the ways those books can be used as a tool to do a lot more damage and they’re one arm of a many-tentacled approach in the march toward authoritarianism. Book removals allow erasure of entire swaths of people—marginalized people specifically—and book challenges and subsequent book bans are a convenient tool for destabilizing and defunding public institutions like schools and libraries.
The argument is straightforward: if you would not have purchased the “inappropriate” material in the first place, then you would not need to spend all of this money on the process of reviewing the material. Taxpayer money is at stake and poorly stewarded from start to finish. It’s a circular argument.
Books being challenged are not, of course, inappropriate. The complaints are driven by a white supremacist ideology, and that same ideology is purposefully driving narratives and policies that are defunding these institutions. “
Books Don’t Just Appear on Library Shelves (October 2024)
“Books don’t simply end up on library shelves. They go through upwards of a dozen or more checks before they ever make their way into the public or school library collection. Guardrails are part of the process from start to finish.
Among book banners is a common claim that anyone can publish anything and get it in the library. This is patently false and undermines not only the professional skills of library workers, but everyone from the author to their agent to their editor to the review journal editors and reviewers themselves. Just like no doctor tries every medicine they prescribe for their patients, it is untenable for any library worker to read every book put on shelves–and the distinction here is kind of key, given that prescribing medication is just that, prescriptive. Library shelves are open and accessible but not required reading. Like a doctor, though, library workers who select material for purchase rely on the work of other professionals to do their job to the best of their abilities. Those are called colleagues, professional review journals, and community input.”
Why Teens Across the Country Are Acquiring Brooklyn Public Library’s Free Digital Cards (September 2024)
“Digital cards have been registered in every US state—minus New York, where access to such cards is not a new initiative—as well as the US territories of Puerto Rico and Guam. The top 10 states from which teens shared their stories, in descending order, are: Texas, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Michigan, and Illinois. While it is true that many of these states are among the top when it comes to book banning, others are not. California and Illinois, for example, are not among the biggest banners; indeed, what that suggests is teen access to library collections may be hindered in other ways.”
The State of Academic Libraries (September 2024)
“It should come as little surprise that academic libraries are also under siege nationwide. The work of dismantling them has been seen already, particularly in legislation that outlaws diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, but in the last couple of months, these institutional cornerstones of higher education have seen it coming faster and harder. Much like with public schools, it is important to note here that the focus is on public colleges and universities. Those which are private are not subject to the same rules and oversight as their public peers—and that’s precisely why public higher education is so vulnerable. It can be regulated to the whims of political power.”
Editor’s note: boy, does this story deserve an update, given that higher education is directly in the line of attack under this regime.
They May Not Be The Most Targeted, But They’re Still Banned (October 2023)
“Because book bans are so overwhelming right now, it’s easy to keep reaching for these notoriously maligned titles as recommended reads. They’re also pointed to as proof of “success” in a really odd way: those books have done financially okay with being targets, as their rise in bans has brought them onto more adult radars, and more adults have used their adult money and access to buy those books from retailers. “Adult” here is key. The real victims of book bans are not the grown-ups who can buy the books but the young people who cannot.
I brought this up during a recent banned books week talk. So, too, did authors like Malinda Lo. In an era where thousands of books are being banned and thousands more challenged, how come we’re still only hearing the titles of a few and conflating those stories with the stories of every other author being censored right now? They’re representative of some things but certainly not of all things.”
Student Groups Against Book Bans (September 2023)
“Although book censorship impacts every single one of us — it impacts our democracy on a nationwide level — it is the students who are most impacted by decisions made by school boards, library boards, library and school workers, politicians, local officials, and right-wing bad actors. They are the ones who lose the ability to access materials that educate, enrich, and entertain and more, given that the vast majority of books being banned right now are those by or about people of color and queer people, students know, see, and feel the impact of these decisions on them beyond the covers of those books. Marginalized teens see themselves being labeled inappropriate, disgusting, and more, all of which takes a tremendous toll on their mental health.
This week, let’s look at some of the student-run, student-organized groups fighting back against these book bans. These student groups against book bans are happening in response to situations in their own schools and communities, as well as in places that have yet to see such censorship. The list below was developed through submission, meaning that students, educators, parents, and/or library workers shared the information. It does not include the PARU group from Central York School District (PA), which you can read about here.”
Editor’s note: many of these groups are still wildly active. This list is ripe for revision in the coming months.
Book Fairs Will See An Increase In Censorship Attempts This Year (September 2023)
“But for all that book banners claim it is okay for the books they do not like to be sold, the reality is they are not okay with that either. In the last several years, there have been attempts to censor the materials made available at school book fairs. Among the stories include the “reevaluation” of books for sale at book fairs in Mat-Su School District (Alaska — a school with a lengthy history of book bans), the removal of Heartstopper from a Scholastic Book Fair in South Carolina, parents believing they should determine which books are available for Scholastic Book Fairs in Little Miami (Ohio), two board members of the Hastings School District (MN) removed books they disagreed with from a Scholastic Book Fair, and Grapeville-Colleyville Independent School District disallowed a Scholastic Book Fair (which was then privately held by parents angered by this overstep of local government), among dozens of others. Right-wingers have developed some pretty outlandish conspiracy theories about book fairs, too. In one instance, a candidate for the Denton Independent School District school board claimed that Scholastic Book Fairs were enticing educators to indoctrinate students.”
