The number of books that American libraries were asked to remove increased significantly last year. It shows new statistics from the American Library Association (ALA), write The Guardian.
Last year’s demand to remove 2,571 book titles is a 38 percent increase compared to 2021. The book most wanted off library shelves was American cartoonist Maia Kobabe’s award-winning 2019 album “Gender queer: A memoir,” which is about how it can be for a young person to come out as non-binary or asexual. In second place came “All boys aren’t blue” by George M Johnson who writes autobiographically about his upbringing as black and queer.
In the 20 years that the ALA has registered the censorship demands, they have never been more than last year. The purpose of publishing the list is to recognize “all brave writers whose work challenges readers… with new perspectives on difficult issues,” according to the organization’s president, Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada.
— Closing your eyes to the reality depicted in these stories does not make life’s challenges disappear. Books give us courage and help us understand each other, she says.