by Hope Lawrence
This week marks Banned Book Week, Sept 22 – 28, 2024. This week highlights titles that have been banned or challenged in school and/or public libraries. It is peculiar that a unique book title would be banned in this country, given our protected freedom of press under the First Amendment, but here we are.
There are a few well-known titles that have been banned in a library at some point or another, such as 1984 by George Orwell, To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
But did you know that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, and The Giver by Lois Lowry were also challenged? We should also ask ourselves why these titles have been challenged or banned. What are the criteria of those who practice such censorship? The answer hasn’t been clear over the decades, but the American Libraries Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom has determined that in recent years, unique titles with LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC voices have been the most challenged. The ALA puts together a list of the top ten challenged books per year, based on reports from the field and media coverage. Titles such as the fiction YA novel Tricks by Ellen Hopkins, the fiction adult novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and the non-fiction YA memoir Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, are on the 2023 list.
More data on literary censorship can be ala.org/bbooks. More information on Banned Book Week can be found at bannedbookweek.org.
Check out some more articles on our blog about Banned Books.
Have you read any challenged and banned books? Have you read any works that you didn’t know were challenged and/or banned? Let us know in the comments below.
Hope Lawrence always had a passion for the written word. Focusing on investigative reporting, Hope completed her Bachelor of Science in communications at Nyack College, continuing her pursue to write the truth and nothing but the truth. Attending a WNBA networking event reignited a love of fiction, adding to her passion for investigative writing. While pursuing her bachelor’s, Hope wrote for LatinTrends magazine and LatinTrends.com and interned at the college radio station, writing her own programming. She is always getting any creative ideas down on paper (or screen) and bouncing between four novels.
