Over the last few years, there has been an unfortunate trend of book banning. More and more books are being taken off the shelves as they become restricted and censored. But what does this banning of books say about our nation?
Why are books banned?
According to the DHS librarian, Catherine Ward, there are two main reasons why people begin to challenge books in the first place. The first is, “to force their own beliefs on other people,” while the second is “a matter of control.” On the first matter of forcing beliefs onto other people, certain groups of people or organizations want to control what others, especially children read and learn about. Perhaps it stems from fear or not wanting to expose them to content they believe is obscene or inappropriate. Ward notes that oftentimes, books are banned because there is “too much sex in the book if it’s too descriptive,” but also commentates that “Funnily enough, books are rarely taken out for violence, which I find kind of ironic because I feel that that’s more damaging than some other reasons. But people never seem to complain if people are getting their heads chopped off. But if people are in a sexual relationship, then that seems to be very offensive. And then more recently, of course, anything with LGBTQ+ characters.” These are some of the main issues that books have been banned for but some have been challenged for other issues like talking animals in “Charlotte’s Web,” magic promoting witchcraft in “Harry Potter,” or a singular, minuscule picture of a topless lady in one picture in a “Where’s Waldo” Book (which let’s be honest is probably just a simple error overlooked when scanning over thousands of people in the books). Some books are banned for crazy reasons that don’t even make sense or would actually offend very few people. Books that hundreds of readers could read for generations would be unable to witness the story they tell because someone made the choice for them without ever taking into consideration what the reader would like to read.
There is a fear among some that people reading these kinds of books, especially ones regarding LGBTQ+ topics will cause people to be influenced by what they read. However, Ward explains that, “That’s shown that that’s not going to happen and all it does is teach tolerance,” and that’s why public schools have “brought it into the curriculum.” In fact, right now in Montgomery County Public Schools, there is a case about a book banning that is being brought up to the Supreme Court. The case Mahmoud v. Taylor was agreed to be heard by the Supreme Court on January 17, 2025. The case was brought up by a group of parents in MCPS who are suing the school district for the right to opt their elementary children out of using certain books in school which they argue are against their religious beliefs. The case is still ongoing but could impact what books children are being taught at school. Ward notes “They’re trying to ban this they say to protect children and yet, the number one cause of death for children in our country is gun violence and children die from that every year. They’re not doing anything to protect them from that. Nobody’s ever died from reading a book with an LGBTQ character in it.”
The major pressure groups for these bans are groups like “Moms for Liberty”, “No Left Turn in Education”, and “MassResistance”. But parents also play a very big role in what books are banned. In 2022, the number of titles targeted for censorship in public libraries increased by 92% over the previous years and school libraries saw an 11% increase. Last year over 100 titles were challenged in 17 different states including Maryland.
In MCPS, the process of book banning is difficult and makes it harder to take books off the shelves. They first have to be challenged and then discussed by a director of evaluation. Challenging a book does not mean that the book is being banned, instead, it simply means that there is an attempt for the book to be banned. Ward explains how the process for book reviewing in MCPS works saying that if a book is being challenged first the “director of evaluation and selection will look and see if they think it’s a credible challenge. And then we have a group that meets and discusses it, and it’s a whole thing. A lot of schools don’t have that system, so I think that it’s really effective and helps protect people’s freedom of speech rights.” One or two books aren’t on the shelves in our school library because it’s too gory or sexually detailed for a high school library but the majority of books haven’t been taken off the shelf according to Ward. Whenever a book is being disproved in a school library, elevations, selections, and media center people often discuss the concern. Ward describes what happens when they order a new book: “We always meet and say like, hey, here’s a new book, and then they might say like, well, I’m kind of concerned about this scene or this. What do you guys think? And we’ll all look at it and read it and then we’ll kind of, you know, see what the consensus is.” Many books have been challenged most recently a book called “Gender Queer” but it wasn’t banned. Ward says that out of the books banned at MCPS, “ we’ve been pretty lucky. So that those are the only few [she] can think about. That I’ve actually had to take off the shelf.” It is important to note it’s different in public libraries as school libraries have to remain age-appropriate so titles like “Verity” by Colleen Hoover have to be taken out because the main audience reading these books are young adults but public libraries should not have the same issues.
The major issue with book banning is that it’s an infringement on freedom and is censorship of ideals. Banning a book takes away the ability for someone to read a story and learn from it. People have the right to read and express what they want, whether or not you agree with what they are saying. Every time you read a book, you put yourself in another person’s perspective. For a short amount of time, you see the world through their lens and gain a bit more understanding of their life and experiences. Every person comes from a unique and different ethnic background, religion and experiences that deserve to be heard and for people to see themselves in literature. Ward emphasizes the importance of literature saying it “really does teach you empathy for other people. It helps you to understand our world better. It helps you to understand how to figure out your own problems from other characters you’re struggling with because I guarantee that everybody who’s written a fiction book there’s always some real experience in there that the writer is coming from. If they haven’t lived it, then they’ve seen it or been aware of it. So, it’s always a learning experience. Um, and I just think it’s a shame to take that away.” If you don’t agree with the contents in a book, that’s your decision to make, not one that you get to decide for every other reader out there. Especially in the case of parents who ban children’s books, just because you find a book inappropriate for your child doesn’t mean that you get to decide for all the other kids in the school what is appropriate for them; the children and their own parents can decide that. Parents do somewhat have the right to say what they want their children to read if they don’t want something to be read, but they don’t have the right to force it onto others. Additionally, when you ban books out of fear, you limit creativity and new ideas, an integral part of humanity. Reading makes you think and for some people that’s an issue. It’s why all throughout history the ability to read and write is coveted and the first to be censored. It’s why dystopian books like “1984” or “Fahrenheit 451” are being banned; they warn of the dangers of keeping society ignorant.
Isn’t that ironic?
Besides, trying to censor something just makes them more curious in the end. Senior Kasey Yu explains the Streisand effect, a case where a celebrity named Barbara Jason “was trying to get rid of the publication of like a photograph and in doing that.it only made people actually notice what was going on, so people wouldn’t have cared unless somebody starts in the center of it, and now people are sending the interest because they’re like, oh, what is she trying to censor? So it was basically the unintended consequence of trying to censor information which actually increases as an opposite effect.” Similarly, the banning of books causes people to want to see what the fuss is about and there’s something rebellious about trying to read a banned book that could actually cause more people to read the book. Yu jokingly points this out saying, “It does have opposite effects. If it was like 4 people are like ‘this thing is banned, I want to know why it’s banned.’ So that’s funny.” Every year during “Banned Book Week,” Ward does a display highlighting banned books and it definitely shows that the bad repetition that banned books get actually draws more attention to them. She would cover up banned books with a brown paper bag only highlighting the reasons why this title was banned and people would naturally be curious and pick up those titles. She says that most of the time people being told they can’t read something have a reaction of “They want to read it like the same way you tell them like you shouldn’t wear this or you shouldn’t eat this or you shouldn’t open this door. It’s like, ‘Oh what , why?’” Ward concludes, “I think sometimes it does have. Yeah, it definitely draws attention to the book and publicity and, you know, there’s that expression that no publicity is publicity or bad publicity is still good with or something like that.”
Banning books and causing a big tantrum or fuss does nothing. You draw big attention to the book in its infamousy and deprive others of this knowledge. If you don’t like something then don’t read it. That’s your choice. Nobody is making you read that book. You wouldn’t want somebody making the decision on what you can read so you shouldn’t also enforce it on others as well.
As Yu bluntly states, “It’s stupid. I think it’s super harmful and also unnecessary.”
