Banned Book Week draws attention to the impacts of censorship and encourages free and open access to information in the community.
This year’s theme is “Let Books Be. Protect the Freedom to Read.”
Banned Book Week, which is observed from Oct. 4-10, has aimed to educate the public about book bans and challenges and the importance of the right to read and access information since 1982.
The debate over book banning is divided between those who believe that certain texts should be restricted from children and those who believe that doing so violates First Amendment rights.
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File (SF) 496, a wide-ranging education and parental rights bill, in May 2023. This prohibits schools from providing books with “instruction related to gender identity and sexual orientation” to kindergarten through sixth grade, and books with depictions of “sex acts” to kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Although SF 496 was temporarily blocked, it currently remains in effect.
The Ames Public Library has displays in the youth and adult area that feature banned and challenged books during Banned Book Week.
“Public libraries are an institution for every member of our community, and that means that we should have books on our shelves that represent every member of our community,” Brianne Anderson, Ames Public Library youth services manager, said.
While diverse books can help readers encounter perspectives different from their own, some may be uncomfortable or disagree with a book’s content.
“Especially the Ames community with such diverse cultures and lived experiences, it’s really important for us to have books that everybody is going to find meaningful and want to read,” Anderson said. “That also means, though, that there are books that might offend people who don’t agree.”
Although they are often used interchangeably, a banned book is different from a challenged book.
“A book challenge is any attempt to restrict or remove a book based on objections to its content,” according to PEN America, a nonprofit organization that aims to defend free expression and celebrate literature. “A book ban is the removal or restriction of those materials, either permanently or under review.”
PEN America recorded 7,370 unique titles that were banned in U.S. public schools in the 2025-26 school year.
In some Iowa school districts, books like “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood and “1984” by George Orwell are among some of the texts banned in certain Iowa school districts.
Of book titles challenged in the U.S. in 2025, 39% represented “the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people and people of color,” the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked.
Anderson shared how book bans on young adult books can limit children’s opportunity to engage with and see diverse representation in literature.
“All children deserve to feel seen and feel valued in their lives with the people that they communicate and interact with every day, from the community around them and how they’re supported, and in the books they read,” Anderson said. “If children never see their cultures or their passions represented in books, then we are doing a disservice to the children in our community.”
Anderson gave a twist to the common “don’t judge a book by its cover” saying: don’t judge a book by a passage.
“My challenge to people is, if you question a book, read the book,” Anderson said. “Books are so much more than just pieces. The whole book matters, and if anybody questions a book, my first piece of advice is, read that book. You still might not agree with it, but at least you’ll understand the whole context in which the story takes place and the author’s meaning behind it.”