Over the past four years, particularly from 2024-2025, schools and libraries across the nation have increasingly normalized book censorship, threatening students’ and educators’ First Amendment rights. Never before have so many states passed laws enabling or mandating book bans, with some even enforcing statewide restrictions on certain titles. These bans remain part of a broader, more troubling movement to control education and reshape the public narratives of our country. Most importantly, access to important stories reflecting diverse experiences and identities is being stripped away from a generation of young readers.
By definition, school book bans are any actions taken against a book because of its content, often as a result of parental community challenges, or more recently, government intervention. National and local groups with extremely conservative viewpoints have begun exploiting parents' fears and anxieties to exert control over public education and school curricula across the US. Efforts like these have led to sweeping changes at the local, state, and increasingly federal levels, diminishing students' rights to learn freely and restricting educators' professional autonomy. In states like Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, book censorship has become relatively routine and even expected. It is anticipated that states such as Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania could soon follow. The result of these book bans is clear: essential stories and perspectives are being taken from children nationwide.
Information and stories describe and give language to our experiences and shape our understanding of others and the world around us. When books are banned, we lose vital pieces and stories of our collective histories and identity. Erasing these histories risks repeating the same mistakes of the past. Moreover, when children never see themselves represented, or see their identities portrayed in a negative light, they internalize the dangerous message that their experiences, cultures, and differences are not valued by society. Instead of being encouraged to celebrate and embrace their individuality, they are taught and learn to conceal it.
Looking at recent book bans reveals troubling patterns where censorship overwhelmingly targets literature that focuses on marginalized groups. Since the surge of book removals in 2021, books depicting same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ characters have frequently been labeled as “sexual” or “inappropriate”. By sexualizing these identities, book banners have removed this literature from shelves — making claims that they are “protecting” their children. Even children's books have been attacked for simply including LGBTQ+ families. The Supreme Court case Mahmoud v. Taylor upheld “opt-outs” for children whose parents objected to LGBTQ+ content. So, because of these new laws (which are being upheld in the Supreme Court), LGBTQ+ stories are quietly erased from classrooms, not allowing children to see families that look like their own.
Book bans are not just about books themselves; they are also about power, representation, and whose stories are allowed to be told.