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A big thank you to Steve Runge at Boston College for sharing this virtual book display design.
The titles in this collection represent many of the most frequently challenged books in the last decade.
via the American Library Association: Banned Books Week (September 18 - 24, 2022) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. It brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.
Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content and political viewpoints, for concerns that it is “designed to pollute the morals of its readers,” and for not including a content warning
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
Reasons: profanity, drug use, and alcoholism, and because it was thought to promote anti-police views, contain divisive topics, and be “too much of a sensitive matter right now”
Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, sexually explicit
Reasons: anti-family, homosexuality, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “promotes the homosexual agenda”
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence
Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, sexually explicit
Reasons: insensitivity, nudity, racism, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit
Reasons: sexual references, profanity, violence, gambling, and underage drinking, and for its religious viewpoint
Reasons: offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”)
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “contains controversial issues”
Reasons: occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
Reasons: violence and other (“graphic images”)
Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content and sexually explicit images
Reasons: sexual violence and was thought to “lead to terrorism” and “promote Islam.”
Reasons: nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group
Reasons: profanity and for “vulgarity and sexual overtones”
Reasons: considered “pervasively vulgar” and because of drug use, profanity, and offensive language
Reasons: religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and sexual explicit scenes
Reasons: challenged for a sexually explicit scene that may lead a student to “sexual experimentation”
Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content and a transgender character; schools and libraries should not “put books in a child’s hand that require discussion”; for sexual references; and for conflicting with a religious viewpoint and “traditional family structure”
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint
Reasons: depictions of abuse, sexually explicit
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “date rape and masturbation”
Reasons: gambling, offensive language, political viewpoint. Additional reasons: “politically, racially, and socially offensive,” “graphic depictions”
Reasons: anti-Family, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group
Reasons: thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity
Reasons: author’s public statements, and because of claims that the book contains “selective storytelling incidents” and does not encompass racism against all people
Reasons: profanity, sexual references, and certain illustrations
Reasons: offensive language, racism
