Hello Jenny!

The House held a pro-censorship hearing today, including a witness who argued that "books aren't being banned."

Don't let the book ban deniers win. Tell Congress to support librarians and educators by opposing book bans and share with your community to bring new people into our pro-freedom to read movement:

Book ban denialism is dangerous, and it's dead wrong. In our preliminary data on 2023 book challenges, we found some troubling results:

• Book bans have increased by 20% from the same point last year
• Book challenges are on the rise in public libraries, and accounted for 49% of those documented by ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), compared to 16% at the same point last year.
• "Serial book banners" are also on the rise, with 11 states reporting challenges of 100 or more books - up from 6 last year.

So, in the face of continually rising challenges, how do we resist?

We fight back by growing our movement and showing that the vast majority of Americans stand for the freedom to read diverse and challenging books. Help grow our movement by clicking below, writing to Congress, and sharing with your community:

ALA Public Policy & Advocacy Team 

P.S. Follow @LibraryPolicy and @UABookBans for further updates.