Banned and Challenged Books

Articles about Banned Book Week are noting that banning books has become just the first step into a bigger argument about who gets to control information. As PEN America says in its annual coverage of banned books:

Over the past two and a half years, PEN America has been at the forefront of tracking an evolving movement to exert ideological control over public education across the United States. This campaign—which PEN America has dubbed the “Ed Scare”—is penetrating public libraries, higher education institutions, and public schools, using state legislation and intimidation tactics to suppress teaching and learning about certain stories, identities, and histories.

Despite 2023 being a record year for book bans, that increase was fueled based largely on complaints from just a few people. 

The Nation covers how an initial push to move children's book titles became a movement to close down a library, unless even more drastic demands are met. 

Further,  many Chicagoland libraries have had to close due to bomb threats in reaction to Illinois's newly enacted law that makes banning books more difficult. WBEZ in Chicago has more information about what that means for those libraries. 

States are also now voting to leave the American Library Association, an education and advocacy nonprofit that has existed since 1876 over ALA's advocacy for the Freedom to Read and a tweet by the ALA president celebrating her election in 2022. 

This guide provides an overview and resources related to banned and challenged books.

Organizations that track and resist book bans:

American Library Association (ALA ) Advocacy: Banned & Challenged Books

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE)

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF)

Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF)

National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC)

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Intellectual Freedom Center

PEN America: The Freedom to Write

Unite Against Book Bans (an ALA initiative)

What is a banned book? 

The American Library Association (ALA) defines a banned book as a book that has been removed from the shelf of a library or school. According to ALA, a challenged book is a book that a person, group, or authority thinks should be removed, but is still on a library or school's shelves.

If you can buy a book on Amazon, is it banned? Danika Ellis of Book Riot explains why "ban" is the correct term for the movement to remove books from libraries. 

Additionally, Heather Kelly of the Washington Post explains why banning books from libraries is harmful, even if an "enterprising teenager" might find the book online.