Definitions
This is "an attempt to remove or restrict access to materials or services based upon the objections of a person or group... which then may result in access to it being retained, restricted, or withdrawn entirely" and thus, banned.
"Book Ban Data", American Library Association, March 20, 2023
https://www.ala.org/bbooks/book-ban-data
What is a challenge?
This author's book 1984 is the theme of this year's Banned Books Week, which is
"Censorship is so 1984: Read for Your Rights"
Who is George Orwell?
This author made headlines when their estate decided to stop printing books, making many people demand answers for the supposed censorship.
Who is Dr. Seuss?
(Also, publishers saying they are putting a book out of print is not censorship)
This classic children's book named after the titular character was banned for "defamation of the logging industry" in California.
What is The Lorax?
During the 2023-2024 school year, there were over this many unique, individual titles affected by book bans.
(Closest guess is fine)
What is 4,231 unique book titles?
This type of library is where most bans (55%) occurred during 2024.
What are Public Libraries?
38% School Libraries
5% Schools
2% Higher Education or Other
Despite winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Nobel Prize in Literature, and being named one of the 100 Greatest African Americans, this author is still one of the most banned, with her award winning novel on the top ten most banned books list in 2024.
Who is Toni Morrison?
This local town made headlines when the First Selectmen banned the book Who is RuPaul? in 2022--without talking to the library or an official complaint being filed.
What is Colchester?
The books And Tango Makes Three, When Aiden Became a Big Brother, and I Am Jazz have all been banned for this reason.
What is LGBTQIA+ content?
This is the only state in New England to have over 100 unique book titles to be challenged in 2023, joining the ranks of Florida, Texas, Idaho, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and five other states.
What is Connecticut?
Connecticut had 113 unique titles attempted to be censored in 2023.
This type of censorship occurs when "materials are purposefully removed, limited, or never purchased at all despite it being a title that would serve a community."
What is soft censorship?
This author of the beloved children's book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Illustrated by Eric Carle) had their book accidentally banned in 2010 due to sharing the same name as a college professor of philosophy
Who is Bill Martin Jr.?
(Bill Martin, professor at DePaul University, writes mostly books on Marxism and Prog Rock)
This organization has been a large part of literary censorship, even influencing people in other countries to also demand censorship.
What is "Moms for Liberty"?
This classic, award winning memoir, published posthumously by the author's father, was banned for being "too depressing" for students to read.
What is A Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank?
72% of all bans are made by this group of people.
What are pressure groups (such as Moms For Liberty) and decision makers (politicians, library boards, etc) who have been influenced by said groups.
(Total break down is: 36% board administrators, 26% pressure groups, and 10% elected officials)
Part of this organization, known as the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is one of two groups monitoring censorship in the United States.
Who is the American Library Association (ALA)?
This adult graphic novel memoir has been one of the most banned books since its publication in 2019, often with claims that it is in elementary schools and is pornographic.
What is Gender Queer by Maia Kobebe?
These famous authors joined the Big Five publishers (Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster), Sourcebooks, the Authors Guild and two parents to sue Florida regarding censorship--and won.
Who are Julia Alvarez, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Jodi Picoult, and Angie Thomas.
Of all titles banned in the 2023-2024 school year, 1,534 or 36% featured characters or people of this demographic, despite the group making up more that 50% of all young people.
What book has never made the top 100 Most Banned Books since tracking started in 1990?
Mein Kamp