\u0022I\u0027ve never seen anything like this,\u0022 says Deborah Caldwell\u002DStone, who directs the ALA\u0027s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
Last year, more than 2,500 different books were objected to, compared to 1,858 in 2021 and just 566 in 2019. In numerous cases, hundreds of books were challenged in a single complaint. The ALA bases its findings on media accounts and voluntary reporting from libraries and acknowledges that the numbers might be far higher.
“Every day professional librarians sit down with parents to thoughtfully determine what reading material is best suited for their child’s needs,” ALA President Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada said in a statement. “Now, many library workers face threats to their employment, their personal safety, and in some cases, threats of prosecution for providing books to youth they and their parents want to read.
More recently, Florida’s Martin County school district removed dozens of books from its middle schools and high schools, including numerous works by novelist Jodi Picoult, Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Beloved” and James Patterson’s “Maximum Ride” thrillers, a decision which the bestselling author has criticized on Twitter as “arbitrary and borderline absurd.”
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