A shelf of books with a red circle crossed with a line to indicate that these are banned books.

Banned books week started yesterday and runs through Saturday, October 7, 2023. Personally, I feel that we should have a banned books month to raise awareness of the number of books challenged for various reasons. In 2022 alone, 2571 unique books were challenged with Texas having the most out of all the states.

Map of the United States showing that Texas has had the most book challenges in 2022. Source ALA.

To help us combat banning books and reinforce your right to intellectual freedom and the freedom to view or read any material you would like, please help us by supporting the efforts we engage in daily.

  • Visit your library, library board meetings and school board meetings to become and stay informed on which books are being challenged and why.
  • Stand up at these meetings and speak out about the importance of the freedoms to read and view. Support the first amendment and stand up for free speech.
  • Be sure to report these instances to organizations like the American Library Association to gain support and assistance in resisting a book ban.
  • Read banned books and encourage others to do the same. With 2571 on the list from last year alone and more from previous years, I am sure you’ll find several that you’ll enjoy.
  • Write to your legislatures on a local, state, and federal level to encourage them to protect intellectual freedom, the First Amendment, and your right to read and view the materials you want.

Here at Wilton Public Library, we have a policy to follow should a book challenge happen. But even before that, we consider every book brought into the library according to our collection development policy. We work to bring as wide of variety of materials as possible to your library to be available for you to use. Plus, we are backed up by the Winding Rivers System and the Inter Library Loan System in Wisconsin. Rarely is there a book that we can’t find.

Last month, our book club chose to read a banned book for the discussion, which will be October 9, 2023 at 10:30 am. The one we picked is “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas. If you’d like to read it and join us, there is still time and you can pick up a copy at the library.

Wilton Public Library, along with other area libraries, has a list of the top 13 banned books from 2022. These have a QR code attached to each title to make it easy to find and reserve a copy for you to read. Another option is to come in and ask for the banned book that you want to read.

Help us to maintain the freedoms we enjoy reading, learning, creating, and inventing among so many others.