The most banned books in U.S. schools (pen.org)

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There is a part of me seriously considering making a bookshelf dedicated to all of these banned books.

I don't understand the logic of banning these books, do they act like the internet doesn't exist? Kids will find this information, I found plenty of information about being gay 20ish years ago in high school.

Then again being short sited is one of their strong suits.

(Not downplaying banned books, I just can't understand thinking it is a good idea)

But, gee willickers, where is Mein Kampf on the list?

Maas' Throne of Glass series? Why?

I hate the current trend in histrionic social media. A ‘banned book’ is one that you are not allowed to own by the State. You face fines, detention, interrogation, prison, torture, execution. Examples are 1984, The Satanic Verses. Countries that maintain book bans are Iran, China, Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan.

Your school not stocking books you want is not a ban. It’s the prerogative of the institution to choose how it shapes minds. It cannot avoid taking on some angle, since any incomplete collection is an editorial choice.

How does a “book ban” in a school work? The school is presumably only going to have a limited set of books. If I wanted to ban a book I’d just make it seem like a resource reorganization. “Oh we’re just focusing more on educational content around mathematics. These trans books will come around in a later reorg” and so on.

Is it like if you bring the book to school you’ll be sent home or something?

I wonder how the proponents of banning books like this don't have an "Are we the baddies?" moment. What precedent is there for history to look kindly on this type of behavior? Is there a single fiction book that you can point to that was banned in that past that let's say 60% of people today would agree was necessary (i.e. it would be in schools if there wasn't a ban) and appropriate to ban? It always seems like within a generation or two, most people agree the prior efforts to ban books were wrong, then a little time elapses, and we start banning new books again.

Seems like most of the books deal with complex real-world issues like sexual identity, racism, school shootings, etc. and are banned due to "sexual" or "violent" content. My guess is these criteria can be selectively interpreted to target books that go against political or cultural beliefs but there is obviously some merit to wanting to protect young kids from certain topics. I wish the article mentioned what ages the books are banned for because that seems like an important piece of data. I'm assuming it includes all K-12 public schools?

I find the dishonesty really off-putting. None of these books are "banned". School libraries don't stock them, they might be removed from curricula, but they are not "banned".

It's just so bizarre to make an argument (A very valid one!) about freedom of information by openly lying to the public.

The number 1 banned book in this list has 147 bans... there are something like 15,000 school districts in the US.

This doesn't seem to be a particularly large problem.

Filtering content for children is not 'banning books'.

By this definition, The Bible is the most "banned book" across the country, even though it's probably the most consequential piece of literature ever written.

This continuous doublespeak is even more humorous considering the site has actual shopping links to every 'banned book'.

I'd bet 90-ish percent of these banned books could be made available to 90% or so of U.S. schoolchildren within a month-ish - if a bunch of anti-book-banning idealists cared to chip in donations to buy up publication rights, then publish the books on a simple readbannedbooks.org web site.

Banning books in a school is much more performative these days than in times past. Kids these days can pirate the books, find them at a store, order them from Amazon, etc. In the old days the concern might have been that kids would get access to the wrong ideas -- and crucially, you might actually be able to prevent that sort of access.

Now, it seems to be be more about representation: "Do we want to say our school supports the ideas in this book?"

I'm not defending book banning, but people seem to treat book banning as if it's still the 1950s, and schools are really censoring information in any sort of meanginful way. Instead, all the schools are doing is taking a stand and saying "this book does not represent us."

Mind you, I still think this is bad, but I'm a bit baffled why people treat this topic the way they do.

It doesn't seem like it's directly book ban, and more of a selection of books that are deemed inappropriate for kids according to the school which Pen disagrees with.

Popular banned books like Lolita, mein kampf are not here, but they are also not in U.S. schools. There are also no books listed here that schools definitely (for good reason) do not have, like COVID denialism, cult books, etc.

I'm happy to be proven wrong in the comments though, this is just from my cursory look at how they define it.

Where does “ban” end and “parental controls” begin? These books aren’t banned any more than R-rated movies are banned on Disney+. Every one of the books on the list has some kind of mature theme that different parents will feel differently about what age is the right age to handle it.

Remember, Hacker News posters were wildly in favor of banning the discussion of the Lab Leak theory. Only a few spoke out against such bans and they were commonly met with floods of downvotes. There's lots of support in this community for controlling access to information and shaping narratives as long as it conforms to their particular ideology.

"The most banned books in America and here's where you can purchase them using our affiliate links".

What does "ban" mean in this context? Like schools bought the book and it was removed, or it was on a "we won't approve this PO" list?

At first glance this is a useless list

Since many are asking what a "ban" is in this context, the site has a FAQ: https://pen.org/book-bans/book-bans-frequently-asked-questio...

The gist: Books that were previously available but removed due to pressure from outside (or other teachers)

This list is very obviously politically motivated. None of these are banned. I can find them trivially on Amazon. My benchmark for "ban" would be a black out from common resellers.

There are common themes among all of them. All of them, your average parent, would rather their children not be exposed to in school. This list is more like "what should/shouldn't be acceptable for kids and teens". This is hardly a ban. It's at best parental control. But selling it as a ban is key to outrage culture and delivering their opinions about the current administration. Nothing is stopping a parent from purchasing these books for their child. Nothing is stopping them from finding them as a PDF, or at a local or online reseller. Pretending this is "taboo" information is an extremely poor attempt to hide political bikeshedding.

> PEN America defines a school book ban as any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by governmental officials, that leads to a book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.

So I think one thing to keep in mind is that books added or removed from shelves based on the editorial choices of the library staff is not considered a book ban - and it's why books like Mein Kampf or Lolita don't also show up on these lists despite being very intentionally kept off the shelves by librarians.

Oftentimes school districts or libraries already have a system in place where offensive or non age-appropriate books can have restrictions placed on it based on parent or student feedback.

All this to say I think it makes book bans a bit muddier - in some instances they might be legitimate pushback on aggressive editorialization by librarians. But in most instances, they are self-obviously performative and unnecessary.

Reminder: a "book ban" is simply when a there is book that is acclaimed by the establishment, available in book stores across America, on the shelves of thousands of school libraries, but somewhere, some school board, or parent group does not want it in their curriculum or a tax-payer funded library. A "book ban" is parents and taxpayers overriding curation the decisions of government librarians.

It is simply a Russell conjugation: librarians curate books; parents and school boards ban books.

Personally, I don't trust librarians or school boards, and I put a lot of work into curating reading material for my own children. Many of the books I value are out-of-print, or unavailable in any public library, whereas almost all these so-called "banned books" are available in most public libraries. So yeah, these lists get a giant eye-roll from me.

It's hilarious that Barnes and Noble has a banned books section as a sort of marketing gimmick.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/banned-books/_/N-rtm

It makes you wonder what books Barnes and Noble has banned from being sold in their stores.

One argument I've also heard in this regard is that at some level editorial decisions MUST be made. A local library cannot hold EVERY book. So, which ones must you include and which ones shouldn't you stock? That's obviously going to become a political question, but it's also important to remember that it's an unavoidable one.

What an outrageous list!

Mostly books about young people confronting the problems facing young people

A window into the minds of adults. A distorted window, I hope, or there is no hole for those adults

Protect children? Stop abusing, punishing and condemning them for being children. But no, ban books that might give them clues on coping

What outrageous behavior, bless the librarians