Library association reports record book ban attempts in 2022

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “Now, many library workers face threats to their employment, their personal safety, and in some cases, threats of prosecution for providing books to youth they and their parents want to read.” Caldwell-Stone says that some books have been targeted by liberals because of racist language — notably Mark Twain's “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” — but the vast majority of complaints come from conservatives, directed at works with LGBTIQA+ or racial themes. They include Maia Kobabe's “Gender Queer,” Jonathan Evison's “Lawn Boy," Angie Thomas' “The Hate U Give” and a book-length edition of the “1619 Project,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning report from The New York Times on the legacy of slavery in the U.S. Bills facilitating the restriction of books have been proposed or passed in Arizona, Iowa, Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma, among other states. Ron DeSantis has approved laws to review reading materials and limit classroom discussion of gender identity and race books pulled indefinitely or temporarily include John Green's “Looking for Alaska,” Colleen Hoover's “Hopeless,” Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel “The Handmaid's Tale” and Grace Lin's picture story “Dim Sum for Everyone!” More recently, Florida's Martin County school district removed dozens of books from its middle schools and high schools, including numerous works by novelist Jodi Picoult, Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning “Beloved” and James Patterson's “Maximum Ride” thrillers, a decision which the bestselling author has criticized on Twitter as “arbitrary and borderline absurd.” DeSantis has called reports of mass bannings a “hoax," saying in a statement released earlier this month that the allegations reveal “some are attempting to use our schools for indoctrination.” Some books do come back. Officials at Florida's Duval County Public Schools were widely criticized after they removed “Roberto Clemente: The Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates,” a children's biography of the late Puerto Rican baseball star.