book banning essay hook

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Banned and Challenged: Restricting access to books in the U.S.

Perspective, ashley hope pérez: 'young people have a right' to stories that help them learn.

Ashley Hope Pérez

Author Ashley Hope Pérez wrote Out of Darkness, which is on the American Library Association's lists of most banned books. Kaz Fantone/NPR hide caption

Author Ashley Hope Pérez wrote Out of Darkness, which is on the American Library Association's lists of most banned books.

This essay by Ashley Hope Pérez is part of a series of interviews with — and essays by — authors who are finding their books being challenged and banned in the U.S.

For over a decade, I lived my professional dream. I spent my days teaching college literature courses and writing novels. I regularly visited schools as an author and got to meet teens who reminded me of the students I taught in Houston — the amazing humans who had first inspired me to write for young adults.

Then in 2021, my dream disintegrated into an author and educator's nightmare as my novel Out of Darkness became a target for politically motivated book bans across the country.

Book News & Features

Efforts to ban books jumped an 'unprecedented' four-fold in 2021, ala report says.

Author Interviews

Banned books: author ashley hope pérez on finding humanity in the 'darkness'.

Attacks unfolded, not just on my writing but also on young people's right to read it. Hate mail and threats overwhelmed the inboxes where I once had received invitations for author visits and appreciative notes from readers. At the beginning of 2021, Out of Darkness had been on library shelves for over five years without a single challenge or complaint. As we reach the end of 2022, it has been banned in at least 29 school districts across the country.

From the earliest stages of writing, I knew Out of Darkness would be difficult — for me, and for readers. I drew my inspiration for the novel from an actual school disaster: the 1937 New London school explosion that killed hundreds in an East Texas oil town just 20 minutes from my childhood home. This tragic but little-known historical event serves as the backdrop for a fictional star-crossed romance between a Black teenager and a young Latina who has just arrived in the area.

As I researched the novel, I imagined the explosion as its most devastating event. But to engage honestly with the realities of the time and of my characters' lives, I had to grapple with systemic racism, personal prejudice, sexual abuse and domestic violence. As I wrote, the teenagers' circumstances began to tighten, noose-like, around their lives and love, leading to still more tragedy. I sought to show the depths of harm inflicted on some in this country without sensationalizing that history. The book portrays friendship, loving family, community and healthy relationships because they, too, are part of the characters' world. Then, as now, young people struggle mightily for joy, love and dignity.

When Out of Darkness was first published, I braced for objections. Would readers recoil from the harshness of my characters' realities? Or would they recognize how the novel invites connections between those realities and an ongoing reckoning with racialized violence and police brutality? To my relief, the novel received glowing reviews, earned multiple literary awards, and was named to "best of the year" lists by Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal . It appeared on reading lists across the country as a recommendation for ambitious young readers ready to face disquieting aspects of the American experience.

So it went until early 2021. In the wake of the 2020 presidential elections, right-wing groups pivoted from a national defeat to "local" issues. The latest wave of book banning exceeds anything ever documented by librarian or free-speech groups. The statistics for 2021, which represent only a fraction of actual removals, reflect a more than 600% increase in challenges and removals as compared to 2020. (See Everylibrary.org for a continually updated database of challenges and bans and PEN America's Banned in the USA reports for April 2022 and September 2022 for further context.)

These book bans do not reflect spontaneous parental concern. Instead, they are part of an orchestrated effort to sow suspicion of public schools as scarily "woke" and to signal opposition to certain identities and topics. Book banners often cite "sexually explicit content" as their reason for objecting to books in high schools. What distinguishes the targeted titles, though, is not their sexual content but that they overwhelmingly center the experiences of BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people. If you were to stack up all the books with sexual content in any library, the tallest stack by far would be about white, straight characters. Tellingly, those are not the books under attack. Claims about "sexual content" are a pretext for erasing the stories that tell Black, Latinx, queer and other non-dominant kids that they matter and belong. Beyond telegraphing disapproval, book bans serve the interests of groups that have long sought to dismantle public education and shut down conversations about important issues.

Debates about the suitability of reading materials in school are nothing new. These include past efforts by progressives to reorient language arts instruction. Concerns about racist language and portrayals might well lead communities to seek alternatives to the teaching of works like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . But de-emphasizing problematic classics does not generally entail removing the books from library collections. By contrast, in targeting high school libraries, conservative book banners seek to restrict what individual students may choose to read on their own , disregarding the judgment of school librarians who carefully select materials according to professional standards.

Rather than reading the books themselves, today's book banners rely instead on haphazard lists and talking points circulated online. Social media plays a central role in stoking the fires of censorship. Last year, a video of a woman ranting about a passage from Out of Darkness in a school board meeting went internationally viral. The woman's school board rant resulted in the removal of every copy of Out of Darkness from the district's libraries, triggered copycat performances, and fueled more efforts to ban my book.

Book banning poses a real professional and personal cost to authors and educators. For YA writers, losing access to school and library audiences can be career ending. And it is excruciating to watch people describe our life's work as "filth" or "garbage." We try to find creative ways to respond to the defamation, as I did in my own YouTube video . But there is no competing with the virality of outrage. Meanwhile, librarians and teachers face toxic work conditions that shift the focus from student learning to coping with harassment.

But book banning harms students, and their education, the most. Young people rely on school libraries for accurate information and for stories that broaden their understanding, offer hope and community, and speak honestly to challenges they face. As libraries become battlegrounds, teens notice which books, and which identities, are under attack. Those who share identities with targeted authors or characters receive a powerful message of exclusion: These books don't belong, and neither do you.

Back in 2004, my predominately Latinx high school students in Houston wanted — needed — books that reflected their lives and communities but few such books had been written. In the decades since, authors have worked hard to ensure greater inclusion and respect for the diversity of teen experiences. For students with fewer resources or difficult home situations, though, a book that isn't in the school library might as well not exist. Right-wing groups want to roll back the modest progress we've made, and they are winning.

These "wins" happen even without official bans. Formal censorship becomes unnecessary once bullying, threats and disruption shake educators' focus from students. The result is soft censorship . For example, a librarian reads an outstanding review of a book that would serve someone in their school, but they don't order it out of fear of controversy. This is the internalization of the banners' agenda. The effects of soft censorship are pervasive, pernicious and very difficult to document.

The needs of all students matter, not just those whose lives and identities line up with what book banners think is acceptable. Young people have a right to the resources and stories that help them mature, learn and understand their world in all its diversity. They need more opportunities, not fewer, to experience deep imaginative engagement and the empathy it inspires. We've had enough "banner" years. I hope 2023 returns the focus to young people and their right to read.

Ashley Hope Pérez, author of three novels for young adults, is a former high school English teacher and an assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University. Find her on Twitter and Instagram or LinkT .

What Should We Really Make of Book Bans?

• Share article

In recent years, book bans have soared in schools, reaching an all-time high in fall 2022 . That’s according to PEN America, a nonprofit that uses media reports, publicly available documents, and school district meeting minutes to track bans. So, just how significant are these challenges to the literature students can access in school ( or even in public libraries )?

Last year, Jill DeTemple, a religious-studies professor at Southern Methodist University, argued in Education Week Opinion that we’re having the wrong conversation about book removals—one that sets teachers up to fail: “In talking about lists of books, we’re missing the real questions: What do we value about education? How can we equip teachers, administrators, school boards, and librarians to support those values in the work that they do?” In her opinion essay, “ Let’s Build Trust Instead of Banning Books ,” she lays out some concrete steps for how to have those values-based civic and classroom conversations.

More recently, the American Enterprise Institute’s Max Eden and Heritage Foundation’s Jay P. Greene took to the EdWeek’s opinion pages to offer their own take on the conversation : “that most ‘banned’ books aren’t really banned, and that when they are, it’s mostly reasonable.” In their own research comparing 2,532 instances of banned books identified by PEN America against school library catalogs, they report that nearly three quarters of the books identified as banned were still accessible to students in school libraries.

The books that were removed, they argue, were largely done so in response to reasonable complaints over sexually explicit material. And here’s one final objection to how book removals are represented: “Contrary to the popular narrative that book bans target LGBTQ+ content, half of these books depict explicit heterosexual material.”

In her opinion essay “ Book Bans? My School Doesn’t Even Have a Library ,” Lydia Kulina-Washburn is also leery of tidy political narratives that inflate the significance of book bans, though her exact concern takes a different shape:

“At face value, the national debates over book banning may appear to be a tension between the right and left,” wrote the Philadelphia public school teacher last year. “However, a closer look at the conflict reveals the inequity that has long defined the educational landscape. Politicians, families, and policymakers who argue the finer points of book selection in schools are ignoring the low-income schools in their states that don’t have adequate literary resources.”

But not all Opinion contributors primarily see these bans as distractions from more important conversations. In July, Tyrone C. Howard, a professor of education at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the president of the American Educational Research Association, asked “ Whose Life Experiences Are Being Disappeared by Book Banning? ” Last February, EdWeek Opinion blogger Peter DeWitt, was unequivocal in his assessment of what’s fueling this trend, arguing that “ Banning Books Is Not About Protecting Children. It’s About Discrimination Against Others .”

The number of books being challenged in schools may be on the rise, but the debate is hardly new. For as long as Education Week has been in print, we’ve been covering controversies over what belongs in school libraries and reading lists—and who gets to decide. Take, for instance, this opinion essay from a specialist in teacher training back in 1990.

Decrying the removal of a book focused on slavery in his district after a parent complaint about its racist language, Joseph A. Hawkins recounted the visit to a slave castle in West Africa that solidified his philosophy for teaching his own children the horrors their ancestors endured during slavery. “I can’t think of any better protection, any better weapon, to ensure that slavery never happens again than for my children to read realistic material about slavery and be exposed to its racist language,” he wrote.

His advice for his fellow educators was just as firm: “I wish educators would stop running away from their responsibilities. Stop taking the road of least resistance. Stop hiding every time a parent complains. Stop giving in.”

The challenge of balancing parent concerns about “age appropriateness” against the imperative of preparing students to be informed citizens is still on the minds of many educators today. And for some of them, the question is not just academic. Teacher Sarah Bonner found herself driven out of the classroom by criticism over her inclusion of Juno Dawson’s young adult This Book Is Gay in a classroom activity exploring protest art. Within days of the activity, a parent had contacted a conservative local radio news station, setting off a media firestorm in her small Illinois town. By the time someone filed a police report against her for “child endangerment” later that week, Bonner recounts in an emotional essay , she knew she had to leave her classroom.

Despite the upheaval, Bonner stands by her professional decisionmaking, offering a conclusion that mirrors Hawkins’ 33-year-old call to action. “Having Dawson’s book in my classroom is a choice I would make over and over again,” Bonner wrote, “If I were a student in the LGBTQ+ community witnessing this outcry, I would feel unsafe, fearing that I could be the next target. All students need reassurance that they are supported and protected.”

Such curricular decisionmaking should be left to the professionals, argues English/language arts instructional specialist Miriam Plotinsky. “Examining texts for their appropriateness is not a job that noneducators are trained to do,” she wrote last year , as the national debate over censorship resurged with the news that a Tennessee district banned the graphic novel Maus just days before Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Instead of trying to make learning frictionless for students, Plotinsky challenged adults to address our own discomfort with exposing students to hard truths about our shared history.

And what do students themselves have to say about book bans? Most of them—57 percent—don’t even notice, said school library employees in a recent national survey from the EdWeek Research Center . A third of students seem to get more interested in reading the book, while only 1 percent support the ban.

What’s the view on controversial books from your district?

How to Submit

Sign up for edweek update, edweek top school jobs.

Sign Up & Sign In

A Case for Reading - Examining Challenged and Banned Books

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Any work is potentially open to attack by someone, somewhere, sometime, for some reason. This lesson introduces students to censorship and how challenges to books occur. They are then invited to read challenged or banned books from the American Library Association's list of the most frequently challenged books . Students decide for themselves what should be done with these books at their school by writing a persuasive essay explaining their perspectives. Students share their pieces with the rest of the class, and as an extension activity, can share their essays with teachers, librarians, and others in their school.

Featured Resources

T-Chart Printout : This printable sheet allows students to keep notes on parts of books that they believe might be challenged, as well as supporting reasons. Persuasive Writing Rubric : Use this rubric to evaluate the organization, conventions, goal, delivery, and mechanics of students' persuasive writing. The rubric can be adapted for any persuasive essay. Persuasion Map : Use this online tool to map out and print your persuasive argument. Included are spaces to map out your thesis, three reasons, and supporting details.

From Theory to Practice

There are times that the books that are part of our curriculum are found to be questionable or offensive by other groups. Should teachers stop using those texts? Should the books be banned from schools? No! "Censorship leaves students with an inadequate and distorted picture of the ideals, values, and problems of their culture. Partly because of censorship or the fear of censorship, many writers are ignored or inadequately represented in the public schools, and many are represented in anthologies not by their best work but by their ‘safest' or ‘least offensive' work," as stated in the NCTE Guideline. What then should the English teacher do? "Freedom of inquiry is essential to education in a democracy. To establish conditions essential for freedom, teachers and administrators need to work together. The community that entrusts students to the care of an English teacher should also trust that teacher to exercise professional judgment in selecting or recommending books. The English teacher can be free to teach literature, and students can be free to read whatever they wish only if informed and vigilant groups, within the profession and without, unite in resisting unfair pressures." This is the Students' Right to Read. Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Selected books as examples (from the most frequently challenged books list)
• Example Family Letter
• Persuasion Map
• Book Challenge Investigation Bookmarks
• Persuasive Writing Rubric

Preparation

• Because this lesson requires that students read a book from the ALA Challenged Book list, it’s a good idea to notify families prior to starting the assignment. See the example family letter for ideas on how to notify families.
• Bookmark the websites listed as resources to refer to throughout the lesson.
• Compile grade-appropriate books for students to explore using the Challenged Children's Books list .  Talk to your librarian or school media specialist about creating a resource collection for students to use in your classroom or in the library.
• Copy T-Charts and/or bookmarks for students to document passages as they read.
• Test the Persuasion Map on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tool.

