Attempts at banning books hit record high

NEW YORK — Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, setting a record in 2022, according to a new report from the American Library Association released Thursday.

More than 1,200 challenges were compiled by the association in 2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far the most since the ALA began keeping data 20 years ago.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” says Deborah CaldwellStone, who directs the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “The last two years have been exhausting, frightening, outrage inducing.”

A few years ago, complaints usually arose with parents and referred to an individual book. Now, the requests are often for multiple removals, and organized by national groups such as the conservative Moms for Liberty, which has a mission of “unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”

Last year, more than 2,500 books were objected to, compared with 1,858 in 2021 and just 566 in 2019. In numerous cases, hundreds of books were challenged in a single complaint. Bills facilitating the restriction of books have been proposed or passed in Texas and several other states.

Caldwell-Stone said some books have been targeted by liberals because of racist language — notably Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” — but the vast majority of complaints come from conservatives, directed at works with LGBTQ or racial themes.

They include Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” Angie Thomas’ “The Hate U Give” and a book-length edition of the “1619 Project,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning report from the New York Times on the legacy of slavery in the U.S.