I consider myself to be generally aware of the state of book banning in the United States. I read about the fights going on in school districts and libraries throughout Florida, Tennessee and Texas. I was recently frustrated by the ruling on Mahmoud v. Taylor, which allows parents to opt their children out of curricula including LGBTQ+ identities. Yet, I knew nothing about bans in my home state of New York or here in Massachusetts. In my mind, book banning was an issue of ‘elsewhere.’
However, as I found myself at Porter Square Books on a Tuesday night in September during a Massachusetts Freedom to Read Coalition event, I realized that I did not have to passively watch censorship permeate throughout American libraries. Through the panel and my subsequent conversations with guest speakers Dana Alison Levy, Malinda Lo and Emily Powers, it became clear that there are actions everyone can take to counter the growing wave of censorship in the country. It is simply not enough to oppose book banning as a concept.
For context, when a person or group believes that a book should be restricted or removed from a public school, library or organization, they can issue a challenge to the school board or local government. If that challenge proceeds, then the book is either restricted or removed, and becomes officially banned. The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has found that the most common motivations behind a book challenge are that the materials were thought to be sexually explicit, contain offensive language or that they were unsuited to any age group.
While these are the reasons often given, books targeted by challenges often deal with topics of gender, sexuality and race. If these concerns are deemed valid, the question of who can dictate what others can read becomes salient. It is not reasonable for one parent or community member to decide what all children in a school can read. It is even less reasonable that in 2024, 72% of book challenges came from organizational movements and government entities. Book banning is less of an issue of moral beliefs and concerns, but rather one of ideology.
Massachusetts is generally accepted to be home to the first book printed in the United States, so it is strange to think about book banning as a pertinent issue here. And yet, the number of challenges keeps rising. In 2021, the American Library Association tracked 10 titles that were challenged in Massachusetts. In 2022, that number rose to 57.
These rising rates of censorship across the country also cost money. With the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners estimating the cost to be at least $436.28 per challenged book, taxpayers are bearing the brunt of these bans. Authors and book creators are reckoning with lower sales, fewer author visits and the potential emotional toll of having their work restricted.
Lo, author of “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” — one of the most banned books in America in the 2024–25 school year — and member of Massachusetts Authors Against Book Bans’ Legislative Task Force, detailed her response to the banning of her book: “I think people are worried that authors get their feelings hurt by this, and maybe some do, but I don’t … It makes me really frustrated and really angry because it is so unconstitutional.”
Across the country, book bans and challenges are rising, but so is opposition. As of this fall, 11 states have passed “Right to Read” legislation in an effort to fight back. Massachusetts is not one of them. However, that could soon change, as a Freedom to Read bill is heading to committee again. If passed, the bill would provide increased support to libraries and adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which will safeguard access to information in libraries.
Levy, an author and member of both Massachusetts Authors Against Book Bans and the Mass Freedom to Read Coalition, explained the importance of passing this bill in Massachusetts. “There’s no question that an anti-democratic trend has been happening in this country. … The state’s ability to put protections in place within the boundaries of the state is one of our sort of last great hopes.”
According to PEN America, 97% of books banned for legal reasons come from a “fear of” future legislation or noncompliance rather than an existing law demanding the removal, so increased state protections could have a protective effect. Even so, as Levy explains, there has been a struggle to pass the proposed bill through the state legislature: “This is the third time that this bill has come through, I don’t think that [there] was massive opposition in years past. I think it was a lack of political will.”
With what feels like a crisis everywhere we look, it makes sense that there is a lack of political will to prevent book banning. Yet, book banning ties into the larger struggles for free speech, free press and academic freedom. Signing this act into law is a move against legislation that seeks to restrict reading to books and materials that align with a single political narrative — one that is hostile to marginalized voices. Political will is something we can easily remedy, even through what seems like small and simple actions.
For students who are Massachusetts residents, you can contact your representatives and urge them, as constituents, to pass House Bill H.3591. The Massachusetts Freedom to Read Coalition has email and postcard templates for you to use. For those of us who live out of state, you can still contact representatives as temporary residents in the area. You can also research Freedom to Read acts in your home state and participate in local elections at the state and school district level.
Levy explained the importance of these small actions: “In this moment when legislation is pending, it’s a great time to take a moment of action for this and know that you’re really taking a concrete step that could make a real difference.”
