Is a Book Challenge a Ban?

When a library book is removed from the shelves, what you call it doesn’t matter.

Jan 14, 2024

Author George Saunders wearing a mask and walking down the aisle of an auditorium — On November 1, 2023, two friends and I went to hear George Saunders at the Santa Cruz County Veterans’ Memorial Building He was launching his collection of short fiction *Liberation Day*. As he was walking down the aisle, I held up my phone to snap his photo and he leaned in for the picture.

Hanging Out with Book People and Talking Bans

My friends say I’m a media moron for good reason. I can’t name many movie stars or current musicians. In general, I don’t keep track of famous people. Except I am a fan of a number of writers. I like going to readings and then getting in line to have books signed. I also like getting the advice they share in their online communities.

I enjoy

Story Club with George Saunders

For all the story analysis and the writing advice. A few month back, Saunders was asking for comments on the spread of book bans. I wrote one about why the censors ‘just want to have the books reviewed.’ It was a quick summary, but long for a comment. Many people responded positively. Saunders responded to it, saying it was a thoughtful. So, yeah, that made my day.

Here’s the comment—

While I agree with George that close reading helps us to understand whether to accept or reject the ideas in a story, I’d like to comment on this post as a high school librarian. For over two decades, I worked as a teacher librarian (e.g., certified in the subject area). There was nothing like Moms for Liberty then (a national campaign feeding the ‘dangerous’ titles to their followers). But we had various book challenges.
George is right that people object to the idea and not the book--they, generally, haven’t read the book and may have seen a scene they don’t like. This is why most school districts have a ‘must-read’ policy before filing an objection. States like Florida have done away with this, and we see the result. The censors select their titles simply by using the library catalog. Books are cataloged by various subject area. So the user can look up “LGBTQ” and get hundreds of results. And then asked to have all those (completely unknown) books removed. Normally, to avoid removing every book on the shelf, school libraries have challenge policies, but they also have mission statements that align with the mission of the school. Does the book align with the mission?
It’s easy for a librarian to decide this on her own when weeding out nonfiction books. Some examples from my experience are books by people claiming to have been the Romanov Princess Anastasia (that issue was finally settled); books by and about Lance Armstrong on being the best person you could be using Armstrong as a model for teens. Working with fiction is much harder. Someone doesn’t want Huckleberry Finn in the library because it contains racists and uses the n-word. Are these racists in the book made to be models?
The problem with Moms for Liberty is that their mission is to remove any discussion of LGBTQ people and any discussion of the history of people of color, particularly Black Americans, that is uncomfortable. Their mission is to make sure kids never hear about these things and aren’t made uncomfortable. But is that the mission of the school and its library? I recently wrote an article about my experience with removing a book. In 22 years, it was the only book that I decided to remove from the collection although school administrators removed others. A student--who had read the entire novel--told me she thought it didn’t belong. I had to take it home and read it because there is not time to do that during working hours despite stereotypes of librarianship.
I decided to remove it. (Long story--that’s what the article is about.) But two things that are important to remember here: the student continued to use the library often and was not harmed by the book. And it was quite a process for me to make that decision including looking back at professional reviews. What the Moms for Liberty is doing is ‘pre-removing’ books. Then the librarian and a committee are supposed to read them and evaluate them and argue for their reinstatement. This is impossible--there’s not time for such nonsense. So, yes, the thing to do with library books is to read and then discuss. Sorry, so long. Close to my heart!

So, we can call these book objections challenges. But as books pulled from the shelf rarely make it back to the shelf, they are effectively banned.