Definitions
This is "when [a book] is entirely removed from a collection in response to a formal or informal challenge".
"Book Ban Data", American Library Association, March 20, 2023
https://www.ala.org/bbooks/book-ban-data
What is a ban?
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 actor, known for his often banned graphic novel memoir They Called Us Enemy, is the 2025 honorary chair for Banned Books Week.
Who is George Takei?
This classic children's book named after the titular character was banned for "defamation of the logging industry" in California.
What is The Lorax?
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
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 which then may result in access to it being retained, restricted, or withdrawn entirely" and thus, banned.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?
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 children's author made headlines in March of 2021 when his estate decided to stop printing six of his books, making many people demand answers for the supposed censorship.
Who is Dr. Seuss?
(An author/author's estate saying they are allowing to take a book out of print is not censorship--but removing it from a collection because of that reason is)
This book, based on a true story from the Central Park Zoo, has been banned for its depiction of "gay penguins".
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
During the 2023-2024 school year, there were this many unique, individual titles affected by book bans.
(Closest guess wins the points)
What is 4,231 unique book titles?
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 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?
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?
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 week-long event was created in 1982 in response to a sudden rise in bans.
What is Banned Books Week?
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?
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"?
Alan Gatz's book "Ban This Book" was banned for this ironic reason.
"teaching rebellion of school board authority" and referenced books that had been removed from the school district
“They banned the book because it talks about the books that they have banned and because it talks about book banning,” he said. “It feels like they know exactly what they’re doing and they’re somewhat ashamed of what they’re doing and they don’t want a book on the shelves that calls them out.” (www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jun/11/florida-book-bans-book-banned)
Most bans in 2024 were initiated by these groups of people.
(Please name one)
What are pressure groups (such as Moms For Liberty, Citizen's Defending Freedom, Parents’ Rights in Education) and government entities (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, 16% Parents, 7% Other/Unknown, 4% Patrons 1% Librarians/teachers/staff)
These two groups have fought against censorship for nearly 100 years, though data collection only started in the 1990s.
(Please name one)
Who are the American Library Association (ALA) and their Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and PEN America?
Despite being banned in several countries, including the author's home country, this book has never made it to the top 100 Banned Books Lists since 1990.
What is Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
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.
(Please name one of the authors)
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 were written by authors of this demographic.
Who are people of color?
People in this profession have quit, been fired, harassed, stalked, sent death threats, called groomers and pedophiles, and have suffered serious health concerns due to the stress of preventing censorship.
Who are librarians?