Student Objectives

Students will:

• be exposed to the issues of censorship, challenged, or banned books.
• examine issues of censorship as it relates to a specific literature title.
• critically evaluate books based on relevancy, biases, and errors.
• develop and support a position on a particular book by writing a persuasive essay about their chosen title.

Session One

• Display a selection of banned or challenged books in a prominent place in your classroom. Include in this selection books meant for children and any included in the school curriculum. Ask students to speculate on what these books have in common.
• Explain to the students that these books have been "censored."  Ask students to brainstorm a definition of censorship and record the students' ideas on the board or chart paper. When you have come up with a definition the group agrees on, have students record the definition.
• Brainstorm ways in which things are censored for them already and who controls what is censored and how. Examples include Internet filtering, ratings on movies, video games, music, and self-censoring (choosing to watch only 1 news show or choosing not to read a certain type of book).  Discuss circumstances in which censorship would be necessary, if any, with the students.
• Provide the students’ definitions for challenged books as well as banned books. (Share these American Library Association definitions: “A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials.”)
• After the students have seen the ALA definition, have the students “grow” in their own definitions. Ask them to revisit their definition and align it with the one presented by the American Library Association.
• Invite the students to brainstorm any books that they have heard of that have been challenged or banned from schools or libraries. Ask them if they know why those books were found to be controversial.
• Students should then brainstorm titles of other books that they feel could possibly be challenged or banned from their school collection.  Allow time for students to share these titles with their classmates and offer an explanation of why they think these titles could possibly be challenged or banned.
• Share with the students a list of banned books .
• Did they find them to be entertaining, informative, beneficial or objectionable?
• Can they suggest reasons why someone would object to elementary, middle school or high school students reading these books?
• If desired, complete the session by allowing students to learn more about Banned Books Week , additional challenged/banned books, and cases involving First Amendment Rights.

Session Two

• From a teacher-selected list of grade-appropriate books from the Challenged Children's Books list , have groups of students select one of the books to read in literature circles, traditional reading groups, or through read-alouds.
• As the students read, ask them to pay particular attention to the features in the books that may have made them controversial. As students find quotes/parts of the book that they find to be controversial, they should add them to their T-Chart , along with an explanation of why they think that this area could be controversial.  On the left side of their T-Chart , they will list the quote or section of the book (with page numbers); on the right side of the T-Chart , they will write their thoughts on why this area could be seen as controversial.
• You may also choose to invite the students to use bookmarks (in addition to or instead of the T-Chart ) , so they can record page numbers and passages as they read.

Session Three

• After the students have completed the reading of their book, have a group or class discussion on the students' findings that they recorded on their bookmarks or T-Chart .
• Next, explain to students that they will be writing a persuasive piece stating what they believe should be done with the book that has been challenged. If students read the book in groups, they could write a team response.
• Share the  Persuasive Writing Rubric to explore the requirements of the assignment in more detail and allow for students' questions about the assignment.
• Demonstrate the Persuasion Map and work through a sample book challenge to show students how to use the tool to structure their essays.
• Provide students with access to computers, and allow students the remainder of class to work with the Persuasion Map as a brainstorming tool and to guide them through work on their papers.  If computer access is a problem, you may provide students with print copies of the Persuasion Map Printout .
• Encourage students to share their thoughts and opinions with the class as they work on their drafts.  Students should print out their work at the end of the session.

Session Four

• Invite students to share their persuasive pieces with the rest of the class. It is their job to persuade teachers, librarians, or administrators to keep the book in their collection, remove the book from their collection, or add the book to their collection.
• For an authentic sharing session, invite parents in for a panel discussion while the children present their thoughts and opinions on the matter of challenged and banned books.
• Students can discuss the books after each presentation to draw conclusions about each title and about censorship and challenges overall.

Concerned Parent The concerned parent is interested in how controversial materials affect school children. The concerned parent wants to maintain a healthy learning environment for students.   Classroom Teacher The Classroom Teacher needs to select books that will both match the interests of the students and also meet the requirements of the curriculum. The Classroom Teacher needs to listen to the parents, and also follow the rules of the school.   School Library Media Specialist The School Library Media Specialist selects library materials based on the curriculum and reading interests the students in the school.   School Lawyer The School Lawyer is concerned about how the students’ civil liberties would be affected if the School Board decided to ban books.

• Students can elicit responses and reactions from peers, teachers, administrators, librarians, the author, and parents in regards to the particular book they are researching. Ask students to focus on the appropriateness of the book in reference to an elementary school collection.  
• Discuss Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico and how after the decision from that court case public school districts around the country developed policies concerning book challenges in elementary, middle, and high school libraries.
• Students can play the role of the librarian and decide where a challenged/banned book should be shelved. For example, the challenged book may be a picture book, but the “librarian” might decide that the book should instead be shelved in the Teacher Resource Section of the library. An alternative for Sessions Three and Four for this lesson plan is to ask students to write persuasive essays explaining where the book should be shelved and why it should be shelved there.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• As students discuss censorship and challenged/banned books, and as they read their selected text, listen for comments that indicate they are identifying specific examples from the story that connect to the information they have learned (you should also check for evidence of this on their bookmarks or T-Chart ). The connections that they make between the details in the novel and the details they choose as their supporting reasons for their persuasive piece will reveal their understanding and engagement with the books.
• Monitor student interaction and progress during any group work to assess social skills and assist any students having problems.
• Respond to the content and quality of students’ thoughts in their final reflections on the project. Look for indications that the student provides supporting evidence for the reflections, thus applying the lessons learned from the work with the Persuasion Map .
• Assess students’ persuasive writing piece using the rubric .
• Calendar Activities
• Professional Library
• Student Interactives
• Lesson Plans

Students brainstorm reasons why certain books might have been banned and discuss common reasons why books are challenged.

Students adapt a Roald Dahl story to picture book format and share their books and add them to the classroom library. Additionally, they compare a book version and film version of one of Dahl's works.

Bring the celebration of reading and literacy into your classroom, library, school, and home all year long.

The current edition of The Students' Right to Read is an adaptation and updating of the original Council statement, including "Citizen's Request for Reconsideration of a Work."

The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.

Add new comment

• Print this resource

Explore Resources by Grade

• Kindergarten K

Click here for our new feature on Presidents & the First Amendment

An examination of all 46 presidents and their engagement with the First Amendment

• ENCYCLOPEDIA
• IN THE CLASSROOM

Home » Articles » Topic » Issues » Issues Related to Speech, Press, Assembly, or Petition » Book Banning

Book Banning

Written by Susan L. Webb, published on August 8, 2023 , last updated on April 11, 2024

Book banning, the most widespread form of censorship, occurs when private individuals, government officials, or organizations remove books from libraries, school reading lists, or bookstore shelves because they object to their content, ideas, or themes. Those advocating a ban complain typically that the book in question contains graphic violence, expresses disrespect for parents and family, is sexually explicit, exalts evil, lacks literary merit, is unsuitable for a particular age group, or includes offensive language. In this photo, Gail Sheehy, author of "Passages," at podium, right, reads during the "First Banned Books Read Out" in New York, April 1, 1982. The rally protested censorship by school and public libraries of certain books under pressure from right wing religious groups. (AP Photo/Carlos Rene Perez, used with permission from the Associated Press)

Book banning, a form of  censorship , occurs when private individuals, government officials, or organizations remove books from  libraries , school reading lists, or bookstore shelves because they object to their content, ideas, or themes. Those advocating a ban complain typically that the book in question contains graphic violence, expresses disrespect for parents and family, is sexually explicit, exalts evil, lacks literary merit, is unsuitable for a particular age group, or includes offensive language.

Book banning is the most widespread form of censorship in the U.S.

Book banning is the most widespread form of censorship in the United States, with children’s literature being the primary target. Advocates for banning a book or certain books fear that children will be swayed by its contents, which they regard as potentially dangerous. They commonly fear that these publications will present ideas, raise questions, and incite critical inquiry among children that parents, political groups, or religious organizations are not ready to address or that they find inappropriate.

Most challenges and bans prior to the 1970s focused primarily on  obscenity  and explicit sexuality. Common targets included D. H. Lawrence’s  Lady Chatterly’s Lover  and James Joyce’s  Ulysses . In the late 1970s, attacks were launched on ideologies expressed in books.

To counter charges of censorship, opponents of publications sometimes use the tactic of restricting access rather than calling for the physical removal of books. Opponents of bans argue that by restricting information and discouraging freedom of thought, censors undermine one of the primary functions of education: teaching students how to think for themselves. Such actions, assert free speech proponents, endanger tolerance, free expression, and democracy. In this photo, author Kurt Vonnegut Jr., speaks to reporters on a federal court ruling calling for a trial to determine if a Long Island school board can ban a number of books, including his “Slaughterhouse Five,” at New York Civil Liberty offices in 1980. (AP Photo-File, used with permission from the Associated Press)

In September 1990, the  Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression  declared the First Amendment to be “in perilous condition across the nation” based on the results of a comprehensive survey on free expression. Even literary classics, including Mark Twain’s  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  and Maya Angelou’s  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , were targeted. Often, the complaints arose from individual parents or school board members. At other times, however, the pressure to censor came from such public interest groups as the Moral Majority.

Censorship — the suppression of ideas and information — can occur at any stage or level of publication, distribution, or institutional control. Some pressure groups claim that the public funding of most schools and libraries makes community censorship of their holdings legitimate.

To counter charges of censorship, opponents of publications sometimes use the tactic of restricting access rather than calling for the physical removal of books. Opponents of bans argue that by restricting information and discouraging freedom of thought, censors undermine one of the primary functions of education: teaching students how to think for themselves. Such actions, assert free speech proponents, endanger tolerance, free expression, and democracy.

Community standards may be taken into account in book banning

Although censorship violates the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, some limitations are constitutionally permissible. The courts have told public officials at all levels that they may take  community standards  into account when deciding whether materials are obscene or pornographic and thus subject to censor.

They cannot, however, censor publications by generally accepted authors — such as Mark Twain, for example, J. K. Rowling, R. L. Stine, Judy Blume, or Robert Cormier — in order to placate a small segment of the community. Cormier’s  Chocolate War was one of the American Library Association’s Top 10 Banned Books for 2005 and 2006.

Those who oppose book banning emphasize that the First Amendment protects students’ rights to receive and express ideas. The Supreme Court in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982) ruled 5-4 that public schools can bar books that are “pervasively vulgar” or not right for the curriculum, but they cannot remove books “simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.” The Court’s decision was, however, narrow, applying only to the removal of books from school library shelves. In this photo, Makenzie Hatfield a student at George Washington high school, holds banned books by author Pat Conroy in West Virginia in 2007. The Pat Conroy books “Beach Music” and “The Prince of Tides” were suspended from nearby Nitro High School English classes after parents of two students complained about depictions of violence, suicide and sexual assault. Conroy defended the books in an e-mail reply last month to Hatfield, who teamed with classmates and Nitro students to form a coalition against censorship. (AP Photo/Jeff Gentner, used with permission from the Associated Press)

Opponents of book banning emphasize student rights

Those who oppose book banning emphasize that the First Amendment protects  students’ rights  to receive and express ideas. The Supreme Court in  Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico  (1982)  ruled 5-4 that public schools can bar books that are “pervasively vulgar” or not right for the curriculum, but they cannot remove books “simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.” The Court’s decision was, however, narrow, applying only to the removal of books from school library shelves.

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom documents censorship incidents around the country and suggests strategies for dealing with them. Each September, the  American Library Association , the American Booksellers Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association of American Publishers, and the National Association of College Stores sponsor  Banned Books Week  — Celebrating the Freedom to Read.

Designed to “emphasize that imposing information restraints on a free people is far more dangerous than any ideas that may be expressed in that information,” the week highlights banned works, encourages citizens to explore new ideas, and provides a variety of materials to promote free speech events.

The American Library Association publishes the bimonthly  Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom,  which provides information on censorship, as well as an annual annotated list of books and other materials that have been censored.

This article was originally published in 2009. Susan Webb is an Adjunct Librarian at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Send Feedback on this article

How To Contribute

The Free Speech Center operates with your generosity! Please  donate now!

The Hydra Nature of Book Banning and Censorship

A snapshot and two annotated bibliographies.

• Michelle Boyd Waters University of Oklahoma
• Shelly K. Unsicker-Durham University of Oklahoma

In Fall of 2022 two researchers set out to explore both scholarly work on censorship and news articles via social media, to help gain a broader understanding of censorship and book banning trends. The following research question guided their research: What does this wave of book banning and censorship look like across the US? What they discovered is a kind of censorship-Hydra, an evolving beast posing an ever-present danger, one that will likely take the courage, collaboration, and ingenuity of educators everywhere. This article offers a snapshot of this current beast of book banning and censorship in the form of two annotated bibliographies—one focused on news reports and trends in social media—the other focused on academic searches of scholarly articles.

Author Biographies

Michelle boyd waters, university of oklahoma.

Michelle Boyd Waters is a doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma studying English education. She taught middle and high school English Language Arts for 10 years and is now studying the establishment and impact of writing centers in high schools. She is the Graduate Student Assistant Director at the OU Writing Center, an Oklahoma Writing Project Teacher Consultant, and co-editor of the Oklahoma English Journal.

Shelly K. Unsicker-Durham, University of Oklahoma

After 23 years of teaching English Language Arts, Shelly is a PhD candidate with the University of Oklahoma in Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum, where she has also served as graduate instructor, researcher, and co-editor of Study & Scrutiny. Her favorite research pursuits include expressive writing pedagogy, teacher conversations, and young adult literature. 

