You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post about book banning and censorship. YCRT! features news and opinion roundups, commentary, history, and reviews.
YCRT! Annual Banned Books Week Rant
Banned Books Week 2025 is the second week of October, Sunday the 5th through Saturday the 11th. If you’re new to me and my blog, you’ll soon learn I’m passionate about books and viscerally opposed to their banning. For years I’ve posted semi-regular news roundups about book banning and censorship, along with reviews of books targeted by the torch & pitchfork mob.
In honor of Banned Books Week, I present my annual defense of calling book banning by its proper name:
Every year those who want to ban books line up to tell us Banned Books Week is a hoax. Books aren’t banned in the USA, they claim. We’re just protecting the children! Restricting access to age-inappropriate literature is not book banning!
They hate words like ban, banning, and banned. In the years I’ve been writing these YCRT! posts, more than one reader has called me a liar for saying that’s what they’re up to.
But that’s exactly what they’re up to.
In the USA, not a week goes by without parents in one state or another mobbing school board meetings to demand the banning of books from reading lists and libraries. Not a week goes by without some politician or administrator ordering books removed from public library shelves. New to the equation, Americans now live under a presidential administration which actively removes and bans books from Department of Defense schools, military academies, and professional reading lists published for military members — and which would like to extend that level of control to civilian schools, colleges, public libraries, even commercial bookstores.
Regardless of whether the same books remain available on-line or in bookstores, the intent of those who call for removing or restricting access to them is to keep us from reading them. That’s banning. And so says Merriam-Webster — look it up.
Our government no longer bans books at the national level, but it used to. Henry Miller’s novel Tropic of Cancer, for example, was banned from its publication in 1934 until the Supreme Court overruled the ban in 1964. Even during the days when it and other books were officially banned, though, conservatives argued that such books weren’t really banned because you could always board an ocean liner, sail to Paris, and buy copies there. Conservatives today offer an updated version of the same argument: you can buy “Gender Queer” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue” from Amazon, so what’s the problem with removing them from the children’s section of the library?
Book banners want to control what we read. They may no longer be able to ban books nationwide, but they’ll do whatever they can to get books they disapprove of removed from libraries, bookstores, and classrooms. When they succeed, banned books are the result. Ban, banned, banning: these are the correct words, and that is why I use them.
Yes, Virginia, books are still being banned, even in the freedom-loving USA. It has always happened. It continues to happen, now more than ever. When people quit trying to prevent me or my children from reading books they don’t like, I’ll quit using the word, but not until then.
YCRT! News Roundup
How the 2025 Government Shutdown Will Impact Libraries (American Libraries)
The federal government shutdown, which begins today, will have cascading effects across the nation and our economy. For one, it will pause federal programs and slow support for services that many Americans rely on every day. This morning, ALA members and other library workers at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Library of Congress, Government Publishing Office and other federal agencies have been pulled away from their work. Their income and employment have been put at risk, and the libraries and users who use their services are missing access to them. But in a larger sense, the inability of our nation’s leaders to agree on priorities demonstrates that our government has failed.
George Takei to Lead Banned Books Week, Urging the Fight Against Censorship (AP)
“I remember all too well the lack of access to books and media that I needed growing up. First as a child in a barbed-wire prison camp, then as a gay young man in the closet, I felt confused and hungry for understanding about myself and the world around me,” said the “Star Trek” actor, who spent part of his childhood in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.
Inside the Right-Wing Plot to Ban Books with NYT Bestseller Kalynn Bayron (NYCLU/podcast)
On this episode, we talk to New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron. One of Kalynn’s books, “Cinderella is Dead”, has been targeted by several book ban campaigns. She talks with us about why she wrote the story and why she thinks it’s important for students of all backgrounds to have a diverse set of books to choose from.
Stephen King Is the Most Banned Author in US Schools, PEN Report Says (AP)
King’s books were censored 206 times, according to PEN, with “Carrie” and “The Stand” among the 87 of his works affected. The most banned work of any author was Anthony Burgess’ Dystopian classic from the 1960s, “A Clockwork Orange,” for which PEN found 23 removals. Other books and authors facing extensive restrictions included Patricia McCormick’s “Sold,” Judy Blume’s “Forever” and Jennifer Niven’s “Breathless,” and numerous works by Sarah J. Maas and Jodi Picoult.
