#Write a report on a book you never read free#

Of 1,586 bans listed in the Index, PEN America found that the vast majority (98%) have involved various departures from best practice guidelines outlined by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the American Library Association (ALA).

In order to protect the First Amendment rights of students in public schools, though, procedural safeguards have been designed to help ensure that districts follow transparent, unbiased, established procedures, particularly when it comes to the review of library holdings. Objections and challenges to books available in school are nothing new, and parents and citizens are within their rights to voice concerns about the appropriateness and suitability of particular books. It is not just the number of books removed that is disturbing, but the processes–or lack thereof–through which such removals are being carried out.These districts represent 2,899 schools with a combined enrollment of over 2 million students. The Index lists book bans that have occurred in 86 school districts in 26 states.The Index lists bans on 1,145 titles by 874 different authors, 198 illustrators, and 9 translators, impacting the literary, scholarly, and creative work of 1,081 people altogether.These numbers represent a count of cases either reported directly to PEN America and/or covered in the media there may be other cases of bans that have not been reported and are thus not included in this count. This encompasses different types of bans, including removals of books from school libraries, prohibitions in classrooms, or both, as well as books banned from circulation during investigations resulting from challenges from parents, educators, administrators, board members, or responses to laws passed by legislatures. In total, for the nine-month period represented, the Index lists 1,586 instances of individual books being banned, affecting 1,145 unique book titles.The findings in this report demonstrate a profound increase in both the number of books banned and the intense focus on books that relate to communities of color and LGBTQ+ subjects over the past nine months. In recent years PEN America has typically encountered a handful of such cases each year.

At the same time, the scale and force of book banning in local communities is escalating dramatically. Today, state legislators are introducing - and in some cases passing - educational gag orders to censor teachers, proposals to track and monitor teachers, and mechanisms to facilitate book banning in school districts. The report also highlighted the disproportionate targeting of books by or about people whose identities and stories have traditionally been underrepresented in children’s and young adult literature, such as people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, or persons with disabilities. In 2016, PEN America published Missing from the Shelf: Book Challenges and Lack of Diversity in Children’s Literature, which described instances of ‘soft censorship’ taking place in schools and libraries in response to parents’ challenges of books. While this is the first time PEN America has conducted a formal count of books banned, the organization has fought back against book bans for decades. The Index documents decisions to ban books in school libraries and classrooms in the United States from Jto March 31, 2022. In response, PEN America has collated an Index of School Book Bans, offering a snapshot of the trend. Over the past nine months, the scope of such censorship has expanded rapidly.

#Write a report on a book you never read free#

Book bans in public schools have recurred throughout American history, and have long been an issue of concern to PEN America, as a literary and free expression advocacy organization.