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Like always, I’m a little bit late to the party (I’ll blame life and totally not being on-top of it) but this week, 18-24 September, is Banned Book Week.
This week is so incredibly important, although fighting and acknowledging banned books is a constant thing. Especially now.
PEN America, “a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of literature and human rights” [Wikipedia], has recently done some amazing research on what is currently going on.
According to their research:
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From July 2021 to June 2022, PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans lists 2,532 instances of individual books being banned, affecting 1,648 unique book titles.
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The 1,648 titles are by 1,261 different authors, 290 illustrators, and 18 translators, impacting the literary, scholarly, and creative work of 1,553 people altogether.
The predominant reasons for them being banned are topics to do with LGBTQ+ and protagonists of color – not entirely shocking.
Fiction is primarily targeted as well with YA reads being the main focus.
I highly recommend checking out the really well written report from PEN America to learn a little more, by the numbers, about what is going on!
You can find some great things that YOU are able to do to fight against this. Every small action does matter, so please help in any way that you can.
Reading is so important and, since you are here, I would assume reading is important to you.
While book banning is a huge issue in the USA currently, it is something that happens worldwide and impacts people from all nations. So even if you are not US based, find what is happening locally and help out too!
To learn a little bit more about Book Banning, check out this great FAQ from PEN America!
