Having written this column since mid-2021, I sometimes forget what I’ve covered. In some ways, I haven’t written anything new in the world of book censorship because the tactics, goals, and outcomes have not changed much at all over the course of this significant era of censorship, even if the trends in how those means are achieved have.
This week, rather than drafting something fresh, let’s take the time to look back at some of the Literary Activism columns you may have missed from the previous several Julys and Augusts (we’ll get to the past September posts later this fall). Catch up on what you may have missed, and remember that there is nothing exceptionally new in the book—just different names and faces trying to get their 15 minutes of manufactured outrage fame. We are seeing the results of these actions play out and if you’ve been watching or engaged, nothing is surprising. That doesn’t mean it isn’t infuriating, disgusting, or not in need to pushback. It just means that the groundwork’s been being laid so it is simply not surprising in the least.
With the long weekend ahead and the freshness of the school year still here, take the time to also recommit to taking concrete, meaningful action against book censorship. Here’s a handy guide to over 60 small tasks to defend the right to read.
Do you value the work done through Literary Activism to amplify, advocate, and activate against book censorship? Then consider supporting it through a membership to Book Riot’s All Access. All Access membership grants access to all of Book Riot’s content, including our members-only newsletters, New Release Index, exclusive community features, and more. For $6 a month or $60 a year, you can help support Literary Activism, keeping it free and accessible to all readers–plus you get to dive even deeper into the great content available at Book Riot. It’s a win-win!
The Next Book Ban Target? Romance (August 2025)
For years, we’ve been hearing the story of “pornography” in libraries. It’s mainly been applied as “pornography for children,” code for books by or about LGBTQ+ people; other words slung about include “inappropriate,” “sexually explicit,” “sexually deviant,” or “obscene.” We’ve also watched states over the last year go hard for trying to undermine the Miller Test, the prevailing three-prong standard for identifying obscenity. In Florida, for example, they’ve tried to pass a law that would apply the Ginsberg v. New York ruling to books, allowing for removal of materials that may have artistic or scientific merit (per prong three of the Miller Test) if it isn’t suitable for children. But Florida isn’t alone. Other states have tried to erase the third prong of the Miller Test this year to allow those in charge to call anything outside their particular worldview “obscene.” This discourse sets the groundwork. It’s the frame by which on-the-ground sycophants rally.
RatedBooks, one of the unprofessional “parental rights” book review sites, has been stepping up its review work, following the closure of Moms For Liberty’s BookLooks in March. RatedBooks is a project helmed by several groups, including Utah Parents United, No Left Turn in Education, the Pavement Education Project, and the standalone Facebook groups of LaVerna in the Library and her state-level sister pages, Mary in the Library. The latest batch of reviews published on RatedBooks showcases their focus. It’s not books written, marketed, or sold to young people. It’s romance.
The Lie of “Local Control,” as Texas and Florida Signal What’s Next in Book Censorship (August 2025)
Since the push to ban books in public schools and libraries began in early 2021, two states have been ahead of the curve when it comes to literary censorship: Florida and Texas. Both have led the way on creating barriers in ways that other states have successfully (and unsuccessfully) tried to emulate. Florida ekes ahead of Texas a bit in terms of restrictions and new methods of making books and curriculum off limits only because Florida’s legislature commences annually, where it is biannually in Texas.
This year, both states have taken new methods to further revoke access to inclusive, age- and developmentally- appropriate materials in their public schools. Both have done so amid continued nationwide debate over voucher schemes. Where Florida’s successfully allowed for funneling of public tax money into private schools* since 2023, Texas remained a holdout until this year.
The new tactics being employed to censor books should serve to highlight what is to come in other states in the coming years. What we’ve already seen in terms of quiet censorship, the chilling effect, and the blatant lies about laws intending to return local control to public schools are only going to amplify. Florida and Texas officials are providing the roadmap.
How a Quiet Librarian Became a Loud Threat to the Iowa Legislature (July 2025)
[F]or many who’ve never thought of themselves as public stewards, perhaps now is the time to think about where or how you may have the capacity to run for office. Run for Something, which has put more focus and energy into school board elections, reports that interest in running for local offices by progressive candidates has surged since the election. Their numbers as of mid-June indicate 50,000 people have signed up to run for local positions since November 5, 2024.
But for those with the capacity to do so, running for local-level offices is a huge opportunity to have a hand in changing the future for public goods. Today, I’m thrilled to share an essay from a librarian in Iowa who, fired up after seeing the right-wing legislation targeting libraries throughout her state, is choosing to run for the Iowa House of Representatives.
*India May’s election is coming up, and you can read more about her campaign, as well as the campaigns of other librarians running for state offices across the country, in this May 2026 piece.
