Stand up to book banners in your community
Book banners have been targeting our public schools and libraries — and our teachers and librarians — for years, at alarming rates, and they’re finding sneakier ways to do it!
According to the American Library Association, the number of reported book bans declined in 2024 compared to 2023: 2,452 unique book titles were challenged compared to 4,240 in 2023. On the surface, this may sound like a shift in the right direction, but it’s not. This change is just due to a new book banning tactic. Instead of attempting to ban a book directly, extremists will use ‘soft censorship,’ which means using underhanded strategies to make some books inaccessible — in addition to banning others outright.
The reason for this change is clear: book banning is wildly unpopular with the American public. Recent surveys show that two-thirds of Americans oppose book bans. And some studies indicate that number is actually closer to 75%. Extremists know that they don’t have the support of parents, students, or educators, so now they are trying to fly under the radar to avoid public scrutiny. So it’s up to us to learn how to spot it and stop it.
How to Recognize Soft Censorship in Your Community
Here are some examples of soft censorship tactics to ban books:
- Moving books to restricted sections.
- Pressuring libraries and schools to exclude specific titles in public displays.
- Removing books from shelves for review for extended or indefinite periods of time.
- Coordinating to check out all the books on a particular topic and delaying or refusing to return them, as one group has started doing during Pride month every year.
- Using the standard library practice of ‘weeding’ (removing old, unused, or damaged books from circulation) to quietly remove targeted books.
- Implementing policies or passing laws making it easier to challenge books while simultaneously requiring complicated, time-consuming, and expensive review processes.
Using these tactics, extremist groups continue to target books about history, race, and gender, and books written by authors who are Black, brown, or indigenous, LGBTQ+ people, and women. They’ve even tried to ban books about Martin Luther King, Jr., Anne Frank, and Rosa Parks! They are harming children by taking away their opportunities to learn accurate history, and gain better insight and understanding about themselves, their community, and also people who are different from them. Every kid should be prepared for the 21st century, which means getting a well rounded education and respecting people whether they grew up just like them or not.
The good news is, standing up to book banning extremists works! This year, we’re seeing many states pass anti-book ban bills to protect the right to read. Some of these bills offer grants to libraries that have policies in place enforcing the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read statement. Other bills give legal protections for librarians who reject book bans. Colorado, Connecticut, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island have all passed right to read bills in 2025. California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, and Washington all previously passed some form of right to read laws.
Stand up to Book Banners
Want to get involved and stand up to book banners in your community? Sign up to be a part of our Freedom to Parent movement and become a Book Ban Buster too!
And here are some other actions you can take right now:
Extremists are pushing book bans in our schools and libraries nationwide.
Let’s get together and read some banned books!
What We Are Reading Next:
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
October 15, 2025, 7:30 – 9pm ET
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky tells the story of Rachel, a biracial girl who is the sole survivor of a family tragedy and then goes to live with her grandmother. Durrow’s book is a winner of the Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of racism and classism. Parent’s in a Utah school districts attempted to have Durrow’s book banned for including sexual content and sexual violence.
The Best We Could Do
November 19, 2025, 7:30 – 9pm ET
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui is an illustrated memoir describing the experience of the author’s parents living in Vietnam before and during the Vietnam War, and then their escape to the United States as refugees when Bui was just a child. It was targeted for banning in a California public library system with the reason given that it was not suitable for people under 18.
The House of the Spirits
December 10, 2025, 7:30 – 9pm ET
The House of the Spirits is the first novel by world-renowned author, Isabel Allende. The novel is a family saga that spans three generations of a Chilean family living through a turbulent time. The book uses magical realism to explore political and social issues. Parents in North Carolina and California have attempted to have Allende’s book removed from school curriculum because they felt it was too graphic.
Banned book authors are speaking out.
Hear what they have to say with our YouTube series on Banned Books.
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