THREE REFERENCE LISTS:

REFERENCES FOR ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY #1

Authors speak out on censorship. (2022, March 11). National Council of Teachers of English. https://ncte.org/resources/ncte-intellectual-freedom-center/authors-speak-out-on-censorship/

Backus, F., & Salvanto, A. (2022, April 6). Big majorities reject book bans - CBS news poll. CBS News. Retrieved September 25, 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/book-bans-opinion-poll-2022-02-22/ . DOI: https://doi.org/10.3886/icpsr04092.v1

Banned & Challenged Books: Simon & Schuster. New Book Releases, Bestsellers, Author Info and more at Simon & Schuster. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2022. https://www.simonandschuster.com/p/bannedbooksweek

Blake, M. (2022, July 27). A surprising list of recently banned books. Penguin Books UK. https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2022/05/surprising-books-that-have-been-recently-banned-2019

Chess, K. (2018, September 8). Why I hate censorship in ya fiction. Khristina Chess. https://www.khristinachess.com/blog/2018/9/8/why-i-hate-censorship-in-ya-fiction

Friedman, J., & Farid Johnson, N. (2022, September 19). Banned in the USA: The growing movement to censor books in schools. PEN America. Retrieved September 25, 2022. https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/

Frisaro, F. (2023, May 24). Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem banned by Florida School. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/amanda-gormans-inauguration-poem-banned-by-florida-school

Gregory, J. (2022, September 9). 22 titles pulled from Missouri district shelves to comply with state law and more: Censorship roundup. School Library Journal. Retrieved October 2, 2022. https://www.slj.com/story/22-titles-pulled-from-missouri-district-shelves-to-comply-with-state-law-and-more-censorship-roundup

Jensen, K. (2022, August 4). A template for talking with school and Library Boards about book bans: Book censorship news, August 5, 2022. Book Riot. Retrieved September 25, 2022. https://bookriot.com/book-censorship-news-august-5-2022 . DOI: https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0173.0203

Jensen, K. (2022, August 25). States that have enacted book Ban laws: Book censorship news, August 26, 2022. Book Riot. Retrieved October 2, 2022. https://bookriot.com/states-that-have-enacted-book-ban-laws-2022/

Jensen, K. (2023, May 25). When do we move from advocacy to preparation?. Book Riot. https://bookriot.com/when-do-we-move-from-advocacy-to-preparation/

The Learning Network. (2022, February 18). What students are saying about banning books from school libraries. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/18/learning/students-book-bans.html

Lopez, S. (2023, May 8). The extreme new tactic in the crusade to ban books. Time. https://time.com/6277933/state-book-bans-publishers/

Magnusson, T. (n.d.). Book censorship database by Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson. EveryLibrary Institute. Retrieved September 25, 2022. https://www.everylibraryinstitute.org/book_censorship_database_magnusson

Miller, S. (2022). Intellectual Freedom Center Provides Support for Censorship Challenges. Council Chronicle, 32(1), 16–18. https://publicationsncte.org/content/journals/10.58680/cc202232050 . DOI: https://doi.org/10.58680/cc202232050

“Not recommended” reading: The books Hong Kong is purging from public libraries. (2023, May 26). Hong Kong Free Press. https://hongkongfp.com/2023/05/26/not-recommended-reading-the-books-hong-kong-is-purging-from-public-libraries . DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110966879.26a

op de Beeck, N. (2023, May 2). Turning a censorship controversy into a learning opportunity. PublishersWeekly.com. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/92172-turning-a-censorship-controversy-into-a-learning-opportunity.html

Parker, C. (2023, July 25). Readers can now access books banned in their area for free with New App. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/banned-book-club-app-180982592/

Pendharkar, E. (2023, June 29). How students are reacting to book bans in their schools. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/how-students-are-reacting-to-book-bans-in-their-schools/2023/06

Price, R. (2022, September 19). The power of reading, or why I do what I do. Adventures in Censorship. https://adventuresincensorship.com/blog/2022/9/17/the-power-of-reading-or-why-i-do-what-i-do

Russell, B. Z. (2022, September 23). Panel: Book-banning push is coordinated, national effort. Idaho Press. Retrieved October 2, 2022. https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/panel-book-banning-push-is-coordinated-national-effort/article_cb6606aa-3b89-11ed-be6c-67820ea458a1.html

School Library Journal. (2023, May 25). Amanda Gorman’s Inaugural Poem Restricted in Florida District After One Parent Complains | Censorship News. https://www.slj.com/story/newsfeatures/Amanda-Gormans-Inaugural-Poem-Restricted-in-Florida-District-After-One-Parent-Complains-Censorship-News

REFERENCES FOR ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY #2

Beck, S., & Stevenson, A. (2018). Teaching contentious books regarding immigration: the case of Pancho Rabbit. Reading Teacher, 72(20), 265-273. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1739

Boyd, A. S., Rose, S. G., & Darragh, J. J. (2021). Shifting the conversation around teaching sensitive topics: Critical colleagueship in a teacher discourse community. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 65(2), 129-137. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1186

Buehler, J. (2023). Voices of Young Adult Literature authors in the conversation about censorship. English Journal, 112(5), pp. 64-70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.58680/ej202332423

Collins, J. E. (2022). Policy solutions: Defying the gravitational pull of education politics. Phi Delta Kappan, 104(1), 62-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00317217221123654

Dallacqua, A. (2022). “Let Me Just Close My Eyes”: Challenged and Banned Books, Claimed Identities, and Comics. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy,66(2), 134-138. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1250

Dávila, D. The Tacit Censorship of Youth Literature: A Taxonomy of Text Selection Stances. Child Lit Educ 53, 376–391 (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-022-09498-5

Garnar, M., Lechtenberg, K., & Vibbert, C. (2020). School Librarians and the Intellectual Freedom Manual. Knowledge Quest, 49(1), 34–38.

Goodman, C. L. (Ed.) (2022). IDRA Newsletter. Volume 49, No. 2. Intercultural Development Research Association.

Greathouse, P., Eisenbach, B., & Kaywell, J. (2017). Supporting Students’ Right to Read in the Secondary Classroom: Authors of Young Adult Literature Share Advice for Pre-Service Teachers. SRATE Journal, 26(2), 17–24.

Hartsfield, D. E., & Kimmel, S. C. (2020) Exploring educators figured worlds of controversial literature and adolescent readers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 63(4), 443-451. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.989

Hlwyak, S., Ed. (2021, April). State of America's libraries 2021: Special report: Covid-19. American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/news/sites/ala.org.news/files/content/State-of-Americas-Libraries-Report-2021-4-21.pdf

Ivey, G., & Johnston, P. (2018). Engaging disturbing books. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.883

Leland, C. H., & Bangert, S. E. (2019). Encouraging activism through art: Preservice teachers challenge censorship. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 68(1), 162-182. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2381336919870272

Lycke, K., & Lucey, T. (2018). The Messages We Miss: Banned Books, Censored Texts, and Citizenship. Journal of Social Studies Education Research, 9(1), 1–26. 3

Matthews, C. (2018). Sexuality. Brock Education: A Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 27(2), 68-74.

Mehan, K., & Friedman, J. (2023). Banned in the USA: State laws supercharge book suppression in schools. PEN America. https://pen.org/report/banned-in-the-usa-state-laws-supercharge-book-suppression-in-schools/

Metzgar, M., & McGowan, M. J. (2022). Viewpoint diversity at UNC Charlotte. Acta Educationis Generalis, 12(3), 1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/atd-2022-0020

Moffet, J. (1988). Storm in the Mountains: A Case Study of Censorship, Conflict, and Consciousness. Southern Illinois University.

Page, M. L. (2017). Teaching in the cracks: Using familiar pedagogy to advance LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(6), 644-685. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.616

Pekoll, K. (2020). Managing censorship challenges beyond books. Knowledge Quest, 49(1), 28-33.

PEN America. (2022, April). Banned in the USA: Rising school book bans threaten free expression and students’ First Amendment Rights (April 2022). https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/#what

PEN America. (2022, Sept. 19). New report: 2,500+ book bans across 32 states during the 2021-22 school year. https://pen.org/press-release/new-report-2500-book-bans-across-32-states-during-2021-22-school-year/

Pérez, A. H. (2022). Defeating the censor within: How to hold your stand for youth access to literature in the face of school book bans. Knowledge Quest, 50(5), 34-39.

Rumberger, A. (2019). The elementary school library: Tensions between access and censorship. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 20(4), 409–421. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949119888491

SLJ Staff. (2023, April 20). New PEN America Report Shows Increase in Book Bans Driven by State Legislation. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/censorship/New-PEN-America-Report-Shows-Increase-in-Book-Bans-Driven-by-State-Legislation

Steele, J. E. (2020). A History of Censorship in the United States. Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy, 5(1), 6-19. https://www.ala.org/news/sites/ala.org.news/files/content/State-of-Americas-Libraries-Report-2021-4-21.pdf

Sulzer, M. A., & Thein, A. H. (2016). Reconsidering the hypothetical adolescent in evaluating and teaching young adult literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(2), 163-171. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.556

Vissing, Y., & Juchniewicz, M. (2023). Children’s book banning, censorship and human rights. In J. Zajda, P. Hallam, & J. Whitehouse (Eds.), Globalisation, values education and teaching democracy, vol 35 (pp. 181-201). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15896-4_12

Walter, B., & Boyd, A. S. (2019). A threat or just a book? Analyzing responses to Thirteen Reasons Why in a discourse community. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(6), 615-623. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.939

Woo, A., Lee, S., Tuma, A. P., Kaufman, J. H., Lawrence, R. A., & Reed, N. (2023). Walking on Eggshells--Teachers' Responses to Classroom Limitations on Race-or Gender-Related Topics: Findings from the 2022 American Instructional Resources Survey. Research Report. RR-A134-16. RAND Corporation. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/rra134-16

REFERENCES NOT INCLUDED IN THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Bishop, R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom, 6(3).

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. (2022, October 20). Hydra. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hydra-Greek-mythology

Foster, M. V. (2022, August 23). NPS teacher resigns from district after sharing QR code for library access with classroom. FOX 25, Oklahoma (KOKH). https://okcfox.com/news/local/norman-public-schools-nps-norman-high-school-teacher-summer-boismeir-house-bill-1775-hb1775-american-civil-liberties-union-aclu-first-amendment-critical-race-theories-crt-book-ban-oklahoma-state-board-of-education-race-sex-discrimination?fbclid=IwAR0WiSTlBqucyBFZLzDIbKqrmRJ9PMOG-wKbGLihujHOBiAzidJn9I7F_Ho

Hill, J. A. (2023). Legitimate state interest of educational censorship: the chilling effect of Oklahoma House Bill 1775. Oklahoma Law Review, 75(2), 385-408.

Interactive chart. Ad Fontes Media. (2023, July 8). https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/

KOKH Staff. (2023, March 21). 'What did I do?' OSDE applies to revoke certificate of ex-Norman teacher Summer Boismier. FOX 25, Oklahoma (KOKH). https://okcfox.com/news/local/summer-boismier-teaching-certificate-revoked-norman-oklahoma-ryan-walters-books-unbanned-qr-code-state-department-education-brooklyn-public-library-critical-race-theory-gender-queer-

Media Bias Chart. AllSides. (2023, June 21). https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart

Oklahoma State Department of Education. (2016). Oklahoma academic standards for English language arts. https://sde.ok.gov/sites/ok.gov.sde/files/documents/files/OAS-ELA-Final%20Version_0.pdf

PEN America. (2022, August 23). For the first time, Oklahoma education officials punish two school districts for violating gag order on teaching race and gender. [Press Release]. PEN America. https://pen.org/press-release/for-first-time-oklahoma-education-officials-punish-two-school-districts-for-violating-gag-order-on-teaching-race-and-gender/

Penharkar, E. (2022, August 2). Two Okla. districts get downgraded Accreditations for violating state’s anti-CRT Law. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/two-okla-districts-get-downgraded-accreditations-for-violating-states-anti-crt-law/2022/08

Smith, J. C. (2023, June 22). School officials ‘failed to prove’ teacher violated law by helping students get books, prosecutor says. USA Today Network. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/06/22/no-proof-teacher-violated-oklahoma-book-law-prosecutor/70347891007/

Suares, W. (2022, August24). ‘I am a walking HB1775 violation’: Former Norman teacher discusses book ban controversy. FOX 25 Oklahoma (KOKH). https://okcfox.com/news/local/summer-boismier-norman-public-schools-critical-race-theory-brooklyn-public-library-qr-code-house-bill-1775-oklahoma-teacher-resigned-education-books?fbclid=IwAR2Pz72tTGDJbZrEeGEm6LYaaJb17ojMMTrztDxU_6uBvZcDD7cVIJvf5yw

Stafford, W. (2022, July 28). Two Oklahoma school districts punished for violating CRT ban. FOX 25, Oklahoma (KOKH). https://okcfox.com/news/local/2-ok-school-district-punished-for-violating-crt-ban-tulsa-public-schools-and-mustang-public-schools-accreditation-with-warning-house-bill-1775-accreditation-with-warning-accreditation-with-deficiencies

Taylor, J., & Fife, A. (2023, August 3). After a state law banning some lessons on race, Oklahoma teachers tread lightly on the Tulsa Race Massacre. The Frontier. https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/after-a-state-law-banning-some-lessons-on-race-oklahoma-teachers-tread-lightly-on-the-tulsa-race-massacre/?fbclid=IwAR1PBzCAnjyI59RRArRTNudvmJydz5hYvZghABDSLjYPoq0tmcDsYRj8Lqc . DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74679-7_3

Tolin, L. (2023, January). Oklahoma teacher is still fighting book bans, now from Brooklyn.

