It’s that time of the year again. Banned Books Week, scheduled for October 5-11, has been “celebrated” annually since its launch in 1982. For most of us in the formerly free USA, the 2025 rendition feels like the most crucial and necessary of all the Banned Books Weeks over the past 43 years. Assaults on books in schools, school libraries, and bookstores have become part of the politics of this era, and include special pressure to remove or limit access to LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and progressive titles. The federal and many state and local governments as well as organized groups are involved in efforts to impose a rigid interpretation of American history, cultural life, and representation. The efforts are so powerful that more and more incidents of self-censorship are occurring. At the same time, book banners continue to deny that they are banning books. Earlier this year, the federal Department of Education called book banning “a hoax.”
Very appropriately this year’s theme for Banned Books Week is “Censorship is so 1984. Read for your rights.” The important components of Banned Books Week this year include Let Freedom Read Day, efforts to encourage voting and contributing to anti-banning activity, and more. Booksellers are marking the occasion in a variety of creative ways, including with displays, events, education about banned books, banned book clubs, etc.
Organized by the American Library Association, Banned Books Week is supported by more than 200 organizations and tens of thousands of individuals. These include the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, the ABA’s American Booksellers for Free Expression, the Freedom to Read Foundation, the Children’s Book Council, the Little Free Library, the National Coalition Against Censorship, PEN America, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the Authors Guild, and others.
Among the aspects of Books Week is Unite Against Book Bans, an ALA initiative begun in 2022 that “strives to stop the removal of reading materials from America’s libraries and schools.” The group has released a collection of book résumés to support keeping frequently challenged books on shelves. The book résumés feature information provided by publishers, librarians, authors, illustrators, and School Library Journal, including a synopsis of the book, reviews and awards the book has received, more from the book creators themselves, and links to other resources, relevant media, and more.”
A special part of Banned Books Week this year is Let Freedom Read Day on Saturday, October 11, the last day of the week. As Banned Books Week organizers put it, “We’re asking everyone to get ready to vote for the freedom to read or to take at least one action to help defend books from censorship and to stand up for the library staff, educators, writers, publishers, and booksellers who make them available.”
The recommended actions include:
- Calling or writing letters to “a decision maker,” such as school and library administrators, school board and library board members, city councilpersons, and elected representatives “to ask them to support the right to read.”
- Supporting organizations that are part of the Banned Books Week coalition by following them on social media, signing up for their e-mail lists, or making donations to them.
- Joining Unite Against Book Bans.
- Checking out a banned book from a library or buying a banned book from a bookstore.
- Donating banned books to public and school libraries, the Little Free Library, and more.
- Attending meetings of school boards, library boards, and city councils.
- Volunteering at a local library.
Travel Between The Pages 