For Cleo Sandler, graphic novels like “Maus” and “Gender Queer,” or novels like Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” are close at hand. But for many readers across the country, that’s not the case.
After all, these are all commonly banned books.
Banned books are titles that have been removed from libraries, or relocated to sections where children or young adults are less likely to find them, in order to censor content typically deemed too explicit or inappropriate. Removal requests have targeted other things, too, such as CDs, DVDs and video games.
More and more people — largely parents, library patrons and activist groups — are challenging what they think should be accessible in shared spaces.
According to the American Library Association, the number of unique book ban requests has increased nationally by more than 128% in the last three years, jumping from more than 1,800 in 2021 to about 4,200 in 2023.
Nearly half of the challenges target titles related to the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.
“The cool thing about literature is that you can have your mind opened to different perspectives,” said Cleo, a sophomore at Corvallis High School who’s passionate about book accessibility. “And when people are censoring those books, you’re basically saying, ‘My mind is just closed to these other perspectives.’”
Earlier this year, state lawmakers debated how to handle this issue. Senate Bill 1583 would have prohibited school book bans that discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community, people of color or religious groups. The bill passed the Senate but did not make it through the House before the session ended.
And while book challenges have historically focused on school libraries, that shifted in the last year. On top of ongoing school challenges, data from the American Library Association shows ban requests have gone up 92% at public libraries.
One Oregon library is defying national trends and keeping the number of challenges down to single digits almost every year.
The Corvallis-Benton County Public Library has addressed concerns while keeping its collection more complete by using three key strategies: conversations with patrons, compromises and specific policies.
This, director Ashlee Chavez says, allows the library to fulfill its responsibility of serving an entire community — “people of all ages, all backgrounds and all lifestyles.”
The Corvallis library receives around six challenges a year on average, Chavez said. In most scenarios, patrons asked to remove or relocate specific books because they seemed too explicit for the intended audience. The challenges, she said, did not appear to single out any groups of people.
“There’s not too much political divisiveness in Corvallis,” Cleo said. The high schooler serves as the student representative on the library’s advisory board and is a member of the queer community. “The people who are against (LGBTQ+ issues) and would want to ban those books are going to be the minority.”
Still, some people have tried.
The library saw a kind of informal censorship, for example, when a person took some of the library’s anti-racism titles and put them in bathroom trash cans.
There have also been challenges from the other side of the ideological spectrum, like when people have challenged books for being derogatory toward women or racist.
“Censorship can fall on either side,” Chavez said. “It doesn’t really matter what your values are.”
For parents like Deanna Page, banned books aren’t top of mind, but she does think about what she wants her 5-year-old daughter, Lily, to be exposed to.
“I grew up on Dr. Seuss, and I know that some of his books can be considered controversial,” Page said. While she likes sharing books she grew up with, Page is paying attention to how literature is evolving over time.
“I was just reading things to read,” Page said of her own childhood. “Now, I think (kids) are going to be a little more cognitively aware of what they’re reading.
“In one way or the other,” she said, “it’s going to really affect them.”
One of the biggest ways Corvallis has kept the number of challenged book requests low, Chavez said, is by making connections with library patrons. The challenge form isn’t available on the library’s website; library officials hope that people will talk their concerns through with staff first.
“When someone comes up and asks or shares a concern, the first thing we do is try and have a conversation,” she said.
“I’m not here to try and change someone’s mind,” Chavez added. “It’s not something I think is gonna happen, and I don’t think I can really do it within the limits of my job.”
The library staff also work to find a middle ground.
For example, Chavez said a group of pediatricians a few years ago challenged a book that they believed inaccurately characterized vaccinations.
Ultimately, the library decided the book’s content didn’t warrant removal; however, they found a compromise. The pediatricians instead donated different books that they argued provided more accurate information to libraries around the area.
But one of the library’s policies in particular creates a crucial stopgap.
Across the country, some groups have mounted campaigns to challenge books at multiple public libraries, even ones they haven’t been to, often challenging hundreds of books at a time.
But in order to challenge a book in Corvallis, a patron has to be eligible for a library card. That means they live, work, go to school or own property in the county. This, Chavez said, helps prevent some of the bulk ban requests seen elsewhere.
The result? People in Corvallis can access a wider range of material.
“Diversity in literature is super, super important because literature is how we learn about different people’s experiences,” Cleo said, “even if they’re experiences we disagree with or that are different from our own.”
– Olivia Wang, West Linn High School