Waters, M. B. (2018, December 31). Rethink ELA #010: Fostering student-led discussions with the TQE method. reThink ELA. https://www.rethinkela.com/2018/12/rethink-ela-010-fostering-student-led-discussions-with-the-tqe-method/

Woo, A., Lee, S., Tuma, A. P., Kaufman, J. H., Lawrence, R. A., & Reed, N. (2023). Walking on Eggshells—Teachers’ Responses to Classroom Limitations on Race-or Gender-Related Topics. Rand American Educational Panels. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA100/RRA134-16/RAND_RRA134-16.pdf . DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/rra134-16

Copyright (c) 2023 Michelle Boyd Waters, Shelly K. Unsicker-Durham

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

Current Issue

Information.

• For Readers
• For Authors
• For Librarians

Developed By

73 Essay Hook Examples

An essay hook is the first one or two sentences of your essay that are used to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into your discussion.

It is called a hook because it “grabs” the reader and doesn’t let them go! It should have something in there that makes the reader feel curious and intrigued, compelling them to continue reading.

Techniques for Good Essay Hooks

Here are a few techniques that you can use to write a good essay hook:

• Use a Quotation : Sometimes, a relevant quotation from a well-known author or expert can help establish the context or theme of your essay. Next time you’re conducting research for an essay, keep an eye out for a really compelling quote that you could use as your hook for that essay.
• Start with a Statement that is Surprising or Unusual: A surprising or unusually statement will draw a reader in, making them want to know more about that topic. It’s good if the statement contradicts common knowledge or reveals an insight about your topic that isn’t immediately obvious. These can be particularly good for argumentative essays where you’re putting forward a controversial or compelling argument as your thesis statement .
• Tell a Brief Anecdote : A short, interesting story related to your topic can personaize the story, making it more than just a dry essay, and turning it into a compelling narrative that’s worth reading.
• Use Statistics or Facts: Interesting, surprising, or shocking facts or statistics work similarly to surprising statements: they make us want to know more about a topic. Statistics and facts in your introductions are particularly useful for analytical, expository , and argumentative essays.
• Start with a Question: Questions that make the reader think deeply about an issue, or pose a question that the reader themselves has considered, can be really effecitve. But remember, questions tend to be better for informal and personal essays, and are generally not allowed in formal argumentative essays. If you’re not sure if you’re allowed to use questions in your essays, check with your teacher first.

Below, I’ll present some examples of hooks that you could use as inspiration when writing your own essay hook.

Essay Hook Examples

These examples might help stimulate your thinking. However, keep in mind that your essay hook needs to be unique to your essay, so use these as inspiration but write your own essay hook that’s perfect for your own essay.

1. For an Essay About Yourself

An essay about yourself can be personal, use “I” statements, and include memories or thoughts that are deeply personal to you.

• Question: “Have you ever met someone who could turn even the most mundane events into a thrilling adventure? Let me introduce myself.”
• Anecdote: “The smell of freshly baked cookies always takes me back to the day when I accidentally started a baking business at the age of nine.”
• Intriguing Statement: “I’ve always believed that you haven’t truly lived until you’ve read a book upside down, danced in the rain, or taught a parrot to say ‘I love pizza.'”
• Quotation: “As Mark Twain once said, ‘The secret of getting ahead is getting started.’ That’s a philosophy I’ve embraced in every aspect of my life.”
• Humorous Statement: “I’m a self-proclaimed ‘professional chocolate tester’ – a title that’s not only delicious but also requires extreme dedication.”
• Start with your Mission Statement : “My life motto is simple but powerful: be the person who decided to go for it.
• Fact or Statistic: “According to a study, people who speak more than one language tend to be better at multitasking . As a polyglot, I certainly live up to that statistic.”
• Comparison or Metaphor: “If my life were a book, it would be a blend of an adventurous novel, a suspense thriller, and a pinch of romantic comedy.”
• Personal Revelation: “Ever since I was a child, I’ve had an uncanny ability to communicate with animals. It’s an unusual skill, but one that has shaped my life in many ways.”
• Narrative: “The day everything changed for me was an ordinary Tuesday. Little did I know, a single conversation would lead me to discover my true passion.”

2. For a Reflective Essay

A reflective essay often explores personal experiences, feelings, and thoughts. So, your hooks for reflective essays can usually be more personal, intriguing, and engaging than other types of essays. Here are some examples for inspiration:

• Question: “Have you ever felt as though a single moment could change your entire life? This essay is going to explore that moment for me.”
• Anecdote: “I was standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, looking at the vast emptiness, and for the first time, I truly understood the word ‘perspective’.”
• Bold Statement: “There is a part of me that is still trapped in that room, on that rainy afternoon, holding the letter that would change everything.”
• Personal Revelation: “The first time I truly felt a sense of belonging wasn’t in a crowded room full of friends, but in the quiet solitude of a forest.”
• Intriguing Statement: “In my life, silence has been a teacher more profound than any words could ever be.”
• Quotation: “Einstein once said, ‘The only source of knowledge is experience.’ Now, looking back, I realize how profound that statement truly is.”
• Comparison or Metaphor: “If my life is a tapestry, then that summer was the vibrant thread that changed the entire pattern.”
• Narrative: “As the train pulled out of the station, I realized I wasn’t just leaving my hometown, I was leaving my old self behind.”
• Philosophical Statement: “In the theater of life, we are both the actor and the audience, playing our part and watching ourselves simultaneously.”
• Emotive Statement: “There is a sort of sweet sorrow in remembering, a joy tinged with a hint of sadness, like the last notes of a beautiful song.”

For an Argumentative Essay

Essay hooks for argumentative essays are often the hardest. This type of essay tends to require the most formal type of academic writing, meaning your hook shouldn’t use first person, and should be more based on fact and objectivity, often at the expense of creativity. Here are some examples.

• Quotation: “Thomas Jefferson once said, ‘Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.’ If Jefferson were alive today, he would likely feel that this meed for a well-informed citizenry is falling well short of where he would aspire.”
• Provocative Statement: “Despite what romantic films may portray, love at first sight is merely a myth perpetuated by society. This essay will prosecute the argument that love at first sight is a myth.”
• Statistical Fact: “According to the World Health Organization, depression is the leading psychological disability worldwide. Yet, mental health is still stigmatized and often overlooked. This essay will argue that depression should be seen as a health issue, and stigmatization of depression causes serious harm to society.”
• Comparison: “Much like an unchecked infection, climate change, if left ignored, can spread far beyond what it is today, causing long-term economic and social problems that may even threaten the longevity of humanity itself.”
• Contradiction : “While we live in an era of unprecedented technological advancements, millions around the world are still denied basic internet access.”
• Bold Declaration: “Animal testing is not only ethically unacceptable, but it also undermines the progress of medical research.”
• Challenging Belief: “Despite popular belief, the automation of jobs is not a threat but an opportunity for society to evolve.”
• Quotation: “George Orwell wrote in ‘1984’, ‘Big Brother is Watching You.’ In our modern society, with the advancement of technology, this is becoming more of a reality than fiction.”
• Intriguing Statement: “Despite countless diet fads and fitness trends, obesity rates continue to rise. This argumentative essay will argue that this is because medical practitioners’ approaches to health and weight loss are fundamentally flawed.”
• Statistical Fact: “Research reveals that over 90% of the world’s plastic waste is not recycled. This alarming figure calls for a drastic change in social attitudes towards consumption and waste management.”
• Challenging Assumption: “Society often assumes that progress and growth are intrinsically good, but this is not always the case in the realm of economic development.”
• Contradiction: “Western society upholds the value of freedom, yet every day, members of society cede personal liberties in the name of convenience and security.”
• Analogy: “Like an overplayed song, when a news story is repeated too often, it loses its impact. In the era of digital media, society is becoming desensitized to critical issues.”
• Relevant Anecdote: “In a village in India, the arrival of a single computer transformed the lives of the residents. This small anecdote underscores the importance of digital inclusion in today’s world.”
• Call to Rethink: “In a world where success is often equated with financial wealth, it is time for society to reconsidered what truly constitutes a successful life.”

For a Compare and Contrast Essay

A compare and contrast essay examines two issues, looking at both the similarities and differences between them. A good hook for a compare and contrast essay will immediately signal to the reader the subjects that are being compared and why they’re being compared. Here are sine ideas for hooks for a compare and contrast essay:

• Quotation: “As Charles Dickens wrote in his novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’. This could equally apply to the contrasting dynamics of urban and rural living.”
• Provocative Statement: “Despite popular belief, cats and dogs have more in common than society tends to think.”
• Comparison: “Comparing being an only child to growing up with siblings is like contrasting a solo performance with an orchestral symphony.”
• Contradiction: “While many view classic literature and contemporary fiction as worlds apart, they are more akin to two sides of the same coin.”
• Bold Declaration: “Android and iPhone may compete in the same market, but their philosophies could not be more different.”
• Statistical Fact: “Statistics show that children who grow up reading books tend to perform better academically than those who do not. But, the jury is out on how reading traditional books compares to reading e-books on screens.”
• Quotation: “As Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, ‘Sooner or later, we all sit down to a banquet of consequences.’ This statement can be used to frame a comparison between short-term and long-term thinking.”
• Provocative Statement: “Democracy and dictatorship are often seen as polar opposites, but are they are not as different as they seem.”
• Comparison: “Climate change and plastic pollution are two major environmental issues, yet they demand different approaches and solutions.”
• Contradiction: “While traditional classrooms and online learning are seen as separate modes of education, they can often blend into a cohesive learning experience.”
• Bold Declaration: “Though both based on merit, the structures of capitalism and socialism lead to vastly different societal outcomes.”
• Imagery: “The painting styles of Van Gogh and Monet can be contrasted as a stormy sea versus a tranquil pond.”
• Historical Reference: “The philosophies of the Cold War-era – capitalism and communism – provide a lens to contrast economic systems.”
• Literary Comparison: “The dystopian societies portrayed in George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ serve as contrasting visions of the future.”
• Philosophical Question: “Individualism and collectivism shape societies in distinct ways, but neither one can truly exist without the other.”

See Here for my Guide on Writing a Compare and Contrast Essay

For a Psychology Essay

Writing an engaging hook for a psychology essay involves sparking the reader’s interest in the human mind, behavior, or the specific psychology topic you’re discussing. Here are some stimulating hooks for a psychology essay:

• Rhetorical Question: “How much control do we truly have over our own actions?”
• Quotation: “Sigmund Freud once said, ‘Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.’ This essay will explore whether this is universally true.”
• Provocative Statement: “Contrary to popular belief, ‘venting out’ anger might actually be fueling the fire of fury.”
• Comparison: “Just as an iceberg reveals only a fraction of its bulk above water, conscious minds may only be a small piece of who humans truly are.”
• Contradiction: “While it may seem counterintuitive, studies show that individuals who are more intelligent are also more likely to suffer from mental health issues.”
• Bold Declaration: “Despite advances in technology, understanding the human brain remains one of the final frontiers in science.”
• Statistical Fact: “According to a study by the American Psychological Association, nearly one in five adults in the U.S. lives with a mental illness. Yet, mental health continues to be a topic shrouded in stigma.”

For a Sociology Essay

Writing an engaging hook for a sociology essay involves sparking the reader’s interest in social behaviors, cultural phenomena, or the specific sociology topic you’re discussing. Here are ideas for hooks for a sociology essay:

• Quotation: “As Karl Marx once noted, ‘Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex.’ Sadly, society has not made much progress in gender equality.”
• Provocative Statement: “Social media, initially created to connect people, is ironically leading society into an era of unprecedented isolation.”
• Comparison: “Comparing society to a theater, where each individual plays a role, it is possible to start to see patterns and scripts embedded in daily interactions.”
• Contradiction: “While people often believe that technology is bringing society closer together, evidence suggests that it’s actually driving a wedge between people, creating ‘digital divides’.”
• Bold Declaration: “Human societies are constructed on deeply ingrained systems of inequality, often invisible to those benefiting from them.”
• Statistical Fact: “A recent study found that women still earn only 81 cents for every dollar earned by men. This stark wage gap raises questions about equality in the workforce.”

For a College Application Essay

A college essay is a personal statement where you can showcase who you are beyond your grades and resume. It’s your chance to tell your unique story. Here are ten potential hooks for a college essay:

• Anecdote: “At the age of seven, with a wooden spoon as my baton, I confidently conducted an orchestra of pots and pans in my grandmother’s kitchen.”
• Provocative Statement: “I believe that life is like a game of chess. The king might be the most important piece, but it’s the pawns that can change the entire course of the game.”
• Personal Revelation: “It wasn’t until I was lost in a foreign city, armed with nothing but a map in a language I didn’t understand, that I truly discovered my love for adventure.”
• Intriguing Question: “Have you ever wondered how it feels to be part of two completely different cultures, yet wholly belong to neither?”
• Bold Declaration: “Breaking a bone can be a painful experience. Breaking stereotypes, however, is an entirely different kind of challenge.”
• Unusual Fact: “I can recite the periodic table backwards while juggling three tennis balls. It’s a strange talent, but it’s a perfect metaphor for how I tackle challenges.”
• Quotation: “As Albert Einstein once said, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ This quote has defined my approach to learning.”
• Narrative: “It was a cold winter’s day when I first discovered the magic of turning a blank page into a world full of characters, stories, and ideas.”
• Metaphor: “Like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, my high school years have been a period of profound metamorphosis.”
• Humorous Statement: “Being the youngest of five siblings, I quickly learned that the best way to be heard was to become the family’s unofficial lawyer.”

