Banned Book Club !bannedbooks@literature.cafe

Community dedicated to discussion of banned and challenged books.

ALA Advocacy Page

Banned Books Week

The Palace Project

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"State has ordered books by 13 authors, 12 of them women, to be removed from every public school, classroom and library"

Banned Books, Keelatud Kirjandus, is a museum in Tallinn, Estonia that preserves banned, censored, and burned books from around the world. We tell the stories of our books and their authors, and provide resources for learning about the history of censorship, contemporary challenges, and the free exchange of ideas.

Our Story

A few words about us

We believe that the topic of literary censorship is highly relevant and important at this moment in time. Around the world many nations, institutions, and movements restrict access to written material for a wide variety of reasons. Our museum explores the thin lines and grey areas in each one of these cases by presenting the stories of restricted books and engaging the public in a dialogue about the free exchange of ideas.

Our goal is to study the phenomenon of free speech. We do not take a political stance, but rather we enable the public to learn about the topic for themselves by telling stories, educating about history, and

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has released new data documenting book challenges throughout the United States, finding that challenges of unique titles surged 65% in 2023 compared to 2022 numbers, reaching the highest level ever documented by ALA. Read the full announcement.

OIF documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship, more than the previous two years combined (2,571 in 2022; 1,651 in 2021), as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources in 2023. Four key trends emerged from the data gathered from 2023 censorship reports:

• Pressure groups in 2023 focused on public libraries in addition to targeting school libraries. **The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all b

Creators who have at least one book banned in the prison system of the u.s. state of texas for "security" reasons as of september 2022. (The list of books banned by the state for any reason, available here, is much longer.)

• Justin Seitz
• Supreme Understanding
• Tim Hindle
• Kre Kre ( 1970 )
• George L. Jackson ( 1941 - 1971 )
• Ajamu Niamke Kamara ( 1953 - 2005 )
• Helen Fouché Gaines
• Abbie Hoffman
• [Reginald Majo

Dear Authors and lllustrators,

I want to update you regarding the Book Fairs Share Every Story/Celebrate Every Voice case.

First, I want to apologize on behalf of Scholastic. Even if the decision was made with good intention, we understand now that it was a mistake to segregate diverse books in an elective case. We sincerely apologize to every author, illustrator, licensor, educator, librarian, parent, and reader who was hurt by our action. We recognize and acknowledge the pain caused, and that we have broken the trust of some of our publishing community, customers, friends, trusted partners, and staff, and we also recognize that we will now need to regain that trust.

This case will be discontinued starting with our next season in January. For the remaining fairs in the fall, Book Fairs is working on a pivot plan as we speak. We will find an alternate way to get a greater range of books into the hands of children. We remain committed to the books in this collection and support th

Hi! Does anybody know of any online book clubs for banned books?

Or does anybody wanna…start one?

I’m looking a comfy group to join that doesn’t cost money or conflict with my busy schedule of being sick all the time.

(if this isn’t the right community to post this is, let me know)

Scholastic found that it either had to give in to the hardliners who wanted to ban books for children or to not allow that, and they seem to have decided to give in.

https://pen.org/ - PEN America https://bannedbooksweek.org/let-freedom-read-day/ - banned books week official website https://www.ala.org/ - American Library Association

And of course if you have a local public library system, get a library card and support them. This goes beyond just going to the library as well, go to budget meetings and council meetings if you can. Stay vigilant to local ongoing funding plans within your city and county, and show up to defend libraries to make it clear you aren't there to fuck around.

As well, if you are a parent go to your local school board meetings and stop fascists from taking your board over. Get involved in your childs PTA, do activism work, and push back against Moms for Liberty. If you have the time, your kids public school needs you to show up and support them.

And obviously, keep reading. Thanks for the awesome comments and discussions this past week.

I'm considering more book highlights in this community too beyond banned boo

Kicking off this week with a bang of a nobel prize winning author, and for good reason. This book was deeply disturbing to read but extremely important. It was such a beautifully upsetting piece of literature. The book was intense, yes, but it felt like I was reading thru a beautifully crafted painting.

Big warning though for child sexual abuse in this story, if you picked it up and have not read it yet.

Of course, this book is very contentious. Not only is it written by a black woman talking about race, but has the above content as well.

Have you read it? Any thoughts or feelings?

Here's the Wikipedia page regarding it's censorship and bans in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bluest_Eye