Book Bans Trending Down, Finally

 

 

The 42nd Banned Books Week is being honored by the book industry this week, the last in September. There is a ray of hope.  

The American Library Association issues preliminary data for 2024 showing the number of book bans are still way higher than pre-Covid 2020, they are finally trending downward. 

However, don’t celebrate in the streets just yet.

According to the ALA’s site: “ALA documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship in 2023—a 65% surge over 2022 numbers—as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources. Pressure groups focused on public libraries in addition to targeting school libraries. The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 2023.”

Public and school libraries have seen a very high number of challenges to books in the last few years due to a reaction to an increased number of published books on gender, sexuality, and race.   

Florida, by far, leads in the book ban wars of the last two and a half years through 2023. Texas is second.   

Sometimes the issue of book bans is simple. One would say publishers can publish anything and consumers have the right to access these books if they choose to. Free speech and the First Amendment are against government censorship or book bans. Let the best ideas win out in a free flow of information. 

Others will say that each library has to determine its community standards and to make age-appropriate decisions on which books can be read by our youth.   

Somewhere along the way, some classic books and major award-winning titles also got challenged and banned. Even books like The Color Purple, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation were banned by some. Shakespeare was also subject to challenges. 

Parents rights need to be taken into account. So should the judgment of librarians. But once a book is bought by a library, it could still disappear. Society’s threshold for tolerance and open-mindedness is waning in some communities. 

What is the answer here?  

I thought it strange that I read Lolita when I was a young teen in school over four decades ago. We were essentially reading about the deranged fantasies and actions of a pedophile predator who kidnaps and sexually abuses a 12-year-old girl after he becomes her step-father.  

I certainly think the book should be published and made available to adults, but is it really what kids need to read? Are they mature enough to understand this content?  

On the other hand, good class instruction can help children to appreciate the book and rather than normalize the events or be entertained by the story, young readers will collectively read it in judgment and rightfully speak of the sexual predator with contempt and disgust. They may even speak up about their own sexual abuse, if any occurred. 

Book bans are inevitably anti-American but librarians are certainly cautioned to really use their judgment when making selections. The hope is that one day Banned Books Week won’t need to be recognized. 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.