Conclusion: The Qualities of a Good Essay Hook

As I wrap up this article, I want to share a few last tips on qualities that a good essay hook should have. Keep these tips in mind when writing your essay hook and using the above essay hook examples:

First, relevance . A good hook should be directly relevant to the topic or theme of your essay. The hook should provide a preview of what’s to come without giving too much away.

Second, Intrigue. A great hook should make the reader want to continue reading. It should create a question in the reader’s mind or present a fascinating idea that they want to know more about.

Third, uniqueness. An effective hook should be original and unique. It should stand out from the many other essays that the reader might be going through.

Fourth, clarity. Even though a hook should be captivating and original, it should also be clear and easy to understand. Avoid complex sentences and jargon that might confuse the reader.

Fifth, genre conventions. Too often, my students try to be so creative in their essay hooks that they forget genre conventions . The more formal an essay, the harder it is to write the hook. My general approach is to focus on statistics and facts, and avoid rhetorical questions , with more formal essay hooks.

Keep in mind that you should run your essay hook by your teacher by showing them your first draft before you submit your essay for grading. This will help you to make sure it follows genre conventions and is well-written.

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 5 Top Tips for Succeeding at University
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 50 Durable Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 100 Consumer Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 30 Globalization Pros and Cons

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

How To Fight Book Bans and Challenges: An Anti-Censorship Tool Kit

Kelly Jensen

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen .

View All posts by Kelly Jensen

Book challenges aren’t new, and neither is the “celebration” of banned books which occurs for a week at the end of September each year. The annual event began in 1982 as a response to a “sudden surge” of book challenges in schools and libraries, and one of the most well-known outcomes of Banned Books Week is the release of the prior year’s “most challenged” books. These titles emerge from the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, who compile the media reports and librarian/teacher submissions of challenged books. The list makes a splash, most notably in recent years for how clear it is that queer books and books by authors of color, as well as books about sexual health, are under fire.

But when Banned Books Week ends, so often, too, does the energy of highlighting book challenges and censorship . In too many cases, the “celebration” leans heavily into talking about the books in specifics — a particular title was challenged or removed from a classroom because of a specific reason, which is then repackaged in media stories to make it sound as though the people behind these challenges are a minority, oddballs, conspiracy theorists, or simply the kind of people who are afraid their children might be exposed to queer or Black characters.

This is an oversimplification. The lack of nuance only furthers the real threats to intellectual freedom.

Censorship happens when a group or organization works to suppress speech, books, movies, and other materials . This is too often the sole focus on events like Banned Books Week, and the attention gets turned onto the censors and their agenda, as opposed to the real freedom under attack. That attention then further fuels their fire and provides the spark for more fires to ignite, as that attention is a commodity these groups crave. It is in no way about fear of their children learning about groups different than them. It’s about white supremacy. It’s about power. Calling it anything less than that diminishes the responsibility there is on gatekeepers to uphold intellectual freedom and the First Amendment.

Censorship also happens, though, when materials never get the opportunity to be included in a collection. This quiet or silent censorship is insidious and dangerous, and it emerges in two distinct ways. The first is when a librarian or educator purposefully doesn’t include material in their collections because it counters their own beliefs. The second is when those gatekeepers elect not to purchase or promote materials because of the fear they may be challenged. A book that may be an essential addition to shelves never gets purchased because the person in charge of making said purchase bows to fear or intimidation or the possibility of either.

This censorship is not recorded.

Since 2004, over one quarter of U.S. newspapers have disappeared. Many citizens may not see the problem with this as digital media has filled in many of the gaps. But digital media is not the same as local media, and for communities without local newspapers, this means communities are also left without an unbiased resource for understanding what’s going on in their backyard.

Newspapers are watchdogs, historically serving as a check-and-balance to civil organizations . Reporters showed up to board meetings across their communities and reported on the happenings. In most cases, this isn’t especially noteworthy work; it’s a beat. But those beat reporters give community members all of the information they may need before casting a ballot, before showing up to speak out against new town proposals, before showing up to a school board meeting, and so forth. Local journalists know the town they’re covering, usually because they live there or are deeply embedded within the community.

With diminishing local news outlets comes the disappearance of local reporting. No longer is someone sitting at every board meeting to report on what’s happening; no longer is there that check-and-balance system to report the conversations happening both by elected and appointed officials and those within the community who show up.

It isn’t until there’s a particularly salacious local story — think pink dildos or an unhinged rant about anal sex — or until a group shouts loud enough — think high school students protesting — that it makes any sort of news. Then, it might hit local news. In the linked pieces, the stories were juicy enough to make major outlets, seeing the opportunity for the click-outrage-share cycle. It is not that the writers don’t care about these issues. Most of them are deeply disturbed. But, until the story can pay for its space by means of clicks, it isn’t worthy.

It’s white supremacy and power which drive those click-y stories. Those stories then repeat themselves in other communities.

The click economy is a major factor in the decline of local journalism , and it’s also why you don’t hear about the tremendous number of censorship stories happening on the local level every single day across America. Where there were once reporters or citizens sitting at civic meetings to see and share what’s happening, now those seats are empty and the stories go unheard.

That doesn’t mean those in the community don’t know what’s going on. Indeed, when it comes to librarians and teachers, it’s likely they know not only what’s going on, but also the rumors about what’s happening. They’re aware of groups showing up to school or library board meetings to challenge policies or curriculum or collections. They’re hearing about what those groups plan to continue to do to pursue their agenda. They may be hearing from individuals dogging board members to bow to pressure to remove a title from a library shelf.

Without support — and indeed, the local media is a tool of support in communities, particularly in their roles as watchdogs — it’s impossible to overstate how easy gatekeepers can fold to that pressure. They may or may not have supportive administration, but in either case, knowing a choice you make for your community may put your job in jeopardy can and does too easily mean that choice simply isn’t made.

Celebrating banned books ignores the vital need to protect intellectual freedom. It fails to account for the very real humans whose livelihoods are at stake for doing what’s right. Instead, it further serves white supremacy and power, centering the voices of outrage, rather than those whose voices have been forgotten, ignored, or suppressed completely.

Take, for example, what’s happened and continues to be happening in Irving, Texas. A far-right Christian group formally challenged the book Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by Lev Rosen this summer. Formally is important here. Norman and her compatriots have been showing up to school and city board meetings for nearly two years to challenge queer materials in Irving Public Library.

No local media covered the summer formal challenge, despite the fact that Irving is a large suburb in the Dallas metroplex.

Jack of Hearts went through the library’s challenge process and remains on shelves in the public library. This is thanks to a supportive city council, as well as a strong leadership team at the library who not only believe in the power of queer books like this, but who fiercely defend the right for all of their citizens to have access to as wide a range of materials as possible.

What hasn’t been reported, though, is that Norman and her group continue to show up to city council meetings . Each of the meetings where they come is a parade of more and more unhinged comments from “concerned citizens,” demanding the council do something about the books in the library.

It also hasn’t been reported that Jack of Hearts is not available in the Irving Independent School District.

Norman is an employee in the district.

It’s unknown whether the book was available in the school libraries prior to the litany of complaints. But certainly, school libraries operate differently than public libraries in so much that they do serve in loco parentis. Where public libraries put the onus on parents to monitor what their children consume — as they should — school libraries have more responsibility for maintaining appropriate collections for the students they serve.

Jack of Hearts is for readers 14 and up, with a range of positive book reviews from trusted sources. The book is appropriate for the school library, with supporting evidence, but it was either pulled or never given the chance to be on shelves at all. With groups like the one pressuring the public library, it’s hard to blame a school library for not wanting to fight that battle, despite the fact that is the job.

Without local media on this beat, the story disappears from public view. Out of sight, out of mind.

But the challengers remain.

It’s a privilege to consider book bans a thing of the past or a thing that doesn’t impact readers. It is easy to believe getting a book is as simple as a one-click at an online retailer. But it’s not — and that mentality in and of itself is a product of white supremacist thinking. Book challenges and bans harm the most vulnerable in communities who don’t have access to finances, time, or transportation to acquire a book no longer available to them in the places where they are: classrooms or libraries.

It’s also a privilege to suggest book bans are great for authors and book sales. Sales increase for some authors, sure. But for the bulk of authors who experience book bans, there’s no noticeable difference in sales because often, they don’t even know a book has been challenged or pulled from shelves. No author writes with the hopes of gaining notoriety or sales by a book being inaccessible to its intended readership. They write to reach those readers.

What gets forgotten in discussions of censorship, too, is the incredible power of the public library. No other American institution is tasked with unequivocally protecting the First Amendment and intellectual freedom specifically. This isn’t a politically negotiable assertion. Libraries are founded on and protect these liberties and need to continue to do so. It’s not about banned books. It’s about the rights imparted to American citizens as outlined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

So what can be done to push back against book challenges and bans? Without structures like local journalism to stay on the beat, how does the average citizen or average librarian, school librarian, or administrator stay abreast and work to ensure intellectual freedom remains a fundamental right? There are several potent tools and methods to engage with, whether you’re able to dedicate a few minutes to the cause or lend hours of time to do the work. These lists are split up for citizens and for those inside libraries, but know that these are not mutually exclusive lists.

Methods and Tools for Combatting Censorship in Your Community

For citizens.

Begin first by keeping your local school board, library board, and city council’s information handy. Where and when do they regularly meet? Where can you find the minutes from previous meetings? Know where to find agendas, as well as board packets — those packets may be made freely on the appropriate government website or you may need to put in a Freedom of Information Request for them (this is your right). Keep the phone numbers and email addresses of each member of the representing boards accessible and updated. Many of these boards record their meetings, so bookmark those livestreams or archives.

All of these paper trails are resources granted to you by federal and local laws. Utilize them to know what’s going on where you live.

Keep up with your local newspaper if you have one. If you don’t have one, learn who covers your community for regional papers or national bureaus. Even mainstream, major outlets like Business Insider or Propublica have reporters assigned to different regions of the country. The problem is, of course, they’re covering a large region, rather than a single community or county. These reporters are, however, always seeking the stories that matter, so utilize them as resources.

• Vote . Yes, it’s as simple and straightforward as this to get started. Local elections matter, and in many places, library boards and school boards are elected positions. Know who is on the ballot and ask them questions at open forums or via their social media and websites. Ask them where they stand on censorship and the rights of a community to access the information they desire. The Niles Public Library serves as a stark reminder of what happens when turnout for local elections is minimal — the minority’s voice is heard loudest.
• Serve on a Board . If you have the time, serve on your local school, library, or city council/board. For appointed positions, apply; for elected positions, run. Every civil body operates differently, so get to know how these positions work, how often you’re expected to attend meetings, and what your role may be in the broader community.
• Show Up to Meetings. Open comments from the public are given space at civic meetings. Typically, this is time at the start of a meeting, and often, there’s a time limit on open comment. It varies community to community and board to board. This is crucial because people who have a problem are the ones who always show up. People who are happy or unaware of how things are going do not show up. Your comments do not need to be scripted or deep. Simply taking ten minutes of your evening to show up and tell the council you’re happy with how the library has such a great collection or that the children’s programming in the school library has been appreciated is doing the work. Those comments not only remind gatekeepers of the power of their job, but those boards hear and see that, too.
• Write Letters. Can’t show up to meetings? That’s fine — email your city council, email your library’s administration, and email the school librarian. Tell them you love what they’re doing and why. These letters matter, and even if your letter is handed to the library worker shelving books because you don’t know who best to direct it to, the letter will show up in board packets and reports, as proof of the vitality of the organization and how it serves its community.
• Talk to the Newspaper. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you have local newspapers. Utilize them. Write letters to the editor — which are often capped at 300 or so words — extolling the virtues of the library. Name names, name book titles, name programs. Again: the majority of voices on those letters to the editor page are unhappy people. They rarely are people who are happy. Add a voice of praise and do it often. It’s a simple as setting a quarterly or monthly alert to spend five minutes brainstorming praise, writing it, and sending it through the paper’s submissions, often right on their digital editions.
• Correct Misinformation. Taking into account the above, speak out and write in when misinformation about your library, its materials, or its actions are shared. In Irving, one of the angles of challenge for queer books was that the YA section was nothing but LGBTQ+ sex books and there were no books about other topics in the library. This was patently untrue: the library had books on every topic claimed to be lacking and the YA section is packed with books on every topic imaginable, for readers of all age levels and tastes. This misinformation is what many will latch on to and use as a means of denigrating the library and its work, then it is wielded to fit the white supremacist agenda.
• Familiarize Yourself With a Library’s Collection Development Policy. All public libraries and most, if not all, school libraries have collection development policies. Often, they’re available on their websites. These policies govern how and why materials are acquired for a collection. Keep these handy and be familiar with them, as these are tools helpful for combatting censorship — and encourage your libraries to make these policies accessible online, as well as regularly updated. If there’s something amiss in the policy, ask questions.
• Submit Materials Requests. Most public libraries allow users to submit titles for the collection. Let your library know you want books by authors of color and queer authors. Your request can be as simple as the name and title or as in-depth as name and title, as well as why the book should be in the collection (and you can absolutely include reviews, if you want). Submitting requests makes it clear to purchasers these materials are desired and allows a paper trail to exist as evidence of this community need.
• Ask Why Items Are Not Purchased. Is there a book you’ve requested or have seen in other libraries that is absent in yours? Ask why. There might be a legitimate reason for this — budget constraints, for example, limit how many books can be purchased in a fiscal year — but the act of questioning may be the wakeup call a staff member needs to pause and reflect on their own biases and fears. Again: public libraries are tasked with protecting intellectual freedom. You’ve got a right to ask why those freedoms aren’t always exercised within the institution.
• Report Hate Groups. Contact local media and local authorities about hate groups when they emerge. These groups work to target policies they don’t like with the goal of maintaining white supremacy. Call them out on social media, then follow it up with evidence of hateful actions where you can. This is standing up in support of libraries, of intellectual freedom, and of the First Amendment.
• Stay Alert. Distraction is harmful. Too often, we forget about a problem or an issue when it feels like it’s been resolved. The fact is, protecting Intellectual Freedom is every day work. It doesn’t end, and it doesn’t magically resolve itself. Keep alert, keep fighting, and keep finding more allies for the cause in your community. Show up together.
• Donate Money. Have some money you can donate to the library? Do it. Go through their Friends group or Foundation, if they have one, or simply ask if they have a donation spot on their website where you can leave some money. Even a few dollars will be stretched and put to tremendous use.

