The American Library Association kicked off Banned Books Week 2024 with the news that attempts to ban books in libraries are lower so far this year than in 2023. In fact, the number of book challenges is down 40% year to date, from 695 in the first eight months of 2023 to 414 in the same period of 2024. The number of unique titles challenged dropped by about the same percentage, from 1,915 to 1,128. Nonetheless, the ALA cautions, the number of attempts to ban books is still considerably higher than in 2020, just before the recent wave of challenges began. In addition, the freedom to read continues to be threatened by libraries who remove or simply choose not to purchase books before they are challenged, as well as the “soft censorship” of libraries who purchase books but restrict their circulation.
News reports over the past year suggest that the political usefulness of organized book challenge attempts is declining, and the ALA report cites several additional factors, including successful court cases (see “Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Arkansas Law”) and advocacy by community groups and individuals.
In addition to the cases mentioned by the ALA, publishers recently sued the state of Florida over its book bans and California passed a Freedom to Read act (see “Publishers Sue Florida, California Bans Book Bans”).
Three of the ten most challenged books in 2023 were graphic novels: Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe; Flamer, by Mike Curato; and Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human, by Erica Moen and Matthew Nolan (see “Three Graphic Novels Among Top 10 Most Challenged”).
Banned Books Week is September 22-28, 2024.
Source: ICv2