An Editorial Cartoon Criticizing Moms For Liberty Manipulated by the Group for Gain (September 2023)
“At the beginning of September in honor of International Literacy Day, USA Today pulled together several interesting charts and statistics about adult literacy across the USA. One of the big takeaways is that most adults–130 million–read at or below a sixth grade level.
Something this roundup of statistics did not include, though, was the broad range of literacies available to us and where or how they appear in US adults. We are in a media-rich environment, where mis-, dis-, and mal- information are rampant, and because of the changing landscape for news, we’re frequently beholden to sources that cannot be verified several times over or to sources that simply want to spread agenda-laden lies for clicks.
Book banners have seized this opportunity.”
Editor’s note: I use this example when I speak about information literacy and manipulation, both with adults and young people. They’re always shocked to see how differently they interpret the take from Moms for Liberty vs. the original, unaltered comic.
Championing Inclusivity in Library Collection Policies (September 2023)
“Libraries of all stripes — public, school, and academic — should have strong policies around how they build their collections, the types of materials they include, where and how items are removed (generally following the MUSTIE guidelines), and where and how people can challenge those materials/ask for reconsideration of their inclusion (hereafter referred to collectively as “collection policies”). Not all libraries put this information directly on their websites, though that is good practice, but it should be available to patrons if they ask to see it. Libraries who do not make these available on their websites might want to consider the implications of that choice. Many of those demanding book bans do so under the guise of libraries trying to hide an agenda, but by making those policies and forms readily accessible, book banners can’t as easily fall onto that belief. Be as transparent as possible.”
What’s a Book Sanctuary? (October 2022)
“If “book sanctuary” is a new phrase to you, it’s likely because it is a new phrase more broadly. Book sanctuaries are institutions committed to upholding the First Amendment Rights of all citizens, wherein book bans and challenges must follow through a specific procedure to be considered. They are places where books and the right to read them remains at the forefront of what an institution does, and well-funded, well-connected political groups do not get to wield their power in changing what is available.”
Editor’s note: this is worthy of an update with a full list of book sanctuaries nationwide, especially as the language around “book sanctuaries” has itself evolved.
Book Censorship News: October 30, 2026
- Thanks to Maryland’s freedom to read law having actual teeth to it, the state has said that Somerset County schools cannot restrict all YA books. This story tries to give examples of “young adult” books and neither of the examples are YA books. Harry Potter is middle grade and To Kill a Mockingbird is adult; both are read by teens, of course, but boy oh boy, this kind of misinformation is part of the reason why moral panic manufacturers continue to claim YA books are everything but YA books.
- Thanks again to Maryland’s freedom to read law having actual teeth, a judge has told Harford County schools that they cannot ban Flamer.
- If you’re in Texas, make sure you check out Frank Strong’s Book Lover’s Guide to the Midterm Elections. It’ll help you in ensuring you vote for pro-library, pro-education candidates.
- Oft-banned, award-winning author Kyle Lukoff talks about being censored at a local-to-him Connecticut high school.
- “Nearly two years after an Ohio third grade math and science teacher was suspended for having books with LGBTQ+ characters in her classroom, her case against her school district has reached a federal appeals court.” This one’s in the Sixth Circuit.
- St. Tammany Parish Library (LA) still has their book banning frequent fliers, but the books they most recently demanded censorship of were not, in fact, censored. One of them was a children’s work of nonfiction about Leonardo Da Vinci, which real adults called sexual because it included his artistic nudity.
- Hooksett School Board (NH) is considering banning any rainbow displays in the district. This…would be the second school board to try to do this in the U.S. in the last month. Detroit Lakes (MN) is the other district and they cut public comments short this week because the board doesn’t want to hear people tell them how ridiculous this is.
- A worthwhile read about what’s happening in Daviss County Library (KY) ahead of the election–their board is appointed, not elected–and the types of books the local banners are now turning their sights on.
- McKinney Independent School District (TX) is modifying their book challenge policy and now, only parents in the district can file one.
- Manatee County, Florida, has banned nonpartisan voting guides from the county libraries. Y’know, the place where people go to get information is not allowed to provide nonpartisan information for them.
- Copley-Fairlawn City Schools (OH) canceled their student theatrical production of She Kills Monsters earlier this fall–the decision used a lot of non-exacting language but it was because the play has gay characters in it. It’s now being allowed to be performed, but it had to be done through an outside performance organization.
- The board of the Bay County, Michigan, library will not be amending their bylaws to give themselves more power over the books purchased for the library.
- “A Southeast Georgia county and library system are being sued by a local woman who alleges they fired her as the manager of the county’s public library because she allowed a book about a transgender child to be part of a display.” Get to know LaVonnia Moore’s story.
- This comment from the Jefferson County Director of Schools (TN), where 34 books were just banned, is so ignorant it hurts: “If you have a book that nobody has checked out in a year, why is it on a shelf? I’d rather have 600 books students are fighting over than 6,000 no one touches.”
- “Peapack-Gladstone Councilman Conor Sweeney said he “lost” two LGBTQ+ books from the local library in a post on X marking National Coming Out Day, drawing renewed attention to his objections to LGBTQ+ materials in the Somerset County Library System.” What this New Jersey councilman means is that he stole them from taxpayers.
- Speaking of Somerset County, New Jersey, here’s a solid editorial from a local reflecting on the role of libraries as centers for the whole community–not partisan interests.
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was paused from classroom use in Pittsfield High School (IL) after a parental complaint. It always makes sense when books used for years in the classroom are challenged and the district gets worked up–why was the book not an issue before right now? It wasn’t. This is politically-driven.