Date: November – December, 2023

Author: American Library Association (ALA): Banned and Challenged Books,  Various

Format: Article, books

Time: 1 hour allocated per book + 1 hour of background research = 8 hours

Level:  Librarians in school and public libraries, YA readers, and parents

Subject Area: Literacy, censorship, information access, right to read freely, young adult literature, adolescent development.

Objective: Research on censorship within YA literature

Reason for attending: Comprehension of censorship rational in texts deemed detrimental to YA readers, from the perspective of American library professionals, communities and US news articles.

What was learnt: Originating in the Online Reading Forum: Book Clubs CPD activity in which I learnt of Kelsey Peterson’s “Banned books Club”, I wanted to gain insight into the reasons for professional censorship of YA material and explore my own observations.

My project was initiated from the article “ALA Banned Books List of 2022” which documents a summary of “1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022” (ALA, 2024, para 3), the most extreme display of restriction in 20 years of collecting such data. The ALA unequivocally states its denouncement of censorship, and defence of free access and engagement with information through unambiguous promotion and advocacy of  libraries and resources under dissent. Presentation of  the top 13 most challenged books of 2022 and rationale for their suppression provided a foundation for my enquiry. I read seven books from the list and have summarised my findings in the following entries.