Cat Thursday - Halloween 2025 (1)

Welcome to the twice a month (on the second and fourth Thursday) feature that celebrates the wonders and often hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite cat meme you may have come across, famous cat art, or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! If you would like to join in, share the link to your post with your comment below.

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Banned Books Week 2025 - 821 attempts to censor library materials and services

"Reading rights advocates are looking to take preemptive approaches, such as creating legislative protections for librarians and educators to avoid the need to self-censor.

Penguin Random House and others are pushing for freedom to read laws, which were introduced in 25 states, with seven passing some protections in the 2025 legislative session.

While the laws vary, some have passed with antiretaliatory measures for teachers and librarians so they won’t get into professional trouble for defending certain books if they are challenged.

“If you relentlessly face book challenges year after year with legislation that is not clear, then a chilling effect happens, where instead of teaching America how to think, we try to teach America what to think. And so, Americans are going to start self censoring,” said Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association (ALA), which puts on Banned Books Week each October. This year’s event runs Oct. 5-11."

"The ALA found 821 attempts to censor library materials and services in 2024, compared with 1,247 attempts the previous year. ALA defines a book ban as the removal of materials due to challenges from the community.

ALA said 72 percent of challenges were done by outside “pressure groups” and a majority of censorship attempts are occurring at public libraries. Around 38 percent of these challenges are hitting school libraries.

“Often these [book] challenges are presented in long list forms and include books that are not even in the library’s catalog. … It’s difficult to really ascertain beyond like the trends, what exactly is going to get the hammer when censorship is constantly looking for a nail,” Helmick said."

"Book ban opponents say one danger in the battle is the difficulty of knowing it is even occurring.

“I’m hearing stories, particularly in school libraries, of superintendents writing down titles on a Post-it note, quietly handing it to the media specialist or school librarian and then demanding both the Post-it note and those books back, and that’s not transparency, that’s not due process, that’s not the First Amendment,” Helmick said.

To combat self-censorship, community members will have to do more groundwork to discover it is happening in the first place.

“The easiest way is to request your librarian to acquire specific books, books that may be on these banned books lists or are otherwise controversial,” suggested Kris Austin, CEO of Draft2Digital, a publishing platform for self-published authors and independent presses, adding it “will be a quick way to identify that self-censorship might be happening, because you could see how they respond to those requests and it can be very illuminating.”"

 

"Penguin Random House is coming out with “Banned Wagons” filled with challenged books in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. Authors are gathering for speaking events to highlight the issue, and retailers like Bookshop.org are giving discounts for certain books during this time.

“Banned Books Week is more than just symbolic, it’s a reminder that protecting free expression requires constant vigilance and participation, so whether that’s in the classroom or the library or through platforms that help authors reach their readers, it just it’s very important to support,” Austin said."

Graphics source: ala.org

Text source: The Hill

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Banned Books Week 2025 - Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024

"The 2024 data reported to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) shows that the majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries. Parents only accounted for 16% of demands to censor books, while 5% of challenges were brought by individual library users. The 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship during 2024 are all identified on partisan book rating sites which provide tools for activists to demand the censorship of library books.

The most common justifications for censorship provided by complainants were false claims of illegal obscenity for minors; inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters or themes; and covering topics of race, racism, equity, and social justice." (ala.org)

1. All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson 

Number of challenges: 39
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit 

2. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

Number of challenges: 38
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

3. (TIE) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Number of challenges: 35
Challenged for: depiction of sexual assault, depiction of incest, claimed to be sexually explicit, EDI content

3. (TIE) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Number of challenges: 35
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content, depiction of sexual assault, depiction of drug use, profanity

5. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Number of challenges: 33
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit

6. (TIE) Looking for Alaska by John Green

Number of challenges: 30
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit 

6. (TIE) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Number of challenges: 30
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity

8. (TIE) Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Number of challenges: 28
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, depiction of drug use

8. (TIE) Sold by Patricia McCormick

Number of challenges: 28
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, depiction of sexual assault

10. Flamer by Mike Curato

Number of challenges: 27
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit 

Information in this post obtained from ala.org

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Banned Books Week 2025 - Why it matters now more than ever

Kasey Meehan, the director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, said, “Censorship pressures have expanded and escalated, taking on different forms—laws, directives, guidance that sow confusion, lists of books mislabeled as ‘explicit’ materials, and ‘do not buy’ lists. A disturbing ‘everyday banning’ and normalization of censorship has worsened and spread over the last four years. The result is unprecedented.” (Kirkus)

Things have been getting increasingly worse with the banning/challenging of books over the past several years, and now more than ever, in the past eight months. 

"Federal efforts to restrict education use rhetoric from state and local efforts to ban books. In 2025, a new vector of book banning pressure has appeared – the federal government. Since returning to office, the Trump Administration has mimicked rhetoric about “parents’ rights”, which, in Florida and other states, has largely been used to advance book bans and censorship of schools, against the wishes of many parents, students, families, and educators. Under the guise of “returning education to parents,” President Trump has released a series of Executive Orders (EOs) mainly: “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism,” and “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.”" 

Although none of these EOs take a direct aim at books, they were used as justification for the July 2025 removal of almost 600 books from Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools on military bases. In restricting discussion of transgender people and diversity, equity, and inclusion and barring schools from “promoting un-American ideas,” books like ABC of Equality by Chana Ewing or several volumes from the series Heartstopper by Alice Oseman were removed from access. Students and their families responded by suing. 

(From this excellent article, The Normalization of Book Banning, on PEN America)

Common targets include books that:

• Feature LGBTQ+ characters or themes.
• Address race, racism, or civil rights.
• Discuss sexual health, puberty, or consent.
• Books that explore difficult realities such as violence, abuse, or addiction are also frequently challenged.

Case in point with that last one (violence). It has been recently revealed that Stephen King was the most banned author in the 2024/2025 school year...206 times. You can't convince me that some of those instances were not due to his outspoken "woke" public opinions (which I applaud). 

As this administration continues its attempt to censor free speech and eliminate references to diversity, historical truth, and even questions the validity of science, we can expect things may only get worse. We've already begun to go back so what will stop them from taking us back even further. 

For instance:

Science - Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, first published in 1859 and banned in 1895 for contradicting Christian beliefs. Darwin’s publication has been called “the most influential banned book.” On the Origin of Species lays the groundwork for modern evolutionary biology. Very little about science is understandable without a basic knowledge of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. (Intellectual Freedom Blog)

Diversity - Frequently challenged books include:

• A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines
• A Hero Ain't Nothin But a Sandwich by Alice Childress
• A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
• Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
• All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
• Always Running by Luis J Rodriguez
• Am I Blue?: Coming Out from the Silence by Marion Dane Baue
• America by E.R. Frank
• And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
• Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
  
  Full list here

History - 

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X: Banned for racism and violence; described as a "how-to-manual" for crime and decried for its “anti-white statements.”
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown: Banned; perceived as divisive and the district wanted to avoid controversy. "If there's a possibility that something might be controversial, then why not eliminate it."
• The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, Rashid Khalidi: Banned in Michigan, 2024 - Little Free Libraries / ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom
  
  Full list here

I conclude today's post with a quote from the end of The Normalizing of Book Banning. It is spot on.

“Never before” only turns into “no more” if we make the constant, consistent choice to fight for our democracy and the bedrock institutions within it – public schools, public libraries, and more – that uphold free expression principles, including the freedom to read and exchange books, stories, ideas, histories, and information.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

Visit ala.org for further Banned Books Week information and materials.

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