How to Prepare for 2022 Book Challenges: This Week’s Censorship News

PBS recently released the award-winning documentary Storm Lake to stream; the film follows one of the last remaining independent local newspapers, The Storm Lake Times in Storm Lake, Iowa. This film is a must-view for anyone passionate about First Amendment freedoms, as it brings to focus precisely how important local news is to ensuring a community is kept safe, kept informed, and isn’t pushed to conspiracy theories or rumors or Facebook “news” because there’s not a trusted authority to turn to. It’s hard not to view it through the lens of the current censorship landscape, especially as major media outlets report on stories as if they’re new or surprising (they’re not — they’ve simply finally had enough power to make it to the mainstream). Storm Lake provides a lot more of the context for how it is we’ve come to the point where we are now.

Though we’re still amid a fervor of book challenges, there’s been more good news this week about the status of library books than in recent memory. It’s likely that as the year comes to an end, fewer challenges will emerge, but they won’t be going away. In 2022, they’ll continue, and while many of the same books will be under the spotlight, there’s also going to be a rise in complaints about social emotional learning (SEL). The groups behind the anti-“critical race theory” complaints will be behind anti-SEL complaints as well, as these groups are working to coordinate their shared language and talking points about why SEL is discriminatory against straight white people. This would be a great time to read up on SEL, and if you’re in schools or libraries, bulk up your mental health and wellness book collections, fiction and nonfiction. If you’re not, recommend a few titles to your local library. Though it feels like a small thing, it sends a message that these books have value to a community.

Prepare to be an advocate for intellectual freedom. There’s no doing it wrong or imperfectly. There’s only not doing anything at all. If you’re unsure where to begin, here’s an actionable toolkit for how to fight book bans and challenges. Choose a thing or two you can do and you’ll make a real difference.

Let’s break this up a little bit this week, starting with good news, then the rest.

Good News in Book Challenges and Censorship

• Gender Queer and Lawn Boy are back on shelves in Fairfax, Virginia, schools

• All Boys Aren’t Blue and Fun Home are back on shelves in Kansas City. Newsweek covered this story as well.
• When the Denton Public Library canceled their rainbow story time because of threats they received, a trans boy’s mom in the community stepped up and made a story time happen in the community.
• It’s nice to see news talking with librarians who explain why having books like Gender Queer on shelves is important, and this feature in Butte, Montana, is worth including here because it’s a balm to the less-good news.
• The sheriff’s office, called by a parent complaining about All Boys Aren’t Blue in Flagler County Schools in Florida, says the book does not meet the level of a crime, a criminal charge, nor is it harmful to minors.
• Brownsville Independent School District in Texas isn’t doing anything with the request to evaluate their libraries for books deemed inappropriate by the state government.