Do not take for granted the freedoms given to you. The fact is, those working to actively censor material are working to take them away. We’re living through historical times and they mirror previous generations of “historical times”: white supremacists are working to limit access and control the information made available to citizens. They’re denying the existence of people of color and queer people by working to remove these materials. Public libraries have and will continue to do great work with building necessary collections representing a diversity of viewpoints, upholding their roles in the country. But those who seek power and control don’t want that to be the case, and in too many cases, libraries back down in order to not cause a stir (in and of itself an issue with the stereotypes and impressions of who works in a library made more damaging with the loss of local media to prove otherwise).

For Gatekeepers (Educators, Librarians, Administrators)

Libraries have incredible responsibility, as do teachers, though the regulations within the classroom are far more politically limiting than in public libraries. The bulk of people working in these institutions are doing their best, and they’re doing so with little support vocalized from the community, compared to the criticism.

Remember your purpose as a radical institution devoted to upholding the fundamental rights of citizens. You are the bastion of intellectual freedom. It doesn’t matter what that looks like — children’s puppet story times, crime lover book clubs, ditching late fees, whatever — these are all part and parcel of what makes the library the institution that it is. It is a third space where anyone can exist without any purpose. The library is the purpose.

In addition to all of the above items, some specific tools for gatekeepers to combat censorship include:

• Have a Formal Review Process . Update or rework your current materials review process and align it with your purpose as an institution of intellectual freedom. Explain where and how items are added to the collection, as well as how items recommended by citizens are included. Put this on your website and make it readily accessible, right alongside your forms for formal material complaints and forms for suggesting materials.
• Market Those Materials. Put it on your front doors that the library is an institution of intellectual freedom. Promote that you have these policies. Book displays are part of the work of a library, as are reader’s advisory guides. So, too, should be your marketing of what it is you truly do in the library.
• Consider Ditching Celebrations of Banned Books Week . Rebrand the concept as Intellectual Freedom Week or a week dedicated to protecting the First Amendment. Get rid of the week-long festival all together and focus instead on working these issues into everyday discourse as Intellectual Freedom or, to put an even finer point on it, upholding the First Amendment rights guaranteed to all U.S. citizens. By highlighting banned or challenged books, you give more attention to those who want to uphold white supremacist ideals, even if the intention is to showcase the books. Just put the books on displays all year long. Make those displays when it’s unexpected and give it a non–Banned Books theme. Get all of this in front of your citizens all the time, rather than the one time it’s seen as the “right” time.
• Befriend the Media. Talk to your local news. Talk to regional news. Talk to national news. Get beyond talking with library-specific organizations — they don’t need to be convinced about libraries or intellectual freedom (even if they do need to be convinced to change the language they’re using). These outlets are your supporters and your allies in defending the First Amendment.
• Recognize Your Staff in Meaningful Ways. Remind them you’re supportive of them because they’re professionals hired for their skills, talent, and intellect to do their jobs. Kudos do good, but raise those kudos to the level of your library board, as well as city council. Then make spaces where staff feel they can go when necessary. Do they need a few therapy sessions when dealing with a community book challenge? Do what you can to provide that. Do they need flex time or the ability to do some of their work from a non-library space? Make it happen. And don’t just make these things happen. Talk about why these decisions are made so that everyone understands that these accommodations are necessary to do the tremendous job of upholding intellectual freedom.
• Ask Questions and Be Open to Questions. Know why books aren’t being purchased. Be prepared to be asked about the books which are purchased. It should be an expectation of those in charge of working in places of intellectual pursuit to expect engagement on their choices and likewise, feel supported — or challenged! — on them.

Don’t fall asleep. It’s easy to become complicit, especially during busy seasons. But it’s during these times those who wish to dismantle public institutions gain ground, recruit members with their ideologies and propaganda, and act as a group or individuals to tear things apart.

Constant vigilance is exhausting, but if freedom of information and access to ideas is foundational to you, the work is essential.

Also In This Story Stream

• How to Fight Book Bans in 2024: Book Censorship News, April 26, 2024
• Google Is Destroying Your Access to News: Book Censorship News, April 19, 2024
• What Young People Can Do About Book Bans: Book Censorship News, April 12, 2024
• Sexual Assault Awareness Month & Book Banning: Book Censorship News, April 5, 2024
• How Public Libraries Are Targeted Right Now—It’s Not “Just” Books: Book Censorship News, March 29, 2024
• The 2024 Lambda Literary Awards Shortlists Are Here
• You’re Wrong About These Common Myths About Book Ban: Book Censorship News, March 22, 2024
• State Anti-Book Ban Legislation Updates: Book Censorship News, March 15, 2024
• They’re Dismantling Higher Education, Too: Book Censorship News, March 8, 2024
• The Landmine of Common Sense Media: Book Censorship News, March 1, 2024

You Might Also Like

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

How to beat a book ban: students, parents and librarians fight back

As rightwing campaigns for censorship sweep the US, opponents are finding ways to keep books on the shelves

The censorship of books in the US has reached crisis level.

More than 2,500 different book bans were enacted in schools across 32 US states during the 2021-2022 school year, according to a new report by Pen America. And attempts to ban books from libraries are on track to exceed 2021’s already record-setting figures, the American Library Association said on Friday.

But still, there is cause for hope.

Across the country, parents, students, teachers, librarians and community groups have successfully fought back against attempted bans, defeating well-funded, rightwing attempts to remove books that address issues of race, sexuality and gender.

Their experiences provide a model for others who may want to stand up and defend free speech, racial equity and the rights of gay and trans youth.

Martha Hickson: ‘Let readers be leaders’

Martha Hickson, a librarian at North Hunterdon high school in Annandale, New Jersey, was watching her district’s school board meeting from home in September 2021 when she found herself dragged into the center of a battle over book banning.

A small but vocal group of parents had attended the meeting to demand the board remove several books that address LGBTQ+ experiences, including Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, from school libraries. Then one particularly emotional speaker called Hickson out by name.

“She described me as a pedophile, a pornographer, and a groomer of children,” Hickson said.

“I was absolutely stunned. My heart was beating out of my chest, I was queasy, I didn’t know what to do. I was just beside myself.”

But once Hickson “regained her composure”, she realized she did know what to do. In 2019, she had been part of an effort to restore the book Fun Home, a memoir by Alison Bechdel that addresses, among other things, sexual orientation, to schools in her district. “We’d been laying low since then, because things were fine. But I still had all that contact information. So I reactivated that network,” she said.

While the board meeting was still taking place, Hickson got out her phone and got to work. She contacted people who had taken on the Fun Home ban, as well as organizations including the American Library Association , the National Coalition against Censorship , and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund . She also reached out to the Genders & Sexualities Alliances at both high schools in her district. These student-led groups provide a safe space for students to build communities and speak out against injustice.

At the next school board meeting, in October , about 400 people, all opposed to the bans, turned up.

“The most compelling speakers were the kids,” Hickson said. “My motto right now is ‘let readers be leaders’, because these kids did an amazing job of standing there, withstanding the taunts and jeers of the people on the other side.

“They were models for public discourse. They were just excellent.”

As the fight dragged on, Hickson faced a torrent of hate mail, precipitating what she described as a “breakdown”. Opponents of the book bans came out in force again at the November school board meeting, and by the new year a school board advisory committee announced its decision: four of the targeted books would be allowed to remain in libraries, but one – This Book is Gay, by Juno Dawson – was to be removed.

A nonfiction book tackling issues of sexuality and gender for a young adult audience, This Book is Gay was one of the 10 most frequently challenged titles in the US in 2021.

“I just have so much admiration for the kids who pick that book off the shelf, walk through a library full of other teenagers, and come up to the circulation desk, to me, this 62-year-old woman, who they probably don’t know very well, some might not know me at all,” Hickson said, noting that the book’s cover illustration is a pride flag.

“Every time a kid hands you a book that they’ve chosen to read, they’re handing you a little insight into themselves. I admire the backbone that it takes for a 14, 15, 16-year-old to hand you This Book is Gay.”

Hickson and the anti-censorship groups weren’t about to settle, and they demanded that the book be reinstated.

At the January school board meeting, opponents of the book ban again flocked in. One student read out a letter from David Levithan, a New Jersey-born author whose young adult novels include Two Boys Kissing and Boy Meets Boy. Levithan argued that This Book is Gay should be reinstated, and 55 others put in requests to speak.

The board listened, and the book was retained.

“I fell apart crying,” Hickson said. “I was so relieved and so happy and so grateful for all the support from the community. I’m so, so proud of my students, both current and past.”

It reinforced Hickson’s belief in the importance of books in helping children understand themselves and their place in the world.

“For somebody to come and try to snag [This Book is Gay] or any of the other four books on LGBTQ topics, I think is a tremendous insult to those kids, to their relationship with the library, and to their relationship with the community. All of our kids deserve to see themselves represented in the library books.”

Keiawnna Pitts and Natosha Daniels: ‘You’re going to need to band together’

At the Round Rock school district, near Austin, Texas, it was a teacher who initially sounded the alarm.

A small group of people had complained to the school board about the presence of Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You – a history of racism in the US by the Black authors Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi – on the school curriculum, and there was a risk it could be removed.

The teacher had started a petition to keep Stamped, and Keiawnna Pitts, Natosha Daniels, and the other parents of Round Rock Black Parents Association quickly got involved. For them, the removal of a book that tells of the Black experience in the US fit into a wider pattern of discrimination in the district – one which they had battled before.

Round Rock has a diverse population, with white students making up just over a third of the student body, alongside Latino, Asian American and African American students. But Black students were more likely to be disciplined, including suspended, than white students, according to data released by the school district in 2019. Black students made up 25% of those who received in-school suspensions, despite comprising only 8% of the student population.

Pitts and others had previously organized and campaigned on that issue, so when the attempts to ban Stamped began, an existing coalition was called into action.

“We immediately were able to activate our network and say: ‘Hey y’all, this is what’s happening,’” Pitts said. “And because of putting in groundwork, of building relationships in our community – and because other people know that this is not right, this is not something that should be happening in 2022 – everyone rallied together.”

The parents who were lobbying loudly for Stamped to be removed were white, according to Pitts, who saw in the attempted ban an attempt to strip Black children of the chance to see themselves reflected in their studies.

“I felt as if they were trying to ban the existence of Black children and Black people. Because my kids seek out these books where they can see themselves in the material they were reading,” Pitts said.

One of Pitts’s children, with a friend, started their own book club, Pitts said, “because they wanted to read books about characters who look like them.

“So for me it was a direct blow to my existence and my children’s existence,” she said. “That was when I realized I had everything in my power to support the work this teacher had started.”

Members of Round Rock Black Parents Association showed up at board meetings, along with students and other community members, Potts said. They forced the issue to the school board, which ultimately voted against removing Stamped.

“I was so proud of our youth,” Pitts said. “Because that took a lot of courage, to get up and say: ‘This is not OK.’”

Daniels was proud too, but she found it difficult to celebrate.

“I don’t think I felt relief, because I was just waiting for what’s next,” Daniels said. “White families do not comprise the majority of this district, yet their interests are always held at the center. So yes, when that book ban was struck down, I felt like this was a victory we can celebrate for now but they’re still over here planning for more.”

The saga, along with the treatment of Black students, so disheartened Daniels that she and her husband began looking at other places to live, researching potential moves to Costa Rica, Mexico or Canada. That changed, Daniels said, after a conversation she had with her daughter’s grandmother.

“I was telling her what I was thinking, and how it’s just so stressful living here, and she said: ‘You know, my grandmother picked cotton on this land.’ She said: ‘I’m not going anywhere, I deserve to be here, and they owe me. They owe me more than what they’re giving me.’ And it kind of reframed the fight.”

At least when the next challenge comes, the Round Rock Black Parents Association will be ready. The organization is becoming increasingly influential and has partnered with other non-profits and groups in the area to advocate for increased equity.

“Now is the time to start building those communities and building those networks, because this is not isolated, it is happening across the United States,” she said.

“You’re going to need to band together to fight what is coming down.”

Christine Kron: ‘Find students and teachers who can help’

In Milford, Ohio, it was In the Time of Butterflies that caught the attention of would-be book banners. The critically acclaimed novel, by Julia Alvarez, tells the story of four sisters in the Dominican Republic and their opposition to the country’s dictatorship.

“Our 10th-graders are being forced to read this pornography in school,” one wrote on Facebook, in a post which had cherry-picked certain sentences from In the Time of Butterflies.

“I am disgusted beyond words,” the parent continued. “There are more perverts out there than we would even imagine. And they are with our kids every day. Beware!!”

The book had been part of the curriculum since 2014, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported , and the school district already allowed parents to opt their children out of reading certain books, yet this group wanted In the Time of Butterflies removed from the entire curriculum.

Christine Kron, who has children in the second and fifth grades in the Milford Exempted Village school district , was among those who took notice.

“There’s a small group of us who have similar values, wants and needs for our kids and our community and our school district, and we kind of keep an eye on the neighborhood social media,” Kron said.

“As soon as we saw a few parents – literally two to three parents – complain about this 10th-grade book in the curriculum, our ears kind of perked up. We said: ‘This is probably going to become a thing, so let’s get ready to defend this.’”

