NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Two reports released Monday provide a mixed but compelling outlook on the wave of book removals and challenges as the annual begins for schools, stores and libraries nationwide.
The found a substantial drop in 2024 so far in complaints about books stocked in public, school and academic libraries, and in the number of books receiving objections. Meanwhile, is documenting an explosion in books being removed from school shelves in 2023-24, tripling to more than 10,000 over the previous year. More than 8,000 were pulled just in Florida and Iowa, where laws restricting the content of books have been passed.
The two surveys don't necessarily contradict each other.
The library association's Office for Intellectual Freedom has recorded 414 challenges over the first eight months of 2024, with 1,128 different titles criticized. Over the same time period last year, books. The ALA relies on media accounts and reports from librarians and has long acknowledged that many challenges may not be included, whether because librarians preemptively withhold a book that may be controversial or decline to even acquire it.
Challenges have surged to record highs over the past few years, and the 2024 totals so far still exceed the ALA's numbers before 2020. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, also cautioned that the numbers predate the start of the fall school year, when laws that had been on hold in Iowa will again be in effect.
鈥淩eports from Iowa are still coming in,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd we expect that to continue through the end of the year.鈥�
The library association defines a "challenge鈥� as a 鈥渇ormal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.鈥� The ALA doesn鈥檛 keep a precise figure of how many books have actually been withdrawn.
According to PEN, bans are tallied through local media reports, 鈥渟chool district websites, and school board minutes, as well as organizational partners鈥� such as the Florida Freedom to Read Project and Let Utah Read. The library association relies primarily on local media and accounts from public librarians. And the two organizations have differing definitions of 鈥渂an,鈥� a key reason their numbers vary so greatly. For the ALA, a ban is the permanent removal of a book from a library's collection. Should hundreds of books be pulled from a library for review, then returned, they are not counted as banned, but listed as a single 鈥渃hallenge.鈥�
For PEN, withdrawals of any length qualify as bans.
鈥淚f access to a book is restricted, even for a short period of time, that is a restriction of free speech and free expression,鈥� says Kasey Meehan, who directs PEN's Freedom to Read program.
The ALA and PEN both say that most of the books targeted have racial or LGBTQIA+ themes, whether it's Meir Kobabe鈥檚 鈥淕ender Queen,鈥� Toni Morrison鈥檚 鈥淏eloved鈥� and 鈥淭he Bluest Eye鈥� or Jonathan Evison鈥檚 鈥淟awn Boy.鈥� While some complaints have come from liberals objecting to the racist language of 鈥淭he Adventures of Huckleberry Finn鈥� and other older works, the vast majority originate with conservatives and such organizations as Moms for Liberty.
The Iowa law, passed last year in the Republican-controlled statehouse, bans school libraries from carrying books that depict sex acts. The law also requires schools to publicize its library collection online and provide instructions for parents on how to request the removal of books or other materials. Many districts already had those systems in place.
After LGBTQIA+ youth, teachers and major publishers filed legal challenges, a federal judge in December put a temporary hold on key parts of the law, but it was lifted by a federal appeals court last month in an order that left room for challengers to seek a block again.
Records requests filed by the Des Moines Register with Iowa鈥檚 325 districts showed nearly 3,400 books had been removed from school libraries to comply with the law before it was paused. In Davenport, which is among Iowa鈥檚 10 largest districts and serves more than 12,000 students, Margaret Atwood鈥檚 鈥淭he Handmaid鈥檚 Tale,鈥� Kabobe's 鈥淕ender Queer鈥� and Morrison鈥檚 鈥淏luest Eye鈥� were among the nine books taken out of circulation.
After the law passed, staff were instructed to review books in their care available to students, district communications director Sarah Ott wrote in an email.
鈥淚f any books were preliminarily identified as potentially violating the new law, building staff referred the books to district administration for official review,鈥� according to Ott. The district administration uses a process that was already in place to review materials and ensure compliance with the law, she said.
Banned Books Week, which runs through Sunday, was established in 1982 and features readings and displays of banned works. It is supported by the ALA, PEN, the Authors Guild, the National Book Foundation and more than a dozen other organizations. Filmmaker Ava Duvernay has been named honorary chair, and student activist Julia Garnett, who has opposed bans in her native Tennessee, is the youth honorary chair. Garnett was among 15 鈥淕irls Leading Change鈥� praised last fall by first lady Jill Biden during a White House ceremony.
鈥淲e observe Banned Books Week, but we don't celebrate,鈥� Caldwell-Stone said. 鈥淏anned books are the opposite of the freedoms promised by the First Amendment.鈥�
___
Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
