Today kicks off the annual Banned Books Week, observed this year from October 5 – 11, 2025. The Banned Books Week website describes it thusly:
“Banned Books Week is an annual event that highlights the value of free and open access to information. The event is supported by a coalition of organizations dedicated to free expression, including American Booksellers for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Amnesty International USA, Association of University Presses, Authors Guild, Banned Books Week Sweden, Children’s Book Council, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Freedom to Read Foundation, GLAAD, Index on Censorship, Little Free Library, National Book Foundation, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, PEN America, People For the American Way Foundation, PFLAG, and Project Censored. Banned Books Week also receives generous support from Penguin Random House. Banned Books Week is ® American Library Association.”
“…free and open access to information.” That’s really what it is all about.
Last week, the PEN America organization released the list of Most Banned Books of the 2024-2025 School Year and it will make your head spin, as most lists of this type do to any person who believes in the freedom of people to write and read what they wish. As noted in the prelude to the list; “For the third straight year, Florida was the No. 1 state for book bans, with 2,304 instances of bans, followed by Texas with 1,781 bans and Tennessee with 1,622.”
Wow! I thought DeSantis said he governed the “Free” State of Florida.
Banning books is ridiculous. Especially banning books for young people in school. What should be practiced without hesitation is age-appropriate guidance by parents for their own children. If you think a book may have themes or subject matter that is too mature for your own child, by all means express that to them.
Set guidelines for your own children, not other parents’ children.
Telling a school library or a local city/county library that they cannot keep a book on their shelves for people to borrow because YOU think it shouldn’t be there is the height of ego and hubris. And it sets in motion the very thing the banner does not want; for people to read the book. Forbidden fruit is the most tempting.
Because, as Isaac Asimov said, “Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.”
And, as Stephen King explained, “…run, don’t walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know.”
Amen!
It’s a shame we even have to have a Banned Books Week.
For those of you who wonder what you can do, the Banned Books Week website has some suggestions broken down by the amount of time and financial ability you have. In its simplest terms; everybody can do something.
Keep the freedom to write and read free.
