In September, one of the largest public school systems in Tennessee banned Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved. In 2023, a police officer showed up to a classroom in Massachusetts after a parent disapproved of illustrations in Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer. A librarian was fired in Texas after she refused to put so-called inappropriate books behind the counter, including a title about the origins of the KKK.
These are only a handful of the many flashpoints of the national rise in book bans, which has grown exponentially over the past four years. According to the latest data from PEN America, there were more than 10,000 instances of book bans during the 2023–24 school year—nearly triple the amount from the previous year.
Now, in the first ever collective action against book bans, more than 350 libraries, booksellers, publishers, advocates, and members of the public who believe in the freedom to read will hold…
