@emmaskies: Answers to common questions! A “banned book” refers to a book that has been banned by a body governing a public resource, like a school or public library. It does NOT mean that it’s banned in retail stores or that it’s banned nationwide for everyone. A “challenge” refers to an attempt to have a book banned. Many of these thousands of challenges are driven by only dozens of people/groups putting the challenges together. No being a banned book is not a good thing. It’s not good for sales and it’s not good for an author’s ability to continue being able to get book deals. And I want to shoutout two of my mutuals who talk about this so much more than I do and fight this all the time, @Rachel Hannah📚 and @Tomesandtextiles EVERYWHERE ♥️ #BookTok #booktoker #bookban #bannedbooks

Zachary :

we're dealing with this in Arkansas right now. my local library was patient zero for the book bands that were taking place all across the state and now there is a law that even if you display that you have this book, even if the kid doesn't touch it or anything, people will go to jail

ari {BRING BACK VALKO!} :

this is EXACTLY why myself and others are so strictly anti-censorship even when it comes to media we don't like. because when you censor one thing then EVERYTHING get censored. this is exactly what we've been saying to naive people who think that just banning and censoring icky things that make them uncomfortable is a good thing. they'd never censor things like queer media. even if we ignore the fact that history tells us that queer media is almost always one of the first things to go: QUEER MEDIA IS CURRENTLY BEING CENSORED AND BANNED RIGHT NOW AS WE SPEAK. people have got to wake up and realize censorship isn't a scalpel. it's a fucking hammer that will obliterate everything that isn't about cishet white men. and yes. it IS that serious. open your eyes and see what's really happening and speak out before it goes past the point of no return 😒

Heather n stuff :

The common denominator of the current books being banned is the gay representation.

cyberbb :

Heard about this when they banned one of John Green’s books because it had teens being intimate together in a normal way that teens would and they dubbed it pornographic.

B U :

So completely off topic, but I saw an ad for a new special edition of Addie that’s available on kickstarter and thought of you!

Read_Wit_Ray :

Utah is going crazy on the book banning.

K :

In av world where Ayn Rand's nonsense is revered and recommended by prominent figures, I figure there's not much room for book bans to be valid at all

Anna Luna :

It's about control

Sarah :

Book Riot has a censorship newsletter that I love (and hate because there's always something new).

ShariMcL :

Agree 100%

lizziegracesays 📚🌼🐈‍⬛🐕🖋️ :

I’ve been using the American Libraries banned list as a shopping list for a while now. Especially since the news broke about ai companies buying up and destroying books. [Broken heart]

HeatherReadstheRoom📚 :

This.

mildredestaescribiendo :

I’m sad about this. Kinda relieved that in my country no one care about books to ban them. But still sad.

katie✨ :

tanya_p92 :

saw a post on Instagram showing how a little girl was able to tell her mother her father was SAing her thanks to a sex Ed book and a man in the comments said "yes but this might lead to false reports" and it's really interestingly disgusting how the mind of these freaks work

Ainsley | PNW :

100%. if they actually cared about removing children from s*xual content they wouldn't have made it legal to generate AI CSAM. it's not about the children's welfare. never was.

Mischief :

Me living under Arkansas Act 372 seeing kids on the internet spread pro-censorship rhetoric:

Maria Kr :

Tenessee being over 1k banned when that environment also brought us Dolly freaking Parton. Be like Dolly and increase access to books, and not like these book banning dweebs

Samantha M :

Louisiana is unique when it corms to censorship, bc while the censorship fights started in public schools everywhere else, here they started in our public libraries.

Daisy N13 🇪🇺 :

I am German but I saw some Texas official (governor?) say on camera:““ „we are coming for the books!“ that’s so scary! The whole world is shifting to the right and it has me really worried. Book banning is just another symptom of the spiel. Believe me. I learned a lot about the darkest part of my country’s history.

Keely📚💚🖤❣️❗️❗️ :

It's not about keeping smut out of children's hands because parents can already do that themselves. If you don't like a book, don't read it. These seem like pretty simple thought processes, but what do I know. Smh. So frustrating.

Chihiro_ :

You’re honestly going to sit right there so claim it’s NEVER about protecting children? You really believe that?

bolee :

Also, 92% of challenges are being initiated by pressure groups or government officials, and not individual community members!! And most of the challenges are a large number of books! Government officials are trying to control any information about things they disagree with. It has nothing to do with protecting kids.

Bobbi Morse :

As an MLIS student I’ve been writing so many papers on book bans and the data proved immensely, book banning correlates for societal change. See women’s right to vote, the red scare, civil rights movement etc. people get so violent and afraid of change that they introduce censorship. It’s never about the kids. It’s about protecting a status quo.

Kristin :

All it takes is a non white couple for it to be banned. Or for it to be a children’s book about a BIPOC child.