Book Banning And Threats Against Librarians Soared Over Past Year, Report Shows

LOADING ERROR LOADING NEW YORK — Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, has never been so busy. The two most challenged books on the ALA’s top 10 list have been in the news often: Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir about sexual identity, “Gender Queer,” and Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” a coming-of-age novel narrated by a young gay man. Ron DeSantis criticized “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” upon signing a law that would force elementary schools to provide a searchable list of every book available in their libraries or used in instruction and allow parents, DeSantis said, “to blow the whistle.” Kobabe and Evison noted during recent interviews an irony of their books being targeted: Neither set out to write a story for young people. But they gained a following among students with the help of the American Library Association, which has given each book an Alex Award for works “written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.” “I think a big part of our books getting so much attention is that they’re award winners and ended up being purchased by libraries all over the country,” Kobabe said. Sen. Ted Cruz made a big production about how wrong it is that children’s books promoting anti-racism are being taught at a private school in Washington, D.C., during Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing, Carolyn Kaster via Associated Press Others on the ALA list, virtually all cited for LGBTQ or racial themes, include Angie Thomas’ bestselling “The Hate U Give,” centered on a police shooting of a Black teen; George Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Juno Dawson’s “This Book Is Gay” and Susan Kuklin’s “Beyond Magenta.” Two older works that have been on the list before also appear: Sherman Alexie’s autobiographical novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s debut novel “The Bluest Eye.” The library association defines a “challenge” as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” The ALA doesn’t keep a precise figure for how many books have actually been removed, but cases have come up routinely over the past year.