It’s Still Censorship, Even If It’s Not a Book Ban (August 2024)
For years now, those seeking to remove books from school and library shelves have insisted they aren’t banning books. They are, of course, because a book ban is the intentional removal of a book from a place where it once was for reasons outside the norm, such as weeding.
But even if you are not outright banning books, either as a professional in the field or as an outsider, you may still be engaging in censorship. Recall that censorship is the umbrella term for the intentional act of information suppression; it is perpetrated by those with some capacity of power, such as a government body, a private institution, or other group with authority. Catholic Vote — via their “Hide the Pride” campaign — engages in censorship. Moms for Liberty, via their BookLooks database, provokes censorship (especially as they do not believe that meeting the legal definition of obscenity). The information being suppressed can be a whole book, passages from a book, images from a book, and so forth. Materials are being withheld or changed when they’re made available to other people. Book bans are one type of censorship.
The First Amendment protects from censorship except in a very small number of instances, such as imminent threats, and importantly, extends those protections to public institutions, not private. A private school, for example, can determine what they do and do not censor without infringing on the First Amendment. A public school paid for by tax dollars, in most cases, cannot.
What Is Weeding and When Is It Not Actually Weeding? (August 2024)
Library workers also understand there’s a delicate balance when it comes to the popularity of books. If a title is on tap to be weeded because it has not moved since 2018, but there is an upcoming film adaptation, or it has been getting press, the title may stick around because of renewed interest. Even though we know banning books does not increase their sales numbers except in very rare cases and that banning books does not encourage young people to run to shelves to check them out, they do bring about interest. That means those “contentious” titles “weeded” during an era of book banning should come with solid reasoning behind their removal.
How To Explain Book Bans to Those Who Want To Understand (August 2024)
Book bans aren’t new. That’s true both for the current wave, as well as in a broad, general sense. But the fact of the matter is every single day new people begin to learn about what’s happening, either because they have not been tuned in before, because they didn’t believe it was as bad as presented, or because they’re simply not engaged with the types of media covering the issue. Although there is a basic primer on how to fight book bans and censorship in 2024, distilled into easy-to-do, vital tasks following nearly four years of nonstop coverage on book bans, that kind of guide does not provide clear talking points for engaging in conversations about book banning with those who are unaware or completely new to the discussion.
This is that 101 guide. You can use it in conjunction with this more robust and detailed guide to the myths about book banning that keep being repeated.
Books About Disability Are Popular Banning Targets (July 2024)
The data on book bans shows precisely the themes and topics that are being targeted and that have been targeted since early 2021 in this most recent wave of censorship. Among them are books by and about LGBTQ+ people and people of color, books that explore social and emotional learning, and books that explore sexuality and puberty. But there’s another segment of books targeted that has not been as deeply explored as the others — indeed, while PEN America’s data notes that books about health and wellbeing were the second most frequently banned in schools in the 2022-2023 school year, that category is so broad that it fails to specify that many of those books are about disability.
July is Disability Pride Month. Like with Sexual Assault Awareness Month, it’s crucial to talk about in the context of book bans because people with disabilities are also targets of censorship and erasure. While Disability Pride Month is about celebrating disability, that celebration comes with reflection and the understanding that Pride is necessary because of the conditions, systems, and structures built to hinder and harm disabled people. We live in a world where even so-called “good” “blue” states are enacting bans on face masks under the guise of safety, putting the most vulnerable into even further harm and further isolation. That is the same goal of book banners: isolation and stigma.
Library Bomb Threats Continue to Increase (August 2023)
By now, many are familiar with the phrase stochastic terrorism. Stochastic terrorism is the best phrase to describe what’s happening with these bomb threats: thanks to right-wing media constantly vilifying people or organizations — say through the use of the word “groomers” or “indoctrinators” to describe library workers — there are ideologically-aligned threats or attacks made on those groups. Again, we don’t know for sure who is behind the library bomb threats, but the Chicagoland area not only has several active Moms for Liberty groups, but several other active right-wing fringe groups who have been aligned with groups who’ve perpetrated hate crimes.
It’s not just the Chicago area dealing with an increase in library bomb threats, but it makes for an important point about what’s happening that needs to be emphasized again and again. Bad actors aren’t just in states that folks like to malign; they’re even in “good” states where there are new laws protecting libraries from book bans. The belief that we should only care about “good” states plays right into the very systems that the christian nationalist book censors create. They’ve done enough gerrymandering and disenfranchised voters so deeply that saying “this is what Florida/Texas/fill-in-the-blank” state voted for only adds fuel to their fire. It also deeply harms those living in those states who, through no choice of their own, have had their voting power stolen from them.
Districts Are Turning to AI to Ban Books (August 2023)
Mason City School District (MCSD) found themselves in this very position and turned to an unexpected source to determine the status of books in their collection: AI. With the use of artificial intelligence, the school district found 19 books to be out of compliance with the new law and removed the titles.