Kron and others decided to take action. When the school board posted its agenda for that month, they assembled a group of parents and students and headed down to speak.

“Students have been reading this book for years,” Kron said. “So the students even said: ‘This book really affected me in a positive way, I don’t find it offensive.’ It was really great to hear student voices speak up.”

The board listened, and in May decided that the book would remain on the curriculum. It was a big win for the parents, but like others, Kron fears what might come up in the future.

“I think the book bans are done. I do not think it will come up again to that level in our district,” she said. “But you know, the battles are not over.”

Kron anticipates a fight over the rights of trans students, after certain parents began complaining that some teachers in Milford asked students for their preferred pronouns. “That’s our next battle: to make sure all the kids feel supported and welcomed and it’s an inclusive environment,” Kron said.

Kron said the most important thing parents facing book bans should know was not to try to tackle this alone.

“You have to find a little bit of a group, a community, that’s definitely key,” she said. “You can shoot ideas around, plan, organize. Find current students or even teachers who can help out.”

Parents in this situation should also learn about the processes and protocols of their school board meetings, she said, so they can confidently address their concerns to the board.

Beyond that, Kron said: “The key point is to get involved. Even if it’s just an email, if it’s baby steps. Use your voice, whether it’s an email or in person. Just get involved.”

This story was amended on 23 September 2022 to correct the spelling of Keiawnna Pitts’ last name.

• US education

Most viewed

Hot Topics: Book Banning

• Extending Your Research

Finding Scholarly Articles

Use our databases to find scholarly articles addressing censorship and book banning. To learn more about searching for and citing sources, visit our guide  Library Research 101: How to Get Started.

• Check the "scholarly" or "peer reviewed" box to get academic articles
• Change the sorting method so the newest articles appear first
• Try variations on these keywords: banned books, book banning, censorship, challenged books, prohibited books, and censorship in schools.
• Other Research Guides that could help you: Race Relations , Education , Domestic Terrorism , and  LGBTQ Studies .
• Education Full Text This link opens in a new window
• ERIC-Education (ProQuest)
• LGBTQ+ Source
• Library Information Science and Technology Abstracts
• Nexis Uni Features full text news, business, and legal sources, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790
• Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science)

Finding Books and Government Documents

Search the library catalog for books and government documents about banned books and censorship. In addition to the books that we've suggested on each page, there are many books in our collection that address the many subtopics and issues associated with banning books. 

The links below are subject searches in URSUS (the online catalog).  Change the "System Sorted" drop-down box to "Newest First" to find the most recent publication. Experiment with keywords, you never know what you might find.

If the book you want is not at Fogler Library, use the "Request" link to ask for it from another library - we'll quickly ship it here and you can check it out!

• Censorship -- History
• Censorship - Juvenile Literature
• Censorship -- United States -- History
• Challenged Books -- United States -- Bibliographies
• Freedom of Speech
• Libraries -- Censorship -- United States
• Public Libraries -- Censorship -- United States
• Textbooks -- Censorship -- United States

URSUS Catalog Search

• << Previous: Home
• Last Updated: Dec 22, 2023 12:10 PM
• URL: https://libguides.library.umaine.edu/bookbanning

5729 Fogler Library · University of Maine · Orono, ME 04469-5729 | (207) 581-1673

Election Updates: Biden says he is ‘happy to’ debate Trump, a notable shift.

• Share full article

Chris Cameron

Emerging from his felony criminal trial, weary and grimacing, former President Donald J. Trump gave a grim assessment of the economy. “As you know, the economy is falling apart now,” Trump said outside the Manhattan courthouse. “Now we’re seeing very little growth, it’s going to get worse.” Investors appeared to disagree, as the stock market climbed today for one of its best weeks of the year so far.

Michael Gold

Former President Donald J. Trump responded to President Biden saying he would be “happy to debate” by suggesting in a social media post that he’d be willing to debate tonight outside the Manhattan courthouse where Mr. Trump is on trial. Mr. Trump likely knows that is unlikely, given the logistics of debate planning, and he said earlier today he would return to Florida after court to celebrate his wife’s birthday.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

President Biden’s interview with Howard Stern continued the White House’s trend of limiting most interviews to a few celebrity hosts. It nonetheless showed a side of Biden rarely seen: the stuttering child in Delaware. The man who quit a law firm out of college to work as a public defender after the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The campaign clearly sees value in talking about Biden’s upbringing.

Jonathan Weisman

If, as expected, 7,300 United Automobile Workers walk off their truck- and bus-assembly lines tonight, labor politics will be injected into the swing state of North Carolina. Centrist Democrats who hope to hold on to the governorship and attorney general’s office with a pro-business gentility could clash with President Biden’s openly pro-labor tilt.

An overall inflation rate of 2.7 percent may be way down from the height of price increases, but it is still unwelcome news for President Biden. It could mean an anticipated political boost from a Fed interest rate cut at the peak of election season will not happen.

Jeremy W. Peters

President Biden’s choice to sit with Howard Stern is interesting as a play to reach a more working-class audience. Hillary Clinton told Mr. Stern in 2019 that she might have done better with those voters if she’d agreed to do his show in 2016.

Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump campaign adviser, responded to President Biden’s expressing a willingness to debate former President Donald J. Trump by saying in a social media post “let’s set it up !” Trump and his campaign have for months pressed Biden to agree to a debate, recently placing an empty lectern on stage at rallies to make a point.

Reid J. Epstein

Before Trump’s trial began in New York, he spoke at campaign rallies before signs that said he would debate Biden any place, any time.

President Biden suggested he will debate former President Donald J. Trump. “I am, somewhere, I don’t know when, but I am happy to debate him,” Biden told Howard Stern. His campaign has steadfastly refused to say that he will agree to a general election debate with Trump and remains angry that Trump, when he was Covid-positive, appeared at a debate in 2020.

Howard Stern asked President Biden why he has to be careful talking about the Supreme Court. “It’s a joke. Does it drive you crazy?” Mr. Stern said. “It’s a really extremely conservative court, maybe the most conservative in modern history,” Mr. Biden said.

President Biden, on Howard Stern’s show, once again told a story about being arrested at a Delaware desegregation protest as a teenager. There has never been any evidence that he ever was arrested at a civil rights protest.

Howard Stern asked President Biden about the period after his first wife, Neilia, and 13-month-old daughter died in a car crash in 1972. “You describe you were suicidal at that point,” Mr. Stern said. “You don’t need to be crazy to commit suicide,” Biden said. “I thought, ‘let me just go to the Delaware Memorial and jump.’” Biden later said he strongly encourages those experiencing mental health issues to seek therapy.

While talking about his younger days with Howard Stern, President Biden just mistakenly said “Trump” when he meant to say “Nixon.” Biden immediately corrects himself and says “excuse me for the Freudian slip.”

Howard Stern began his interview with President Biden in a way that might surprise longtime listeners. He asked not about any of the hot-button political topics of the day, but rather about flight regulations. Biden this week finalized a policy requiring airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like delayed flights. The White House hopes policies that are easy to understand and quickly felt will energize voters.

President Biden was asked about his stutter in this interview with Howard Stern , which has so far focused on his family. Biden has started talking about his stutter more often in recent years, and former President Donald J. Trump has been criticized for mocking him over the way he speaks .

Today is Melania Trump’s birthday, which the Trump National Committee, the shared account that fundraises for Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee, has been using as a hook in fund-raising emails to supporters all week. The former first lady remains popular among Trump’s supporters but has not been particularly visible on the campaign trail thus far.

At the fundraiser last night, President Biden also sought to link former President Donald J. Trump to the new abortion ban in Florida. “The voters are going to hold him accountable,” Biden said. “Trump and his MAGA crowd don’t have a clue about the power of women.”

As former President Donald J. Trump enters court today, President Biden and his campaign continue to make jokes over the former president’s legal situation. “I haven’t had a chance to watch the court proceedings because I’ve been campaigning,” Biden said last night at a fundraiser hosted by the actor Michael Douglas in Westchester County.

Reid J. Epstein ,  Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Jonathan Swan

Biden, asked if he’s planning to debate Trump, says ‘I am happy to.’

President Biden said on Friday that he would participate in a general-election debate with former President Donald J. Trump, a striking shift after months in which he and his campaign declined to commit to appearing onstage with his Republican rival.

Mr. Biden’s announcement, made in response to a question from the radio host Howard Stern, comes after pressure from television networks and Mr. Trump’s campaign for the president to agree to participate in debates.

When Mr. Stern asked Mr. Biden if he would debate Mr. Trump, the president replied: “I am, somewhere, I don’t know when, but I am happy to debate him.”

Mr. Biden’s remarks appeared to be off the cuff, rather than a planned announcement of a shift in his campaign’s strategy, according to a top Democratic official familiar with its thinking. The Biden campaign directed questions on Friday about whether its stance on debates had changed to Mr. Biden’s comments on the Stern program.

Mr. Trump, who was spending Friday in court in Manhattan during his criminal trial, responded hours later, writing on his social media site: “Crooked Joe Biden just announced that he’s willing to debate! Everyone knows he doesn’t really mean it, but in case he does, I say, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ANYPLACE, an old expression used by Fighters.”

Mr. Trump went on to propose debating as early as next week, or even “at the Courthouse tonight - on National Television, I’ll wait around!”

Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump debated twice in 2020, with Mr. Trump pulling out of a third debate because he refused to participate virtually after testing positive for the coronavirus. Ill will remains on the Biden side out of a widespread belief that Mr. Trump knowingly exposed Mr. Biden to the virus during the first debate, which the former president has denied.

This month, the five major TV news networks and The Associated Press wrote an unusual letter to the Biden and Trump campaigns urging them to debate. Some of Mr. Biden’s top aides and closest advisers have been longtime critics of the presidential debate system, which is organized by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

In November, the commission announced that three presidential debates would take place in San Marcos, Texas; Petersburg, Va.; and Salt Lake City. A vice-presidential debate is to be held in Easton, Pa.

This month, the Trump campaign sent a letter asking the debates commission to move its three planned debates earlier in the fall and to add more to the schedule.

Over the last month, Mr. Trump has tried to ratchet up the pressure on Mr. Biden to debate, with two of his top advisers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, strategizing on how best to do so.

At Mr. Trump’s recent rallies, he has goaded Mr. Biden over debates: Before the former president takes the stage, screens show an image of his Truth Social post claiming his willingness to debate Mr. Biden “anytime, anywhere, anyplace.”

A staff member then brings an empty lectern on the stage, with a sign bearing those three words. The lectern remains in place while Mr. Trump gives his campaign speech.

“See the podium?” Mr. Trump said at a rally this month in Schnecksville, Pa. “I’m calling on crooked Joe Biden to debate anytime, anywhere, any place.”

The Trump campaign has also issued other public challenges to Mr. Biden, saying in interviews, on social media and in printed campaign material that Mr. Trump would debate Mr. Biden anytime and anywhere. Mr. Trump, who did not participate in any Republican primary debates, has even said he is ready to confront Mr. Biden onstage now — months earlier than debates typically begin.

Mr. LaCivita has indicated that the campaign wants more debates than the traditional three — believing that the more the American public is exposed to Mr. Biden, the less confident it will be in his capacities to lead.

Still, Mr. Trump’s eagerness could backfire. In the 2020 campaign, he underestimated Mr. Biden’s ability, and the debates — especially the first one, in which his ranting frequently interrupted his rival — were widely believed to have hurt Mr. Trump.

Part of the problem was that Mr. Trump and his allies have largely experienced Mr. Biden through the conservative news media, where they often see a mash-up of the most unflattering clips of Mr. Biden stumbling, looking lost or otherwise showing his age.

The impression among many Trump advisers is that they are dealing with a president who is barely able to complete a sentence. Mr. Trump was so surprised by Mr. Biden’s energetic performance at his recent State of the Union address that he speculated without any evidence that the president must have been on drugs.

Michael Gold contributed reporting.

Republican Party asks the Secret Service to move protesters away from its convention venue.

The Republican Party sent a letter to the Secret Service on Friday urging the police agency to keep protesters farther away from the venue for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.

The three-page letter, signed by Todd R. Steggerda, counsel to the Republican National Committee, objected to the placement of an area where protesters would be allowed to demonstrate. Mr. Steggerda argued that convention attendees would be forced to pass by the protesters on their way into the venue, raising the potential for confrontations.

“As recent college and university campus clashes make plain,” Mr. Steggerda wrote in the letter obtained by The New York Times, “forced proximity heightens tensions among peaceful attendees and demonstrators of differing ideologies and increases the risk of escalation to verbal, or even physical, clashes.”

Hundreds of people have been arrested in a recent wave of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses , but there have been no reports of significant violence by those demonstrators.

Under the security plan proposed by the Secret Service, according to the letter, protesters will be confined to Pere Marquette Park , a small public park on the bank of the Milwaukee River about a quarter of a mile from Fiserv Forum — the arena that is home to the Milwaukee Bucks of the N.B.A. and that is hosting the convention. The letter adds that the two main routes to the arena designated by the Secret Service are adjacent to the park, which would force those heading to the convention to pass by it.

“Packing demonstrators into a park essentially boxed in by the two streets that thousands of attendees will be using to enter the convention site will only serve to heighten — rather than prevent and diffuse — any tension,” Mr. Steggerda wrote.

Alexi Worley, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service, said in a statement that the agency “is not formally in receipt” of the letter, adding, “If a letter is received, the Secret Service will respond through appropriate channels.” The copy of the letter obtained by The Times was addressed to Kimberly A. Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, “via hand delivery.”

Ms. Worley added that security plans for events like the Republican National Convention are “developed and approved through an executive steering committee made up of representatives from the Secret Service, as well as supporting federal, state and local agencies.”

The R.N.C. did not propose an alternative location for the demonstration zone in the letter, instead suggesting that the Secret Service expand the security perimeter to move protesters away from the area.

