While Kelly Jensen is off this week, editors Danika Ellis and Erica Ezeifedi are covering censorship news. The first three stories are from Erica and the last three are from Danika.
The roundup is a mix of heartening stories (New Jersey making strides to prohibit book banning and protect librarians) and stories that make you wonder what timeline we’re in (classics banned from a Tennessee school, Texas labelling Native American nonfiction as fiction, etc., etc.).
Montgomery County in Texas had everyone and their mother calling their citizen committee out for a decision they made last month to officially move Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs from children’s nonfiction to children’s fiction. A signed letter by 13 organizations and several weeks of public complaints later, the Montgomery County Commission reversed their decision and re-classified the book as nonfiction. The county commission also approved having a committee created to reconsider the policy that led to the existence of the citizens committee in the first place.
The book itself was published in 2023 and refocuses the story of “New World” colonization from the perspectives of Native Americans. The author Linda Coombs is a historian and part of the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah.
Bill A3446 Acs, aptly titled the “Freedom to Read Act,” is now on the New Jersey governor’s desk. If passed, the bill would make it so the education commissioner of New Jersey would have to develop policies on the library material selection process and how book challenges are evaluated. Then, school and library boards would develop their own policies using this model. The bill will also prohibit removing books based on “origin, background, or views” reasoning, and make library staff immune to civil and criminal liability for decisions they make in good faith.
The bill faced heavy criticism from republican senators but was able to progress with a vote of 24-15. Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-Middlesex), the bill’s sponsor, said, “You and all New Jerseyans have the freedom to choose what you want to read, and parents have and will continue to have the freedom to choose what their children will read. But no one gets to decide that for you — not now, and not ever.”
Last month in Eagle City, Idaho, one person filed 23 requests to move books in Eagle Public Library, which the trustees obliged by moving them to the adult section. And, interestingly, the city of Eagle is choosing to keep this person’s identity private. Their reasoning is the state law that prohibits information being shared about what people use from the library, but it’s not clear whether this person ever actually checked out the books they challenged.
This is part of a larger issue that surrounds people who challenge books — while public libraries protect the privacy of their patrons when it comes to what they check out, it’s not clear if this same privacy policy should be applied to people who challenge books.
Bucks County is a familiar name for anyone who’s been keeping up with Kelly Jensen’s Censorship News coverage. Last year, they ousted Moms for Liberty and elected a Democrat school board, but as The New York Times reports, they are still mostly following in the footsteps of the school board before them. Teachers are still banned from displaying rainbow flags. Diversity, equity, and inclusion training has not resumed.
The superintendent has recently announced even more book removals, including dozens of manga books. Some books banned by the previous board have been reinstated, like Beloved by Toni Morrison, but others remain banned.
Adrienne King, a parent activist against censorship, said, “Change is very slow and almost not evident.”
Together with PEN America, Jodi Picoult released a statement on Instagram about why book lovers need to vote in the upcoming U.S. election. PEN America told her that her novel Nineteen Minutes was the most banned book in the country last year. The book is about a school shooting, which Picoult says is “something that our kids, unfortunately, do not need a book to learn about.” She adds that hundreds of teens have reached out to her to let her know that her book made them feel less isolated and even stopped them from committing a school shooting themselves. The book is often banned because it includes a date rape scene, which in book bans is often labelled “porn.”
Picoult goes on to say that Project 2025 aims to take book bans to the national level, and that BIPOC and LGBTQ books are usually the most affected. “We know from history that a way you control a nation is by controlling what its citizens read,” she said, encouraging book lovers to vote for books this election.
With the passing of House Bill 843, Wilson County has removed almost 400 books from all its schools for supposedly not being age appropriate. You can see the full list at the link above.
They include books that have been read and loved by students for decades, award-winning literature, the most popular YA and children’s books, and so much more. There are a lot of LGBTQ books, like Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and Felix Ever After. There are also a lot of books that address racism, like The Book of Unknown Americans.
Classics did not escape the purge, either. Some banned classics include The Handmaid’s Tale, Slaughterhouse-Five, and The Color Purple.
As I browsed through the hundreds of titles, including books by Stephen King, Sarah J. Maas, and George R. R. Martin, I thought about how bare these libraries will be without the books that students are most excited for. How many of them will be turned away from reading entirely, when all these books disappear from the shelves?
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