Welcome to Freedom to Read Week! This week we celebrate our freedom to read what we choose free of censorship.
Since it was founded in 1982, Banned Books Week, now also called Freedom to Read Week, has highlighted the value of free and open access to information by drawing attention to the attempts to remove books and other materials from libraries, schools, and bookstores.
The past few years have seen an upsurge in censorship attempts in the form of book challenges, book bans, and attacks on school and public libraries.
Freedom to Read Week (also called Banned Book Week) is an annual celebration that draws attention to challenges to books and books that have been banned in schools as well as libraries. Librarians WANT you to have the freedom to make your own choices about the books you read! Books are often challenge or banned for supposed moral or religious reasons, or sometimes just because a single person disagrees with a character or story. Often challenges are brought by a minority, albeit a loud one, who want to control the access of everyone. But librarians believe in your freedom to read whatever you choose.
To the right you will find the Top Ten challenged books from the past year, 2021. 2021 saw an increase in challenges to books about and by LGBTQ+ and BIPOC individuals
Below you can also find other books in the Viterbo Library that have been banned or challenged at some point in time.
Go forth and READ BANNED BOOKS!
Banned for: inappropriate for age group, believing Anne Frank wasn't a real person, discussion of sex and masturbation, being pro-Jewish propaganda, etc.
Banned for: themes of rape and use of profanity and racial slurs.
Banned for: depictions of homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoints, sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group.
Banned for: being "anti-family"
Banned for: frank descriptions of masturbation, sex, drugs, and suicide.
Banned for: promoting atheism and attacking Christianity, in particular the Catholic church.
Banned for: inappropriate language, pervasive vulgarity and racially-insensitive language, indoctrination of distrust of police.
Banned for: Anti-ethnic, anti-family, insensitivity, offensive language, occult/satanic, violence, religious viewpoint, and sexuality.
Banned for:"adult" language, frequent sexual references, and violence.
Banned for: violence, racism and political viewpoint.
Banned for: being sexist.
Banned for: expressing expletives and alluding to masturbation and other sexual fantasies as well as diminishing, in the eyes of children, the statures of certain authority figures.
Banned for: sexually explicit material, graphic descriptions, disturbing language, an underlying socialist-communist agenda and being a “bad book.”
Banned for: profanity and sexual references, use of vulgar and obscene language, as well as statements defamatory to God, being anti-white, immoral, and/or violent
Banned for: drug and alcohol use, sexual content, suicide, and being unsuited for age group.
Banned for: discussion of alcohol, poverty, bullying, violence, sexuality, profanity and slurs related to homosexuality and mental disability.
Banned for: being a picture book with a black character, author, a white man, did not have the right to create a Black character and that he only created a "Black" story so that he could get the award
Banned for: including LGBT characters, drug use, and profanity, and being considered sexually explicit with mature themes.
Banned for: Homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
Banned for: racial themes, sexual content, and passages about ghosts
Banned for: Insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, and drug use.
Banned for : "references to witchcraft and atheism and a lot of swearing"
Banned for: promoting witchcraft, including sexual content, offensive language, and being "a masterpiece of satanic deception"
Banned for: Author was mixed up with another author who wrote a book about Marxism.
Banned for : "not appropriate for any child whose parents support traditional family values," and being a "tool of indoctrination to normalize transgender behavior"
Banned for: “profanity,” “morbid and depressing themes,” and the author’s alleged “anti-business attitude.” Others have called it “derogatory towards African Americans, women, and the developmentally disabled.”
Banned for: "desensitizing children to nudity"
Banned for: "religious viewpoint,” “unsuited to age group” and “violence.
Banned for: a sex scene that was "a bit much" and "inappropriate language."
Banned for: ' for depicting magic, witches, and witchcraft in a positive light'
Banned for: references to nudity, religion and witchcraft and being 'weird and frightening'
Banned for: being 'depraved, immoral, psychotic, vulgar, and anti-Christian' and obscenity
Banned for: LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
Banned for:portraying a queer character, "pornographic, obscene, perverse" content
2021 saw a record breaking 1,586 book bans, targeting 1,145 unique books. Book challenges continue and new laws and policies are being enacted to censor what is being taught in school, what books can be purchased, and what books and ideas individuals can access.
There has been an increase in challenges reflecting the recent backlash and ongoing debates surrounding the teaching and discussion of race and racism in American history, LGBTQ+ identities, and sexual education in schools. Trends also show an uptick in challenges originating from legislators and administrators, ie. government censorship.
You may have heard of the "Don't Say Gay" law passed in Florida or about Texas's "Critical Race Theory Law" but there is plenty more happening right now.
Check out :
Newest PEN America Report "Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools"
PEN American's Report "Banned in the USA" released in April of 2022 which has a more current view of book bans in America.
Weekly Intellectual Freedom News from the ALA
News from the National Coalition Against Censorship
Most Challenged Comics since 2000
Track Critical Race Theory Bans by State
