While an increase in rainbow iconography should be the harbinger of Pride month, over the last three to four years, it’s been bans on Pride displays in libraries more commonly ushering it in. This week, for the third consecutive year, the Enid Public Library in Oklahoma has stirred a manufactured panic around Pride displays in the library. An outside group which has been permitted an exhibit now for several years has had their request for a 2024 display rejected, opening the door wide for a third year of battling over what constitutes a display, what constitutes an exhibit, and what is deemed ..read more

We’re less than one month out from Pride month, and with it, the programs, book displays, and conversations to be had about LGBTQ+ identity and history across the USA and beyond. For libraries, Pride has traditionally been a month for joyful displays of queer books, with periodic and predictable complaints. But several years into surging book bans, escalating violence, and rising fascism now, it is important to prepare for the upcoming month of events to anticipate all that has, does, and might arise. Last year, I put together a how to guide to Pride displays in libraries and it feels appropri ..read more

In January, Colorado legislators proposed measures that would curb book bans across the state. The bill, SB-049, did progress and thus, never got heard during that session. As a result, it was postponed indefinitely at the end of February. But good news for Colorado residents: a new, similar anti-book ban bill has been proposed and it is making its way through both sides of the legislature. Senate Bill 216, known as the Standards for Decisions Regarding Library Resources, was introduced May 24. The prime sponsors were Lisa Cutter, Dafna Michaelson Jenet, Eliza Hamrick, and Junie Joseph. The bi ..read more

Despite years of writing about the reality of book censorship and the experiences of library workers across the country, the average person remains unaware. This is to be expected. The average person isn’t online all the time, isn’t reading every outlet, and isn’t necessarily thinking about their library (public or school) all the time. The average person is going about their day as they normally would. And yet, sometimes a story here will go viral because it is so absurd that the average person not only cannot believe it, but it starts to wake them up about what’s truly happening. That was th ..read more

Late last week, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed the Freedom to Read Act into law. The legislation is a massive step toward curtailing book bans which have roiled the country and the state. House Bill 0785, filed concurrently as SB 0738, is a series of comprehensive protections for school and public library workers, as well as the materials acquired and housed in these institutions. In both public libraries and school libraries, the bill protects access to books and other library items by stating they cannot be removed or prohibited from collections because of partisan or doctrinal disapprov ..read more

In October 2021, I put together the first comprehensive guide to fighting book bans and challenges at Book Riot during the rising wave of censorship. Despite linking to this again and again and despite it being the foundation from which Book Riot put together an entire ebook last February—How to Fight Book Bans and Censorship—and despite the fact that we are absolutely flooded with “how to” resources everywhere, I’m still asked for more. So let’s do just that. Here’s the most basic, boiled-down primer for how to fight book bans in 2024. It’s short, sweet, and to the point. No, you won’t find ..read more

The Hanover County Supervisors has censored the honor they are giving to one of their young community members. Why? Because that student’s Girl Scout project is related to banned books — something that the local school board is actively engaged with and something that Commissioners themselves are currently engaged with at the public library. Hanover County School Book Bans Lead to A Teen Girl Scout Service Project Hanover County, Virginia, has become a familiar name in the book censorship world. In June 2023, the district adopted a policy to combat so-called “explicit” books in school librarie ..read more

Earlier this year, several users began to note that the “News” tab on Google was disappearing. It wasn’t one time here or there. It was noticeable enough that several outlets reported on the issue. Indeed, Google’s experiment in disappearing the “news” feature wasn’t a bug. It was a goal. Filtering to news results is still available on Google for me, but this week, I noticed something I never had appear before. In researching “young adult novel” news for the “What’s Up in YA?” newsletter, refining my search to a specific date range — April 11 through April 15, 2024 — and to the news tab, this ..read more

Following closely on the heels of the American Library Association’s report on the top 10 most banned books in the United States last week comes a report from PEN America diving further into the ever-evolving reality of book bans. Titled “Banned in the USA: Illustrating Book Bans Across Public Schools,” the report not only offers a look at the number of books being banned but also frames the themes present in the ways in which book banners are targeting these books. In the first six months of the 2023-2024 school year—July through December 2023—there have been twice as many book bans in public ..read more

This week, Kelly Jensen is on a well-deserved break, so we’re doing a more condensed version of her inimitable weekly censorship round-up: fellow editors Danika Ellis and Erica Ezeifedi have each picked a few of the censorship stories of the last week to highlight. Book Censorship News will be back to its regular programming with Kelly next week! Without further ado, let’s get into some of the notable censorship news stories of the week. Teens Speak Out About Their Experiences with Censorship and Book Bans As part of the Books Unbanned Project, Brooklyn Public Library and The Seattle Public ..read more