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Aug 11 2023
In their recently filed lawsuit to block HB 900, the controversial new Texas law that will require vendors to rate books sold to schools for sexual content, a coalition of booksellers and publishing industry associations insist that the law is both unconstitutional and impractical. “Booksellers do not see a clear path forward to rating the content of the thousands of titles sold to schools in the past, nor the thousands of titles that are published each year,” explained plaintiff Charley Rejsek, CEO of Austin-based vendor BookPeople, in a July 25 statement announcing the litigation. But with the law’s September 1 effective date bearing down, Follett School Solutions, the nation’s largest distributor of books to schools, does see a path forward in Texas—and that path apparently includes asking publishers to help rate their own books....
However, with a hearing on their federal lawsuit seeking to block the new Texas law just days away, publishers and other industry stakeholders are balking at Follett’s request to help the vendor rate their titles. Though all of the Big Five publishers declined to comment directly on the Follett memo for this story, multiple publishers confirmed its details. One publishing executive told PW on background that they understand the bind Follett faces in Texas with the new law but that complying with the request to rate their books would make them "complicit" in an act of censorship. And in a statement, one publisher, Hachette, went on record to broadly reject the idea of rating its books.
Jul 07 2023
This month, the progressive advocacy group MoveOn is launching a Banned Bookmobile. It’s a school bus tricked out with bookshelves containing frequently challenged titles, such as Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” and Art Spiegelman’s “Maus.”
This novel stunt is designed to highlight and counteract the GOP book bans raging across America. MoveOn plans to drive the bus around the country, dogging repressive presidential candidates and handing out free copies of challenged books.
Jun 12 2023
Book challenges and bans leveled on children’s and YA materials in school and public libraries have been in the headlines for a couple of years now, part of a news cycle fueled by the heat of the politically motivated culture war gripping our country. The spotlight on this issue burned especially hot in April when the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom released its annual list of the top 10 most challenged books, revealing that there were 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number the organization has ever recorded.
According to ALA, 58% of those challenges “targeted books and materials in school libraries, classroom libraries, or school curricula.” In other recent tracking data, PEN America’s latest Index of School Book Bans found that in the first half of the 2022–2023 school year, there were “1,477 instances of books banned affecting 874 unique titles,” which is up 28% over the prior six months. These bans occurred in 37 states, with Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah, and South Carolina topping the list.
Publishers Weekly spoke with some school librarians about the effect that book banning is having on their work, and how they are finding and offering support during this stressful and troubling time in their profession...
May 30 2023
Some 17 plaintiffs—including the American Library Association's Freedom to Read Foundation, the Association of American Publishers and the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) plan to sue the state of Arkansas over two sections of a new law that changes how libraries handle material that some consider "obscene."
The CALS board of directors voted Thursday to file a federal lawsuit challenging the portions of Act 372 of 2023 that alter libraries’ material reconsideration processes and create criminal liability for librarians who distribute content that the law says is "harmful to minors."
The law, which goes into effect Aug. 1, states that anyone will be allowed to "challenge the appropriateness" of public libraries' offerings, but it does not define "appropriateness" or provide any standard that we're expected to use" to determine this, Adams said.
Proponents of the law have said no one under 18 should be able to access content pertaining to racism, sexual activity and LGBTQ+ topics, calling it "indoctrination." Opponents of the law say this content reflects the community and that restricting access amounts to censorship.
May 24 2023
Books about LGBTQ people are fast becoming the main target of a historic wave of school book challenges — and a large percentage of the complaints come from a minuscule number of hyperactive adults, a first-of-its-kind Washington Post analysis found.
A stated wish to shield children from sexual content is the main factor animating attempts to remove LGBTQ books, The Post found. The second-most common reason cited for pulling LGBTQ texts was an explicit desire to prevent children from reading about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary and queer lives.
A small number of people were responsible for most of the book challenges, The Post found. Individuals who filed 10 or more complaints were responsible for two-thirds of all challenges. In some cases, these serial filers relied on a network of volunteers gathered together under the aegis of conservative parents’ groups such as Moms for Liberty.
May 19 2023
Salman Rushdie has made his first public appearance since he was stabbed and lost sight in one eye after being attacked at a literary event, joking that it was "nice to be back – as opposed to not being back, which was also an option."
Rushdie was a surprise attendee at the Pen America gala on Thursday night in New York. The author was greeted with a standing ovation according to the New York Times. After his remarks about being back, he said he was "pretty glad the dice rolled this way" ...
The gala came the same week as Pen America announced it was, along with publisher Penguin Random House and a group of authors and parents, suing Florida’s Escambia County school district and school board over book bans.
Rushdie, who also this week appeared at the British book awards via a video message, said that Pen America's mission to protect free expression was never “more important” and added: "Terrorism must not terrorise us. Violence must not deter us. A luta continua. The struggle goes on."
May 17 2023
In response to a troubling wave of book bans, PEN America, Penguin Random House, a group of authors, and a group of parents have filed a federal lawsuit against a Florida school district over the "unconstitutional" removal of books from school libraries.
The suit, filed on May 16 in the Northern district of Florida in Pensacola, alleges that administrators and school board members in Florida’s Escambia County School District are violating the First Amendment as well as the 14th Amendment (the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution) because the books being singled out are "disproportionately books by non-white and/or LGBTQ+ authors" and often address "themes or topics" related to race or LGBTQ+ community.
Apr 20 2023
A new PEN America report documents how state legislation across the country is driving an alarming spike in book bans in schools. The report, Banned in the USA: State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools, expands on two previous PEN America reports tracking the intensifying wave of book bans and laws aimed at limiting access to school and library books. Since July 2021, when PEN America began tracking public school book bans, the organization recorded more than 4,000 bans books through December 2022, including 1,477 individual book bans affecting 874 unique titles during the first half of the 2022-23 school year—a 28% increase over the previous six months.
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