PEN America Warns of Rise in Books ‘Systematically Removed from School Libraries’ (NPR)
PEN America defines a school book ban as “any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by governmental officials, that leads to a book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.”
The Dangerous Legal Strategy Coming for Our Books (The Atlantic/podcast)
In 2023, our book was one of thousands pulled from library shelves around the country, and as we write, an evolving legal strategy being used to defend many such bans threatens to upend decades of precedent preserving the right to read. The danger this doctrine poses to free speech should worry us all.
Librarian Transferred for His Safety After Online Post About Charlie Kirk (Herald Review/Sierra Vista AZ)
Sahuarita police on Wednesday responded to the library after discovering a group of people upset with the comment intended to go there to voice objections. Police also noted online threats in connection with the post, though it wasn’t clear if those were against the library or the employee. Police indicated they would make periodic checks as a precaution.
Florida Roundup: the epicenter of book banning in the USA
Under Threat from State, Florida Public Schools Are Banning These 55+ Books Without Review (Book Riot)
Despite the legal precedent of “local control” in Florida’s statutes related to book bans in public schools, the State Board of Education has been threatening legal action against districts that don’t remove 55 books they deem inappropriate.
“None of These Books Are Obscene”: Judge Strikes Down Much of Florida’s Book Ban Bill (Book Riot)
“The judge’s order makes it clear that we cannot judge a book by its cover or a maliciously selected excerpt out of context,” said Stephana Ferrell of the Florida Freedom to Read Project. “This means that the thousands of books that have been prohibited from student access without careful consideration of their value should be returned to shelves immediately. Florida cannot call itself the ‘freest state’ while it blatantly violates the First Amendment rights of our youngest citizens.”
‘State-Driven Censorship’: New Wave of Book Bans Hits Florida School Districts (The Guardian)
The books taken off the school shelves included The Diary of Anne Frank and What Girls Are Made of by Elana K Arnold. None of them were under formal review by the district, and they hadn’t been flagged by local parents as potentially inappropriate. Parents with children in the school system even had the opportunity to opt their children out of a particular reading, without removing them from the class for everyone.
Florida’s Culled Library Book List May Be an ‘Undercount,’ Critics Say (Tampa Bay Times)
Following a summer in which library book removals dominated the discourse in local school districts, an annual list release by the state offered little clarity on how widespread those removals really are.
Canada Roundup: the infection spreads north
Rightwing ‘Parents’ Rights’ Groups Gain Ground in Canada as Alberta Book Bans Target LGBTQ+ Titles (The Guardian)
Socially conservative “parents’ rights” groups that have emerged as powerfully political lobbying groups in the US are quickly gaining ground in Canada, academics and free speech advocates say, after two such groups claimed they had persuaded Alberta to institute a sweeping public school book ban.
The Handmaid’s Tale Among More than 200 Books to Be Pulled at Edmonton Public Schools (CBC)
An internally distributed list obtained by CBC News shows more than 200 books deemed sexually explicit are slated for removal from library shelves for students in kindergarten to Grade 12. It comes after a policy from Alberta’s education minister outlines new rules governing books in school libraries as of Oct. 1.
Margaret Atwood Takes Aim at Alberta’s School Library Books Ban with Satirical Story (Global News)
In a social media post on Sunday, Atwood said since the literary classic is no longer suitable in Alberta’s schools, she has written a short story for 17-year olds about two “very, very good children” named John and Mary. “They never picked their noses or had bowel movements or zits,” she said in the beginning of her story.
Hero Librarians Protest Book Ban by Obeying in Advance (Wonkette)
It’s not a good idea to fuck with librarians, no matter what you might’ve seen on Pornhub. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith learned this the hard way after bemused bibliophiles at the Edmonton Public School Board took literally her government’s order to get rid of any books with explicit sexual content and came up with an early list of more than 200 titles to comply. That list included Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and even George Orwell’s 1984 for scenes that might offend the delicate sensibilities of young readers or their parents.
Blame for Disastrous School Book Ban Lies Squarely with Who Issued the Order (Calgary Herald)
To be clear, anything deemed as containing “explicit sexual content” is to be removed. Not limited, not age-gated, but banned from all schools. The deadline for removing these materials is now less than a month away, so it’s hard to fault school boards for feeling pressure to comply. At a news conference Friday morning, though, Premier Danielle Smith lashed out at EPSB officials, accusing them of “overreach” and “vicious compliance” while also failing to understand the true intent of the new standards.