Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read and spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. For more than 40 years, the annual event has brought together the entire book community—librarians, teachers, booksellers, publishers, writers, journalists, and readers of all types—in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.
Read for your rights, and remember: censorship is so 1984. Visit ala.org/bbooks to learn more about book banning patterns and anti-censorship resources.
Klimek, Chris, Carla Hayden and Colleen Connolly. “A Brief History of Banned Books in America.” Smithsonian Magazine. Oct. 5, 2023.
Weekes, Princess. “The Fiery History of Banned Books.” PBS: It's Lit! Sep. 21, 2020.
“The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack. Private groups and public authorities in various parts of the country are working to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools, to label ‘controversial’ views, to distribute lists of ‘objectionable’ books or authors, and to purge libraries. These actions apparently rise from a view that our national tradition of free expression is no longer valid; that censorship and suppression are needed to counter threats to safety or national security, as well as to avoid the subversion of politics and the corruption of morals. We, as individuals devoted to reading and as librarians and publishers responsible for disseminating ideas, wish to assert the public interest in the preservation of the freedom to read.”