How Book Bans Silence Sexual Violence

Libraries & Librarians

News Updates

ALA says that 2025 will see the last LibLearnX conference.

Libraries struggle to afford the demand for eBooks and seek new state laws in an ongoing fight with publishers.

Libraries in Northeast Ohio are trying to provide childcare services to local families.

Worth Reading

Why suppression of libraries corrupts a nation.

Libraries in western Washington confront the challenges of being open to all.

Book Adaptations in the News

Netflix has acquired the rights to Laura Dave’s upcoming book The Night We Lost Him.

20th Century Studios has won distribution rights to Daniel Kraus’ Whalefall.

The BBC has acquired the crime drama series Rebus, which is based on Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series.

Casting update for We Were Liars.

Trailer for The Wild Robot, which is based on the book by Peter Brown.

Censorship News

Don’t forget that higher education is a censorship target too.

EveryLibrary has written a draft report on Divisive Politics and Threats to Academic Libraries.

Don’t say rape: how the book banning movement is censoring sexual violence.

Texas’ takeover of Houston schools has led to major library cuts and teachers quitting.

Florida’s resident mass book banner, Bruce Friedman, says that the state legislature’s effort to curb “frivolous” book challenges won’t slow him. Of particular note is the fact that Friedman was responsible for over one-third of all the book challenges in Florida last year. In the ENTIRE STATE. He’s filed 750 complaints over the course of 18 months.

PEN America applauds the recent decision to uphold the preliminary injunction against Florida’s Stop WOKE Act for “blatant viewpoint discrimination.”

Pasco County Schools (FL) have restricted access to The Letter Q to high school students only.

Alachua County Schools (FL) voted to retain It Feels Good to Be Yourself.

Delaware and Connecticut legislators propose anti-book ban measures.

Stratford Public Schools (CT) may lose all remaining librarian positions.

The South Western School Board (PA) has tentatively approved a policy that allows teachers to misgender students and is discussing another policy that would require parents to decide if they want their child to choose any book from a classroom library. Both of these policies were drafted under the pro bono guidance of the right-wing Independence Law Center.

The West Virginia legislature has taken the currently stalled library obscenity bill and added it to a bill targeting AI-generated child pornography in the hopes of getting it passed.

Maryland’s ban on book bans is set to advance.

A group of parents at the Atlee Public Library (VA) got upset that library staff used The Family Book for story time — so upset that they left the story time event and complained to a county supervisor.

Fluvanna County High School (VA) is evaluating 24 books that were challenged by a single resident.

Back in January, a principal at Haywood County Schools (NC) banned Dear Martin from classrooms after a single parent complained.

Public and school libraries and their employees would be subject to a newly filed state obscenity law in Louisiana.

Louisiana state law requires parish library board members to serve staggered terms, which the St. Tammany Parish Library hasn’t complied with for over 20 years. But Councilman David Cougle has put forward a proposal to remedy the situation, which many see as an opportunity for Cougle to advance his book banning agenda. Look, I’m very much in favor of library boards following state law, but I’m also very much against local politicians with book banning agendas. The decision has ultimately been postponed.

Northview Public Schools (MI) heard an appeal against their decision to retain 8 challenged books, and they voted (again) to keep the books.

Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. (IN) will keep People Kill People on library shelves.

“Following a heated exchange in public testimony, including threats to flip tables, the 5-3 vote put an end to Aurora board member Kirk Penner’s third attempt to get the motion passed.” This is in Nebraska.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education has agreed not to remove any books from Edmond Public Schools until the Oklahoma Supreme Court has a chance to hear the schools’ case. How gracious of them.

An update on former Campbell County (WY) Library director Terri Lesley, who was terminated for allegedly refusing to ban books. She has since filed a complaint with the EEOC over the board’s decision to fire her.

Fremont County Public Library (WY) will not ban two Ellen Hopkins books.

“Several Flathead County Library [MT] trustees want to remove the young adult fiction designation owing to the genre’s wide age range that they argue fails to give parents enough guidance on whether a book is appropriate for their child.”

“But it’s not just mentions of race and racism that are deemed objectionable; the parents take issue with virtually any difficult subject. In Flannery O’Connor’s renowned short story ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ (1953), the treatment of topics such as murder, sin, selfishness and guilt are, according to these parents, of grave concern.” This is in Placer County High School (CA).

Chino Valley Unified School District (CA) “is considering a new policy that could remove books with ‘sexually obscene content’ from school libraries, classrooms, and all other district facilities.”

The Palmer City Council (AK) requested an overview of city law as it pertains to the public library, specifically if librarians could be arrested for distributing “obscene materials” to minors. “This concern arose when the Palmer Police Department had members of the public asking for the police to arrest the Palmer Public Librarians citing the Alaska criminal code defining ‘Distributions of obscene materials to minors.’”

Canadian libraries, book stores, and authors are watching the book ban situation closely.

Surrey Schools in British Columbia have elected to remove four “classic” books from their curriculum, but sorry, conservatives, it’s not a book ban because the books are still available in classrooms and teachers can still opt to use them with permission.

Numbers & Trends

Many countries are seeing publishing revenue increases despite falling unit sales, which, in layman’s terms, proves what we already knew: books are getting more expensive.

The best-selling books of the week.