This story was originally published by the 19th.
The number of books banned in public schools over the past year soared to more than 10,000, with two states (Iowa and Florida) responsible for most of them, according to preliminary findings published by PEN America on Monday.
He report comes during Banned Books Weekwhich began in 1982 to raise awareness about the importance of free and open access information.
The increase in books banned during the 2023-24 school year (almost triple the 3,362 bans recorded by PEN the previous year) can be attributed in part to the selection of books about romance and women's sexual experiences and those about rape or sexual abuseaccording to PEN America, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the protection of free expression. Books with LGBTQ+ or racial themes or characters from marginalized groups also continue to be targeted.
The PEN America report does not reflect bans on single titles, so if a dozen school districts banned the same book, it would count as 12 bans, a PEN representative explained.
Several books, many of which are works by women of color, appeared on PEN America's School Book Bans Index for the first time over the past year. They include Julia Álvarez's 1991 novel, “How the García Girls Lost Their Accents,” about four immigrant sisters from the Dominican Republic, one popular choice for readers during Latinx Heritage Month. Other recent entries to the index include Amy Tan's novel about the Chinese-American daughter of an immigrant mother, “The Kitchen God's Wife” (1991); Terry McMillan's romance novel “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” (1996); and Ellen Oh's novel inspired by her mother's experiences during the Korean War, “Finding Junie Kim” (2021).
“Death on the Nile” by Agatha Christie (1937), “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith (1943), “Cold Sassy Tree” by Olive Ann Burns (1984), “Prodigal Summer” by Barbara Kingsolver (2000) and Julie Murphy. “Puddin'” (2018) also debuted on the index.
The 1953 novel “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” by James Baldwin, a civil and gay rights advocate, appeared in the index for the first time, as did slavery-related books such as “Roots: The Saga of An American” by Alex Haley. Family” (1976) and “Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880” by WEB DuBois (1935). Philip K. Dick’s 1968 dystopian novel “Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep)?” also debuted on the index.
More than a dozen new state and local policies contributed to the escalation of book bans over the past year. they include Iowa SF 496, which came into effect last year and has been interpreted to mean that books with sexual or gender themes should be banned. According to PEN America, the law led to thousands of book bans during the 2023-24 school year, compared to just 14 bans in the state during the previous school year.
Florida HB 1069which also went into effect last year, requires that books questioned for “sexual conduct” must be removed while they undergo review. PEN America said the legal process the law created for book bans and “state guidance based on it” has led to a increase in statewide book ban. In Florida and Iowa combined, approximately 8,000 book bans were recorded.
In Wisconsin, the Elkhorn Area School District banned more than 300 books for months, PEN America found. The books were removed after a single parent questioned them, but after the district reviewed the titles, they were finally returned to the shelvesalthough with restrictions such as parental permission to view certain titles. The organization hopes that laws will be enacted recently such as Utah HB 29, South Carolina Regulation 43-170 and Tennessee HB 843 lead to more book bans this school year.
Utah law requires all schools in the state to ban a book once three school districts have deemed it objectionable. South Carolina's regulation bans books with sexual themes and gives the state Board of Education the ability to censor works statewide. Tennessee law requires schools to remove books with gratuitous violence or sexual content.
To commemorate Banned Books Week, the American Library Association (ALA) has also released preliminary data related to censorship, focusing on book bans in public, school, and academic libraries between January 1 and August 31 . The ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom said it identified 414 attempts to censor works and that there were documented challenges to 1,128 unique book titles.
The ALA found that the number of attempts to censor books decreased this year compared to 695 cases last year. The organization attributes this to widespread efforts to stop censorship. LibrariansConcerned students and community members have organized against book bans in recent years, and disputes over book bans have reached the courts. This includes a federal court decision preliminary injunction in Arkansas Law 372that would expose the state's librarians and bookstore owners to criminal prosecution if they do not remove “inappropriate” works from their shelves.
Censorship is an issue that has drawn the attention of the 2024 presidential candidates. Former president Donald Trump's campaign platform accuses President Joe Biden's administration to “use the public school system to spread his perverse sexual, racial and political material to our young people.” In July, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, criticized the book ban while speaking to the American Federation of Teachers union in Texas.
“While students are being taught about our nation's past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and recognize our nation's true and complete history,” he said. “We want to ban assault weapons and they want to ban books. Can you imagine?
The theme for this year's Banned Book Week is “Liberated Between the Lines” to draw attention to how liberating reading can be. The week ends on Saturday with Let Freedom Read Day to urge communities to fight censorship. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay is the 2024 honorary president of the day, while activist Julia Garnett, who fought against the book ban in Tennessee, is the honorary youth president.
