Critical Analysis

Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:

1. PEN America defines a school book ban as any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by lawmakers or other governmental officials, that leads to a previously accessible book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished. It is important to recognize that books available in schools, whether in a school or classroom library, or as part of a curriculum, were selected by librarians and educators as part of the educational offerings to students. Book bans occur when those choices are overridden by school boards, administrators, teachers, or even politicians, on the basis of a particular book’s content. According to the data from the map above, in fall semester 2023 school year how many books were banned in the United States of America?

2. According to the data from the map above, in fall semester 2021 school year how many books were banned in the United States of America?

3. Describe the change in book banning that has taken place since 2021.

4. According to PEN America’s latest report book bans are speeding up. There were over 4,000 instances of book bans in the first half of this school year—more than all of last school year as a whole. This is a marked increase in comparison to the last spring semester, in which PEN America recorded 1,841 book bans. It’s a nationwide campaign: over the last two and half academic years, PEN America has recorded banning activity in 42 states, across red and blue districts affecting millions of students. Why do you think these bans are increasing?

5. According to the data from the map below*, in the first half of the 2022-2023 school year how many books were banned in your state?

6. Overwhelmingly, book banners continue to target stories by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. In this six-month period, 30% of the unique titles banned are books about race, racism, or feature characters of color. Meanwhile, 26% of unique titles banned have LGBTQ+ characters or themes. Make a claim about whether schools should ban stories about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.

7. Various groups have banned or attempted to ban books since the invention of the printing press. Censored or challenged works include the Bible, The American Heritage Dictionary, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, To Kill A Mockingbird, and the works of children’s authors J. K. Rowling and Judy Blume. The First Amendment has made a claim about censorship: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Make a claim about whether book bans by public schools amount to an abridgement of Freedom of Speech.

8. The process behind book challenges and bans has also been supercharged by a new source of pressure: state legislation. School districts in many states are reacting to new laws that dictate the types of books that can even be in schools, or what kinds of policies they have to follow to add new books and review their collections. How does this relate to the concept of federalism?

9. Based on the visual below*, what was the most banned book in the first half of the 2022-2023 school year?

10. The movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship. At the same time, a 2022 poll found that over 70% of parents oppose book banning. Yet the bans continue. Many public school districts find themselves in a bind. They face threats and political pressure, along with parental fears and anxieties surrounding the books on their school shelves. School Boards, administrators, teachers, and librarians are told in some cases to “err on the side of caution” in the books they make available. Too often, they do just that. How does this scenario illustrate the threat of factions Madison warned about in Federalist No. 10.

Write and Discuss

Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.

Act on your Learning

Students have been at the forefront of the fight for the freedom to read, even as they feel the immediate and harmful impacts of the book banning movement. In the fall of 2023, approximately 650 students students staged a walkout in Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough School District to protest the school board’s decisions to remove the student representative from the board and to investigate challenges to 56 books. As part of the review, the board recommended several books be removed or restricted, including Robie H. Harris’s It’s Perfectly Normal and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. The students’ walkout lasted 56 minutes: one minute per book challenged. In Laramie County, Wyoming, students staged a “read-in” at an October meeting where the school board was contemplating an opt-in policy for checking out certain books at the library. The silent protesters read books like Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas—titles that have been challenged and deemed obscene across the country. “It’s a way of telling them the majority doesn’t actually agree with restrictive book banning,” one student explained to Cowboy State Daily. “It’s the job of the board to provide a quality education.” And in New Haven, Connecticut, over 100 high school students marched to protect the freedom to read. Students spoke openly about how books about race, gender, and sexuality helped them understand their history, their peers, and themselves. Students have routinely pushed back against the idea that book bans protect them from complicated topics. “Trying to hide the kind of unpleasant truth from us, that doesn’t do any good,” said one student in Miami, Florida. “In fact, that’s harmful.” Think about what students can do who are opposed to book bans, then after consulting your parents and teacher contact your school board and let them know what you think about book bans.

Get Creative

Write the title of a book about banning books.

Visual Extension*

Learning Extension

Read the PEN America Report: Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis.