Book bans are increasing across the U.S. year after year and readers have taken notice. If you want to better understand the basics of book banning and how it impacts the bookish community, we’re here to help. Book banning touches every member of the NetGalley community from library workers and educators to authors and readers, and the NetGalley team wants to ensure our members have tools at their disposal to understand what’s happening and fight back against censorship.
What is intellectual freedom?
Defined by the American Library Association (ALA): Intellectual freedom is the right “to read, seek information, and speak freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Intellectual freedom is a… basic right in our democratic society.” Book bans go against the right to intellectual freedom by denying readers’ access to books.
What is the difference between a challenge and a ban?
A challenge is the attempt to remove a book from a school or library by a person who objects to the contents of a book and wants to restrict others’ access to it. A ban is the removal of a book from a school or library, or the implementation of a restriction that changes the book’s availability (for example a book restricted to the high school library and removed from a middle school library where it had once been shelved).
The process of challenging a book differs from state to state, county to county, and school to public libraries. In some counties, challenged books are pulled from shelves while under review. This is a policy that has been exploited by some book banners because it effectively bans a book by restricting reader access to it until a decision is made.
When did book banning begin in the United States?
Book banning occurs around the globe, and in the U.S. it dates back centuries. Some of the first books to ever be banned were anti-slavery titles. In 1969 and 1982, the Supreme Court weighed in on two separate cases about students’ rights to read and declared that First Amendment rights exist within schools and that books cannot be removed simply because someone disagrees with the ideas within them. This didn’t stop attempts to ban books, however, and in the 1980s the first Banned Books Week was created to highlight the need to support the freedom to read.
How common is book banning today?
The Office for Intellectual Freedom documented 2,452 unique titles challenged in 2024—a steep increase from 1,858 in 2021. Books can be challenged or banned in any state, but the schools with the most book bans were found in Florida, Iowa, and Texas.
How is book banning evolving over time?
Not only are the number of challenges and bans increasing over time, but the scope of the bans has increased. Many states have put “wholesale bans” into place which closed entire school libraries and cleared classrooms of all of their books.
Additionally, legislation now goes beyond the banning of books and focuses on punishments for any librarian or educator seen as circulating a banned book. Proposed legislation in Project 2025 calls for educators and librarians to be registered as sex offenders if they lend out anything deemed as “explicit” material. It’s important to note here that the language used in book-banning legislation is often vague and that vagueness is weaponized to cover a larger amount of titles.
What does “explicit” material mean?
“Explicit” is the word typically used in book-banning legislation, and those in support of book bans often refer to the targeted books as containing pornography. PEN America notes that these books “taken as a whole” do not fit the legal definition of porn and “can only be deemed ‘obscene’ if it meets three criteria outlined in the Miller test… The books that have been targeted for removal in American public schools with few, if any, exceptions, would manifestly fail this test. Books should always be evaluated in their entirety, not judged by an illustration or passage taken out of context.”
Where are all of these book challenges coming from?
Book challenges come from both individuals and organized groups, where some of the most successful banning campaigns originate. Moms For Liberty (named a hate group in 2022 by the Southern Poverty Law Center) works in counties across the country to restrict students’ access to books of all kinds. They were reported as being connected to 58% of advocacy-led book bans across the country, and the ALA reports that, “[p]ressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members, and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries.”
PEN America writes, “The nature of this movement is not one of isolated challenges to books by parents in different communities; rather, it is an organized effort by advocacy groups and state politicians with the ultimate aim of limiting access to certain stories, perspectives, and information.”
What types of books are being targeted?
Most challenged books feature historically underrepresented voices, such as LGBTQ+ or BIPOC authors. Other commonly challenged topics include health (including mental health, bullying, and puberty), grief and death, sexual health and experiences, and violence.
What if I do think there should be some restrictions around my child’s reading?
As a parent or guardian of a child, you have the ability to decide which books are purchased for your household and borrowed from your library. As PEN America says, “public schools are by design supposed to rely on the expertise, ethics, and discretion of educational professionals to make decisions. In too many places, today’s political rhetoric of ‘parents’ rights’ is being weaponized to undermine, intimidate, and chill the practices of these professionals, with potentially profound impacts on how students learn and access ideas and information in schools… [N]o parent ought to have the right to dictate or control what it is other parents, and all students, have the opportunity to read in schools.”
What impact does book banning have on teachers and librarians?
Book-banning legislation doesn’t only focus on restricting the freedom to read; it also directly targets librarians and teachers. In Florida, the Board of Education passed a rule saying teachers could lose their teaching certification if found in violation of book-banning laws. Other laws criminalizing the act of providing “explicit sexual material” to students have led to instances of the police being called on librarians.
What impact does book banning have on authors?
Book bans have a significant impact on authors including loss of income (from both sales of books and events such as school visits), the lack of visibility of their work to their target audience, the additional workload of fighting against a challenge when they’re able, and the potential loss of future publishing contracts if their book is seen as underperforming.
What impact does book banning have on students?
Restricting a book in a school environment makes the book completely inaccessible to many students. It may mean they never learn about the book or do not have the ability to acquire it from a bookstore or library.
Research shows a positive impact on students who read diverse books, and depriving students of certain titles can limit their understanding of others’ experiences, as well as their own. The themes targeted by book banners (culture, love, grief, and health) impact all humans’ experiences, and students have as much a right as adults to read about those experiences to see themselves or others reflected in them.
I’m an adult with the means to buy books I want for myself. Why should I care?
Those who wish to ban books are not simply targeting schools and libraries. They have also gone after bookstores. A threat against one person’s freedom to read is a threat to everyone’s, and no matter what genre you read or how old you are, the impact of book bans have the potential to affect your reading if they’re allowed to continue growing at this rate.
What should we do?
We’re so glad you asked! We have an entire article about how to stay informed and push back against book bans here.
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