Neil Vigdor

Peter Meijer, who voted to impeach Trump, has withdrawn from the Republican Senate primary in Michigan.

Peter Meijer, a Republican who voted to impeach former President Donald J. Trump when he was a member of the House, announced on Friday that he was dropping out of the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

“The hard reality is the fundamentals of the race have changed significantly since we launched this campaign,” Mr. Meijer said in a post on Facebook , adding that he did not have a “strong pathway to victory.”

He was facing a crowded primary field featuring another high-profile Republican: Mike Rogers , who served seven terms in the House and rose to become the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The Secretary of State’s office confirmed Mr. Meijer’s withdrawal from the race and said he would not be on the ballot on Aug. 6.

The move comes five days before Mr. Trump, who endorsed Mr. Rogers for the seat, returns to the battleground state for a rally in Freeland, Mich. Mr. Rogers is expected to attend the rally, his campaign said.

“Continuing this campaign only increases the likelihood of a divisive primary that would distract from the essential goal — conservative victories in November,” said Mr. Meijer, who did not immediately respond to requests for further comment on Friday.

The seat is being vacated by Senator Debbie Stabenow, the state’s senior senator and a Democrat, who announced last year that she would not seek a fifth term . That teed up a crowded field of Republicans vying to flip the seat in a general election contest that could decide control of the narrowly divided Senate. The Republican nominee is likely to face Representative Elissa Slotkin, the most prominent Democrat seeking to succeed Ms. Stabenow.

Mr. Meijer’s departure does not void the primary of Trump critics, however.

Justin Amash, who was the only sitting Republican member of Congress to support Mr. Trump’s first impeachment, remains in the race. He left the party in 2019 while facing attacks from Mr. Trump and did not run for re-election in 2020. But he is running as a Republican again now.

Mr. Trump’s upcoming visit to Michigan — planned for one of the few days next week when he will not be attending his criminal trial in Manhattan — is his latest foray to the same battleground state where an investigator disclosed this week that the former president was an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot by his allies to assemble a slate of fake electors during the 2020 election.

Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, lost the state to Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020, a major blow to his re-election bid in the Midwest bellwether that had helped propel him to the White House in 2016. Several of his allies are facing criminal charges in the fake electors scheme.

In Michigan, the former president’s grip on the G.O.P. remains strong: He swept the Republican delegates at the state party’s convention in March, just days after dominating its primary under the party’s hybrid nominating system.

Mr. Meijer, the scion of the Meijer supermarket empire and an Army Reserve veteran who served in Iraq, was ousted from his House seat during the 2022 midterm elections by a far-right challenger endorsed by Mr. Trump, after serving just one term. A Democrat, Hillary Scholten, then flipped the seat in the general election that year.

Pete Hoekstra, the chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and a former longtime House member himself, said in an interview on Friday that there had been rumblings about Mr. Meijer’s exit from the race.

“Peter’s a young guy, got a good résumé, and I think has aspirations in the future and just kind of decided that this was not the year to go to the wall,” Mr. Hoekstra said.

Anjali Huynh

‘Where’s Cricket?’ Don’t ask. Kristi Noem defends killing her 14-month-old dog, and a goat.

Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota on Friday defended a story included in her forthcoming biography in which she describes killing a family dog on their farm, to her daughter’s distress — a grisly anecdote that instantly drew criticism from a number of political opponents.

Ms. Noem, a Republican who is widely seen as a contender to be former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, shared details about shooting the 14-month-old dog, a female wirehaired pointer named Cricket, and an unnamed goat, according to excerpts first reported by The Guardian .

An avid hunter, Ms. Noem wrote that she had hoped to train Cricket to hunt pheasant, but that she proved “untrainable,” “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless” as a hunting dog. “I hated that dog,” Ms. Noem wrote, according to The Guardian.

It was after Cricket ruined a hunting trip, killed another family’s chickens and bit the governor that Ms. Noem recalled deciding to kill the dog; she shot Cricket in a gravel pit.

That was not the only blood Ms. Noem drew that day: She also shot a male goat that she called “nasty and mean.” Shot him twice, in fact: The goat jumped as she shot him the first time, according to The Guardian’s recounting of the book, so she fetched another shell and shot him again.

The whole ordeal was reportedly witnessed by a construction crew nearby. Ms. Noem wrote that as the workers returned to their jobs, a school bus came by to drop off her children.

Her daughter, Kennedy, Ms. Noem wrote, “looked around confused” and asked, “Hey, where’s Cricket?”

“I guess if I were a better politician, I wouldn’t tell the story here,” Ms. Noem wrote in the book, set to be published by Center Street on May 7. But she framed the day’s events as reflecting her willingness to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly,” whether that be in farm ownership or in politics.

The story drew condemnation on Friday from a swath of the political world, mainly to Ms. Noem’s left, including some anti-Trump Republicans and a number of Democrats. President Biden’s re-election campaign wrote on X that “Trump VP contender Kristi Noem brags about shooting her 14-month-old puppy to death.” And the Democratic National Committee issued a statement describing the passages as “disturbing and horrifying.”

Ms. Noem seized on The Guardian’s article to underscore her rural-America bona fides, promote her book and mock the news media. “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm,” she wrote Friday on X , adding that her family recently had to “put down” three horses.

She added that her book would contain “more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping.”

Ms. Noem, who appeared with Mr. Trump at an event in Ohio last month, is one of several Republicans regularly mentioned as potential vice-presidential picks . At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February , she tied with Vivek Ramaswamy for first place in a poll of whom attendees wanted to see Mr. Trump select as a running mate.

She has routinely praised the former president and recently took part in an ad promoting her cosmetic dental work that some saw as a move to catch Mr. Trump’s attention , even as it drew legal scrutiny . In recent days, she has refused to say whether she would have certified the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, and dodged questions on whether she supported exceptions to abortion bans in cases of rape or incest.

Biden departs New York for Washington, as Trump returns to a Manhattan courtroom.

President Biden will depart New York today and return to Washington, D.C., concluding a campaign trip promoting his economic policies. On his way out of the state, he will pass less than two miles from the Manhattan courthouse where his Republican rival’s felony criminal trial is continuing.

Former President Donald J. Trump will return to that trial today, where his lawyers will continue a cross-examination of David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer and a witness for the prosecution. Mr. Trump stands accused of covering up a sex scandal surrounding the 2016 presidential campaign.

The former president emerged from the courthouse on Thursday seemingly weary and indignant over the criminal proceedings against him.

“It was breathtaking,” Mr. Trump said in brief remarks to the press. “This is a trial that never should have happened.”

Mr. Biden, 250 miles upstate in Syracuse on Thursday, lauded another building block in his economic agenda, celebrating a $6.1 billion grant to a chip manufacturer that he said would bolster America’s supply of semiconductors — the latest in a series of positive political developments for the president this week .

“We have an Infrastructure Decade coming,” Mr. Biden said at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology, adding, in reference to Mr. Trump, “The last guy had Infrastructure Week and never showed up.”

He continued: “American manufacturing is back. New factories are going up all across the country. And communities like Syracuse are writing a great American comeback story.”

Mr. Trump gave a starkly different view on the economy from Manhattan.

“The economy has just been reported to be doing very badly,” he said from the courthouse, hours after the Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product had grown at a 1.6 percent annual rate — paired with persistent inflation — in the first three months of the year. “The stock market’s way down, and some horrible numbers came out,” Mr. Trump added, as the S&P 500 index ended the day down about half a percentage point.

He also continued to compare campus protests against the war in Gaza with the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 . One woman was killed and nearly 40 people were injured when an avowed neo-Nazi plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters amid violent clashes in the city. Hundreds of white supremacists had also marched through Charlottesville, carrying torches and chanting, “Jews will not replace us.”

“Charlottesville was a little peanut,” Mr. Trump said, echoing a characterization he had made on social media on Wednesday. “And was nothing compared — and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate that you have here. This is tremendous hate.”

Watchdog group accuses the Trump campaign of violating finance law.

A campaign watchdog group filed a formal complaint to the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday accusing Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign and related political committees of concealing payments of $7.2 million in legal fees by paying them through an unrelated shell company in violation of campaign finance law.

At the center of the complaint , from the Campaign Legal Center, is the company that received the payments, Red Curve. The company is run by Bradley Crate, who is also the treasurer for the Trump campaign and four related political committees listed in the complaint, as well as for 200 other candidates and committees.

In its complaint, the Campaign Legal Center said that the Trump political committees had used Red Curve, which did not appear to offer legal services, “as a conduit to conceal payments for legal services.” The group filed its complaint hours after The Daily Beast published an article about the payments to Red Curve.

Neither Red Curve nor representatives of the Trump campaign responded to a request for comment.

“This apparent payment scheme, however, violates the reporting requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act,” the complaint said, “which requires that committees provide detailed information about who they are paying for services, and how much they are paying for those services.”

The complaint also said that Red Curve advanced payments for the legal costs to the Trump committees as part of the payment scheme, potentially violating a campaign finance law that prevents corporations from giving money to candidates.

“What Red Curve was doing was basically making a contribution," said Saurav Ghosh, the director of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center. “If it’s treated as a corporation under federal campaign finance law, then that’s illegal on its face.”

He added: “If, alternatively, it’s an unincorporated entity for campaign finance purposes, then the contributions would be in excess” of the amount permitted by federal law.

Mr. Trump has spent more than $100 million on lawyers and other legal costs since he left office in 2021, relying almost entirely on political donations to cover those expenses. Red Curve was the largest single recipient of those payments, receiving $7.2 million, according to records filed to the F.E.C.

The F.E.C. also on Wednesday fined a pro-Trump super PAC $6,075 in a negotiated settlement for failing to disclose $150,600 in in-kind contributions in an April 2022 quarterly report. The super PAC — Make America Great Again, Again — was once a leading fund-raising group for Mr. Trump. It fell under scrutiny last year for an unusual payment of $155,000 to Melania Trump , Mr. Trump’s wife, for a speaking engagement.

The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about the fine.

In its complaint concerning Red Curve, the Campaign Legal Center cited what it said were similar violations of campaign finance law. The watchdog group noted the use of a law firm by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee in 2016 that made payments to the firm Fusion GPS to conduct research against Mr. Trump — research that was used in what became known as the Steele dossier . The Clinton campaign and the D.N.C. agreed to pay $113,000 in fines to settle an F.E.C. investigation into campaign spending disclosures.

“It’s similar to this situation,” Mr. Ghosh said of the Fusion GPS case. “In that there was, you know, a lack of transparency about who’s getting paid. What is the payment for?”

Trump again compares campus protests to the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

Former President Donald J. Trump emerged from his felony criminal trial in New York on Thursday and again minimized the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 while portraying a recent wave of predominantly peaceful pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses as characterized by “tremendous hate.”

One woman was killed and nearly 40 people were injured when an avowed neo-Nazi plowed his car through a crowd of counterprotesters during violent clashes in Charlottesville. Earlier, hundreds of white supremacists had marched through the city, carrying torches and chanting, “Jews will not replace us.”

The current campus protests, while resulting in hundreds of arrests , have had no reports of significant violence.

But standing outside a Manhattan courthouse on Thursday, Mr. Trump said, “Charlottesville was a little peanut and was nothing compared — and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate that you have here. This is tremendous hate.” Of President Biden, he added, “We have a man that can’t talk about it because he doesn’t understand it.”

Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the White House, said in a statement that “minimizing the antisemitic and white supremacist poison displayed in Charlottesville is repugnant and divisive.” He added: “That moment compelled President Biden to run in 2020, because he has fought antisemitism and hate his entire life.”

Mr. Trump had used that same characterization about Charlottesville only a day earlier in a post on his social media site. The former president diminished the violence at the far-right rally, calling it “like a ‘peanut’” compared with the campus protests against the war in Gaza, which he distorted as “riots and anti-Israel protests.”

Mr. Trump also in that post repeated an attack on President Biden, saying that he “HATES Israel and Hates the Jewish people,” while adding “the problem is that he HATES the Palestinians even more, and he just doesn’t know what to do!?!?” Mr. Trump has repeatedly insulted Jews who vote for Democrats and for Mr. Biden, saying that they hate their religion and Israel .

Representatives for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Trump — who also presided over civil unrest set off by the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in May 2020 — sought to downplay a chapter of his presidency that garnered widespread outrage and criticism.

In Charlottesville’s aftermath, Mr. Trump repeatedly drew a moral equivalency between the white supremacists — who brandished swastikas, Confederate flags and “Trump/Pence” signs — and peaceful counterprotesters, asserting that there were “very fine people on both sides.”

Underpinning the Charlottesville gathering of neo-Nazis, antisemites and white supremacists was a racist conspiracy theory, called the great replacement theory, which says that elites, sometimes manipulated by Jews, seek to “replace” and disempower white Americans. The growing prominence of the theory in far-right circles has incited racist terror attacks across the world, including several mass shootings in the United States.

Mr. Biden has in recent months faced protests and opposition to his presidential campaign from Americans who are sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians and angry at the United States for arming Israel in the fighting in Gaza. Mr. Trump’s social media post on Wednesday sought to portray many of these protesters as a riotous mob, while also seeking to stoke protesters’ anger by claiming that Mr. Biden hates the Palestinians.

Some of the campus demonstrations have included hate speech and expressions of support for Hamas, the militant group in Gaza that carried out attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people. In response to those attacks, Israel has waged a war on Hamas in Gaza, killing more than 34,000 people, mostly women and children , according to the Gaza Health Ministry. This week Mr. Biden condemned demonstrations that he said veered into antisemitism, but he also expressed sympathy for the Palestinians.

“I condemn the antisemitic protests,” Mr. Biden told reporters on Monday. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

Advertisement