When a sudden surge in book challenges hit schools and libraries in late 2020, few people understood the magnitude of the gathering threat. Librarian and journalist Kelly Jensen did. In July 2021, she filed the first edition of her weekly Censorship News roundup for Book Riot, offering commentary, analysis, and often unflinching criticism, along with an extensive rundown of local headlines and her own reported book-banning developments from across the country.
Since then, Jensen has been one of the most important voices chronicling movement to ban books, her column effectively creating a historical record as it unfolds. Her work is deeply appreciated by the librarians and educators facing these challenges in the field. And in March, Library Journal recognized her work by honoring her with a 2024 Mover & Shaker award.
We reached out for Jensen’s take on where the battle over books and censorship is heading, and what she’s learned so far.
We have a long history of book banning in America, but this current movement feels different. As someone who has been following events so closely, is it?
It’s true, movements aiming to ban books or censor information have been part and parcel of American history. But the deeper I dive into the history of book banning, the clearer it becomes that the motivation for banning books now is pretty much the same as it has been throughout history: the erasure of anyone whose stories do not fit a very narrow mold of what book banners consider normal.
What is different today, though, is the emergence of social media and engagement algorithms, which have been an incredible tool for book banners. Imagine that you know nothing about what’s going on, but you’ve heard the words “book ban” buzzing around. So you go online to look up what’s going on, and you’re presented a post about so-called inappropriate books in your local public schools or libraries. That link takes you to a Moms for Liberty group or some other local far-right political organization—and then the algorithms kick in and begin serving you up a steady stream of similar content in your feed.
Making matters worse, as local news has disappeared, so, too, has the accountability that the press once held local school and library boards to. Without local news covering what used to be these boring meetings, most of us have no idea what’s happening at them, who is making decisions, and what decisions are being made until its too late.
What are some of the current developments you’re most concerned about?
I am most concerned about the blanket bans on LGBTQ+ books happening at both public and school libraries. We know that what happens in the schools usually bleeds into the public libraries, and in places like Greenville, S.C., both the public library and the school libraries have been ransacked by book banners. This is only going to proliferate, I’m afraid.
I’m also concerned about how few people are responding to dangerous legislation before it’s passed and implemented, especially because librarians and educators have been sounding the alarm in the media and begging for help. For example, we all knew Idaho was gearing up to pass HB 710 this year, a new law that effectively bars minors from accessing entire sections of the library and allows parents to sue a library for damages if they don’t remove a book deemed inappropriate. But despite robust media coverage, action against the bill was lacking.
The same can be said about HB 29 in Utah, which requires every school library in the state to ban a book if that book has been banned in at least three districts in the state. This is a state-mandated book ban. And nothing about the legislation, its aims, or the legislative process was hidden. But again, the response was muted.
Looking ahead, Alabama is gearing up to absolutely decimate its libraries next legislative season, and I’m worried that the same story is playing out there.
You’ve been critical of some major authors, such as Stephen King, who, despite their good intentions, don’t appear to understand the nature of the current book-banning movement. How can King and other big-name authors do more to help?
Two years ago, Stephen King tweeted that if books are being banned in school, kids need to head right out to their public library or bookstore to get their hands on it. But that played right into the very argument made by right-wing groups, which is that they aren’t really banning books, because kids can still get the books elsewhere. Of course, public libraries are also being targeted by these groups, and the average cost of a book for young adults has steadily risen over the last couple of years to upwards of $16, which most kids cannot afford.
Last month, book bans returned to Stephen King’s attention when he saw that 23 of his books were being banned in Florida. And what did he tweet this time? He simply wrote, “What the fuck?” No calls to action. No resources. And that’s frustrating, because there have been people on the ground showing up to school and library board meetings for the last four years fighting for his books and others not to be banned. These people are showing up to the polls, requesting information from districts on which books are being pulled from school library shelves, and really doing the hard work.
At a bare minimum, why not share some resources to get your followers involved in fighting book bans? Stephen King got all this incredible press coverage just for saying “What the fuck?” about his own books, but he could easily have directed his seven million followers to the Florida Freedom to Read Foundation, for example, or offered some other resources to get people in the fight.
In 2023 and early 2024 we saw some legal victories by freedom-to-read advocates striking down new book-banning laws in Arkansas, Iowa, and Texas. And last month we had a lawsuit filed by publishers in Florida. What’s your take on the impact of these actions?
The lawsuits are a big step forward, and wins are what keep people going, so these legal victories are crucial. The lawsuit filed last month by the big publishers in Florida is certainly welcome. But what we need is more money, time, and effort poured into local elections to defeat these book banners before they pass these rules and laws in the first place. The reality is that book-banning groups really represent very small minorities, but they have a lot of money and a lot of connections.
People also need to stop belaboring arguments that don’t push the freedom to read movement forward. Yes, it really is a book ban when you remove a book from a place it once was. No, it’s not about To Kill a Mockingbird getting banned. And no, this movement isn’t about parents fearing what books their kids have access to—it is about pursuing a right-wing, Christian nationalist agenda.
I know you talk with many librarians and educators every week. What’s your sense of how they’re feeling now, in the fourth year of this surge. Is there hope? Resolve?
In short, our best and most committed librarians and educators aren’t going to stick around unless they get the support they need. I know many librarians who’ve left the profession because they were being pressured or attacked, and not just on social media but attacked internally, too, by administrators who should be supporting them.
Librarians and educators have always been tremendously underpaid for work they do, and on top of that they’ve been navigating an endless barrage of negative attention since the pandemic first hit. First, they were accused of not sacrificing enough for their communities when Covid-19 struck. And then, a well-connected, vocal minority began attacking them as groomers or pedophiles. Is there hope? I’m not sure. Is there resolve? I think it depends on where you are in the country.
When you started writing your column years ago, did you expect this wave of book bans to still be raging in 2024?
When I first approached my boss about doing this column, she questioned whether there would be enough content to do it every week. We both wish there wasn’t.
But honestly, I knew this issue was going to blow up and drag on, and I’m pretty sure this issue is going to drag on for another three or four years if we’re lucky, and longer if we’re not. Meanwhile, nearly every prediction I’ve made about the way this was moving has come to fruition, despite some people thinking I was being hyperbolic.
We know the toll this book-banning movement has taken on many people in the field. I have to ask, how are you faring?
The days are long, mostly thankless, and yes, sometimes hurtful. But I know I am far from alone in that experience. I’ve watched many librarians, educators, parents, and other freedom-to-read advocates burn out.
Meanwhile, my own books have been targeted because of the work I do. In Clay County, Fla., a notorious banner successfully got my book Body Talk [a collection of essays on body image] removed from school library shelves because of an alleged “hit piece” I wrote about how he had successfully challenged thousands of books in the district. Of course, it’s not a “hit piece” if it’s the truth.
But when you hear from someone who has had an aha moment after reading your work, or you watch someone like Amanda Jones, whose story we were the first to tell, become such a champion for the right to read and the rights of young people, that makes it worthwhile.
Kelly Jensen is a librarian, author and editor at Book Riot, where she has written a widely read weekly censorship news column since July 2021.
