Held in late September or early October since 1982, the United States campaign “stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them” and the requirement to keep material publicly available so that people can develop their own conclusions and opinions. The international campaign notes individuals “persecuted because of the writings that they produce, circulate or read.” Some of the events that occur during Banned Book Week are The Virtual Read-Out and The First Amendment Film Festival. The theme for Banned Books Week 2025: “Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.” Banned Books Week will take place October 5 – 11, 2025. Current efforts to ban books and information held in schools, libraries, archives, and bookstores are a truth close to fiction – namely, the depiction of extreme censorship by an oppressive regime in George Orwell’s cautionary and prescient tale 1984. The Banned Books Week 2025 theme reminds us that the right to read belongs to all of us, that censorship has no place in contemporary society, and that we must defend our rights. ALA recently released the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024 list and the State of America’s Libraries Report. The majority of book censorship attempts that ALA tracked in 2024 come from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members, and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries.
The 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship during 2024 are all identified on partisan book rating sites, which provide tools for activists to demand the censorship of library books. Additionally, PEN America recorded the highest instances of book censorship in schools and the highest number of unique titles banned during the 2023-2024 school year – more than 4,000 unique titles were removed in over 10,000 instances of book bans. PEN America also tracked the influence of pressure groups, finding that they have undertaken efforts to remove materials in nearly every state. Banned Books Week launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of book challenges in libraries, schools, and bookstores. The Banned Books Week Coalition, an international alliance of diverse organizations joined by a commitment to increase awareness of the annual celebration of the freedom to read, appoints an honorary chair and youth honorary chair to lead Banned Books Week. Past honorary chairs include filmmaker Ava DuVernay (Origin, 2024), literacy champion LeVar Burton (Reading Rainbow, 2023), and banned authors George M. Johnson (All Boys Aren’t Blue, 2022) and Jason Reynolds (All American Boys, 2021). The 2025 honorary chairs will be announced in the coming weeks.
Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign promoted by the American Library Association (ALA) and Amnesty International, that celebrates the freedom to read, draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individuals.
Held in late September or early October since 1982, the United States campaign “stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them” and the requirement to keep material publicly available so that people can develop their own conclusions and opinions. The international campaign notes individuals “persecuted because of the writings that they produce, circulate or read.” Some of the events that occur during Banned Book Week are The Virtual Read-Out and The First Amendment Film Festival. The theme for Banned Books Week 2025: “Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.” Banned Books Week will take place October 5 – 11, 2025. Current efforts to ban books and information held in schools, libraries, archives, and bookstores are a truth close to fiction – namely, the depiction of extreme censorship by an oppressive regime in George Orwell’s cautionary and prescient tale 1984. The Banned Books Week 2025 theme reminds us that the right to read belongs to all of us, that censorship has no place in contemporary society, and that we must defend our rights. ALA recently released the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024 list and the State of America’s Libraries Report. The majority of book censorship attempts that ALA tracked in 2024 come from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members, and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries.
The 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship during 2024 are all identified on partisan book rating sites, which provide tools for activists to demand the censorship of library books. Additionally, PEN America recorded the highest instances of book censorship in schools and the highest number of unique titles banned during the 2023-2024 school year – more than 4,000 unique titles were removed in over 10,000 instances of book bans. PEN America also tracked the influence of pressure groups, finding that they have undertaken efforts to remove materials in nearly every state. Banned Books Week launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of book challenges in libraries, schools, and bookstores. The Banned Books Week Coalition, an international alliance of diverse organizations joined by a commitment to increase awareness of the annual celebration of the freedom to read, appoints an honorary chair and youth honorary chair to lead Banned Books Week. Past honorary chairs include filmmaker Ava DuVernay (Origin, 2024), literacy champion LeVar Burton (Reading Rainbow, 2023), and banned authors George M. Johnson (All Boys Aren’t Blue, 2022) and Jason Reynolds (All American Boys, 2021). The 2025 honorary chairs will be announced in the coming weeks.
Links:
Banned Books Week
Gegevens