Banned Books Week

Right now, October 4-10, 2026 is Banned Books Week.

October 10th is Let Freedom Read Day!

Why is it important for those of us who love to read to stand up and fight against book banning and placing restrictions on books? Because often time people in trouble can find themselves in the pages of books and through the recognition they find there, guide them to help or provide solace. Just because a book doesn't fit with your value systems or mores doesn't mean it is okay to ban it so that others can't read it either.

When I was a teen librarian I would often have students tell me that such-and-so book shouldn't be in the library because it used bad words/had nudity or sex/drug use/etc. I would tell the student to not check it out. There were lots of books in the library which don't have those things but this particular book might be helpful for another student. That usually would satisfy to would-be banner. They had said their piece and I wasn't buying their logic.

This past year was an especially awful year for book bans and restrictions in the U.S. There were over 11,000 instances of book banning in schools. Many of the books were banned based on an A.I. algorithm... the banners hadn't even read the book or it's summary.

For example, the number one banned book this past year was Sold by Patricia McCormick. The book, published in 2006, is about a girl who is sold into prostitution by her family, not because they didn't love her but because they were so desperately poor they had no options. The book is aimed at grade 8-10 students and brings up the depressing reality of many impoverished people's lives. And the book was published 20 years ago!!! It was the number one banned book in 2025 and it has just now come to the attention of a book whose message is so distressing that parents can't stand the idea of their sons or daughters reading it? Shouldn't parents want their children to work out ideas of compassion through books rather than live a life devoid of compassion for others?

The most frequently banned books of 2025 were (note the copyright dates):

1. Sold by Patricia McCormick (2006)
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (1999)
3. Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe (2019)
4. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas (2016)
5. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (2021)
6. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins (2009)
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (2015)
8. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
9. Identical by Ellen Hopkins (2008)
10. Looking for Alaska by John Green (2005)

Parents only bother banning books which kids actually read. Why bother with a book sitting dusty on a shelf? They also try to ban books which have been assigned for a class to read and discuss. Heaven forbid making a child read a book in school. What do they want kids to read? Only stuff they can't relate to? Grr.rrr

This week I am reading The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. It was banned back in the 1930, soon after it was published and again in the 1950s because of profane language, sexual promiscuity, and unglamourous depictions of war. Overindulgent drinking wasn't mentioned. What does that say?

What can you do to support efforts to curtail such flagrant book banning? Pick a book from the PEN list of the 52 most banned books the past five years. Read the book and review it. Make a big deal in your review about it being a banned book and why you hope your review helps people to see the value of reading it or other banned books. 

Every book isn't for everyone. Of the list of 52 most recent banned books, I've read 29 of them. Some I liked, some I didn't. That is not the point. The point is that the books should be available for students who need/want them.

Here are a few quotes from authors whose books have been banned:

“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”

― Salman Rushdie

“Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.”

― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

“A word to the unwise.

Torch every book.

Char every page.

Burn every word to ash.

Ideas are incombustible.

And therein lies your real fear.”

― Ellen Hopkins

“Everybody has the right to form their own opinion and read what they like and come to their own conclusion about it... I trust the reader.”

― Philip Pullman

For more information consult:

• Banned Books Week
• PEN America Banned Boks Week
• The American Library Association

-Anne