The barrage of attacks on books in the last year is another example of trying to deny reality by clamping hands over eyes — in this case to keep them from reading.

A State of America’s Libraries Report says the number of requests to ban books is the highest reported in the 20 years of the survey.

The new report released by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom found 729 challenges — affecting nearly 1,600 books — at public schools and libraries in 2021. That number is more than double the previous year. The report includes only the known attempts and also doesn’t take into account when librarians remove books to avoid conflict.

Unfortunately, the way momentum is going, the chances of those numbers dropping doesn’t look very promising. Numerous states have passed or introduced legislation that attempts to control reading material options. Just a few weeks ago, the Georgia Legislature passed a bill that would accelerate the process for removing books seen as “harmful to minors.”

That ambiguous phrasing provides a perfect illustration of why broadly banning books is out of control. Are expletives the problem? Pranks and shenanigans? Same-sex couples? Drug or alcohol use? Blended families? Crime? Puberty? Are we talking about an audience of elementary students, or are they juniors and seniors in Advanced Placement classes?

Labeling certain books as harmful for students, especially those that happen to be about race or LGBTQ issues as is the case with the two most targeted books, “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy,” is blatant censorship.

Parents have every right to decide if their children should or shouldn’t read a book. Librarians don’t lobby to take away parental influence. But what one parent thinks their child shouldn’t read might not match the same opinion of another parent.

Removing works from libraries or schools so that no one can read them is overreach. The purpose of libraries is to make available a variety of resources representing the range of human thought and experience. If ever there is a time for a public book-ban backfire, it’s now. Call it the North Korea effect. When North Korea denounced the film comedy “The Interview” in 2014, the movie’s audience exploded and the so-so film grossed $40 million in digital rentals, making it Sony’s most successful digital release.

Readers need to unite and hit the book shelves hard, supporting the books that groups are banning or attempting to. And the public needs to also stand up for schools, libraries and librarians so that they keep offering a wide range of reading materials. “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” can exist in the same space as “Gender Queer.”

We are privileged to have many freedoms in this country. One of those valuable freedoms is to choose what we want to read.

–Mankato Free Press