Let Freedom Read! It’s Banned Books Week!
Now more than ever, it’s important for everyone to understand the ways books can be challenged for exclusion in a school or public library. The following infographic shares details, along with a QR code to the American Library Association (ALA) and its Office of Intellectual Freedom.
Are your favorites challenged or banned?
Transcript
Let Freedom Read:
Banned Books Week: October 1-7, 2023
Scan this QR code to access free resources for Banned Books Week from the American Library Association
Challenged and Banned
From January 1 – August 31, 2023: 3,923 total titles were targeted for censorship.
The vast majority of challenges were to books written by or about a person of color or a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. (Office of Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association)
Top 13 Most Challenged Books of 2022 (ALA.org)
- Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- Flamer by Mike Curato
- Looking for Alaska by John Green & The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (Tied with 55 challenges)
- Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
- Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
- A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
- Crank by Ellen Hopkins & Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (Tied with 48 challenges)
“Librarians are interested in having collections that represent the communities they serve.”
John Szabo, City Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library
