Book bans are rising. Here’s what you can do.

Photo courtesy of Jamie Valdez for Multnomah County.

Book bans aren’t new — they’ve been around for centuries. However, challenges to censor books have been rapidly rising across the country, and in Oregon, since 2020. 

The current state of book bans

Book censorship challenges happen in libraries, schools and bookstores. Over the last decade, there’s been a sharp rise in book ban attempts. The American Library Association’s map of the U.S. shows the increase in book bans by state from 2015, when 230 total books were challenged, to 2024, where 5,813 total books were challenged. They also display a shift in who’s challenged books. Before 2020, most challenges to library books came from parents looking to stop their child from accessing a particular title. But in 2024, almost 72% of book ban attempts came from pressure groups, administrators, board members and elected officials. To put the difference into numbers, this group attempted to ban 4,190 titles from libraries in 2024, versus an average of 46 each year from 2001 to 2020. 

Since 2021, PEN America has documented almost 16,000 book bans in public schools, with more than 10,000 from the 2023–2024 school year. They also analyzed books that were banned in two or more school districts that year. They found that 44% of books that were banned had people and characters of color and 39% of books had people and characters who were LGBTQ+. Over half of these banned books were written for young adult audiences and dealt with real-world topics like grief, death, mental health, sexual violence and more. 

The ALA found that the most challenged title in libraries in 2024 was All Boys Aren't Blue, a young adult memoir from LGBTQ+ activist George M. Johnson about growing up Black and queer in New Jersey and Virginia. PEN America found that the most challenged title in schools in 2023–2024 was Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, a novel about a school shooting and its devastating aftermath. 

“Hundreds of kids have told me that reading Nineteen Minutes stopped them from committing a school shooting, or showed them they were not alone in feeling isolated,” Picoult wrote for PEN America. “My book, and the ten thousand others that have been pulled off school library shelves this year, give kids a tool to deal with an increasingly divided and difficult world. These book banners aren’t helping children. They are harming them.” 

What’s happening in Oregon

You may be asking: what’s happening here in our state? 

In 2023–2024, Oregon libraries and schools saw a record number of requests to ban books. All of the top three most-challenged books that had LGBTQ+ themes. There were 151 requests to ban books in that time period, a 62% increase from the prior year’s 93 challenges. That was the most books that have been challenged since the Oregon State Library began tracking numbers in 1987. Books have been challenged at places like Tillamook High School, Grants Pass High School, Deschutes Public Library, Seaside Public Library and more. The most challenges took place in the Willamette Valley and in Northeast Oregon.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, the Oregon State Library tracked 71 reports of challenges. This is less than half of the prior year’s record-breaking numbers, but it’s still in the top five since they started tracking data — and it’s still much higher than before 2020’s sharp increase in challenges. There was also a shift in how challenges happened in 2024–2025. From July 2024 to June 2025, 59% of the challenged materials were hidden or vandalized by unknown people. That percentage was 40% in 2023–2024 and 11% in 2022–2023. While no formal reason was expressed for the challenges where items were hidden or vandalized, the numbers speak for themselves. Of the challenges, 76% of the items focused on one or more protected classes and 90% of items that were hidden or vandalized focused on one or more protected classes.

In June 2025, Governor Tina Kotek signed a bill into law that aims to limit book bans in schools and libraries. It stops school districts and libraries from banning books because they’re by, or about, members of a protected class. That means books can’t be banned due to being written by marginalized authors or having themes about race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or immigration. Called the “Freedom to Read” bill, it also makes sure that people who are directly connected to a school, like parents or staff, can file complaints, instead of politicians or people outside of Oregon.

Here’s what you can do

Read: 

Check out books that have been banned and celebrate your freedom to read these and other challenged titles throughout the year. 

Participate:

Every October, take part in Banned Books Week. Established in 1982, Banned Books Week is a fantastic time to join with your community to support the freedom to read, express and seek out ideas. 

Banned Books Week’s website offers a great list of resources, many of which you can use year-round. Plus, many suggestions on the American Library Association’s list of recommendations on how to get involved for Banned Books Week can be applied all year long. It doesn’t need to be October to check out a banned book, speak out against censorship or celebrate our freedom to read. 

Stay informed and involved: 

Keep up to date with the news about censorship in the world through resources like the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Newsletter or through local newspapers. Share information with friends and family about censorship and the increase in book challenges across the state and country. It’s important that we as a community know how to advocate for freedom of expression, especially in this time where that freedom is so frequently challenged.