Curious about the AI tool they used, I reached out to the district and got an answer. They used ChatGPT.
**This has, of course, only increased as a means of censoring materials in the years since original publication.
Age-Restricted Library Cards Aren’t a Solution. They’re a Liability (July 2023)
As a response to challenges from the public and/or the state, several public libraries across the country have come to compromises with these bodies in terms of access to collection materials for minors. Among the compromises are library cards with age restrictions. In some facilities, all library cards for those under 18 have been made void and every child now needs to reapply for a new card with parental/guardian restriction choices on them. In other facilities, the new cards based on age are being implemented either when old cards expire or when a new card is requested. Age-restriction cards might look like limiting access to materials for those under 8 in one category, those in the 8-12 category, and/or those in the 12-18 category. Every library going this route is doing so a bit differently.
These cards not only go against everything a public library stands for, but they are a tool of censorship. And while it is a means of avoiding problems from the community or the state — so read this knowing most public libraries going this route are not doing so without a lot of thought — these age-restricted cards are opening up the potential for endless lawsuits at public libraries.
**A three-part series on youth privacy and youth library card access from Brooklyn Public Library’s Amy Mikel and myself from this year is worth reading–here’s part one on youth privacy in the library, part two on library cards being the new landscape of public library censorship, and part three, a Q+A on where and how libraries can protect the right to read and right to access material for its youngest users.
How To Own A News Cycle (July 2023)
One of the checks I make in doing the weekly censorship news research is ensuring that the news comes from a reliable source. This is out of accuracy, of course, as much as it is also about media literacy. As it stands, right-wing “activists” are doing a bang up job of creating a fake controversy, pushing it through the media, keeping their names in the mouths of those outlets, then reaping (fake) benefits from the outrage cycle. Case in point: a news story that popped up earlier this month about the National Education Association and the books they were recommending their teacher members to read over the summer.
How To Find and Develop a Local Anti-Censorship Group (August 2022)
How can you find like-minded people in your community to work with in ending censorship? It can certainly feel overwhelming and, in some instances, impossible, but now is the perfect time to find your allies and work together toward ensuring access to books and information for all.
The Florida Freedom to Read Project, helmed by Jen Cousins and Stephana Ferrell, began as two like-minded parents coming together after the Orange County Public School system removed Gender Queer. From there, they’ve grown their activism work in pushing back against book censorship across the state. Their work has been instrumental in Florida and is a model for how concerned citizens can build similar networks to protect intellectual freedom and the right to access books and information for all. Here’s how to do it (kudos to Cousins and Ferrell for sharing their tips with me).
How to Address Misinformation and Book Challenges (July 2022)
Whether you’re in public schools or libraries or aren’t but support your local public institutions, one thing you can do right now to prepare for the fall and its inevitable wave of “parental rights” discourse and book challenges is get ahead of the misinformation. By openly addressing what has been happening over the last year and setting the record straight, you become the transparent organization that these groups are desperately demanding (even when they then are mad when it happens exactly as they demanded).
Build a guide to the current climate on your website, your social media, and affiliated groups to challenge the narrative being pushed by Moms For Liberty, No Left Turn, and others. Be upfront about the claims being made against libraries and schools in a broad way, then focus it on your local institutions.
How To Directly Impact Democracy (July 2022)
Rather than quote this one, I’m going to instead note that this is about the power we have to impact democracy by working as election judges. The advice here is still relevant today, and it’s applicable this year. Consider where and how you can take on the role–something that will be especially consequential in a midterm election year where rampant voter disenfranchisement has been created and where voters are going to be intimidated by the federal government’s bullying (in various forms) at the polls.
Book Censorship News: September 4, 2026- Right-wing groups in Ahmedabad, India, got several books banned in a private school there. A silent protest where women gathered to read one of the books–I Am Malala–was interrupted by protesters who attacked them.
- An Arkansas librarian who was fired for fighting book bans has won a settlement in court. This follows the long line of librarians fired for doing their jobs winning the lawsuits they file after.
- A conservative religious rights law firm helped Elizabethtown Area School District (PA) draft their new school book ban law and it passed in the last school board meeting. Here’s a reminder of the years-long fight over books and materials in this particular district from the perspective of students impacted by them.
- In the Ninth Circuit, there was a ruling on a case with some significant implications related to prison censorship. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, an incarcerated individual, who was part of a university prison writing program and had their work banned from submission from prison staff. Get to know some of the story with Grenning v. Key.
- Utah is wasting over $60,000 in taxpayer money to figure out if book vendors are intentionally selling “porn” to school libraries. Imagine if these state officials bothered listening to librarians for the last several years, who’ve been telling them all of this. Now, they’re simply implementing surveillance on those librarians.
- The Pulaski County Special School District (AR) has now cut student access to the local public library network, engaging in unnece