The theme for Banned Books Week 2025: “Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.” Banned Books Week will take place October 5 – 11, 2025.
With the escalation in attempts to ban books in libraries, schools, and bookstores around the country, George Orwell’s cautionary tale "1984" serves a prescient warning about the dangers of censorship. This year’s theme reminds us that the right to read belongs to all of us, that censorship has no place in contemporary society, and that we must defend our rights.
“The 2025 theme of Banned Books Week serves as a reminder that censorship efforts persist to this day,” ALA President Cindy Hohl said. “We must always come together to stand up for the right to read.”
During National Library Week, ALA released the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024 list and the State of America’s Libraries report. The majority of book censorship attempts now originate from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members, and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries. The 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship during 2024 are all identified on partisan book rating sites, which provide tools for activists to demand the censorship of library books.
Banned Books Week launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of book challenges in libraries, schools, and bookstores.
-From the American Library Association
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Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
Reasons: challenged due to LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
Reason: challenged for depiction of sexual abuse, EDI content, claimed to be sexually explicit
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group.
Reasons: claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity
Reasons: Banned and challenged because of author’s public statements, and because of claims that the book contains “selective storytelling incidents” and does not encompass racism against all people
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, drug use, and alcoholism, and because it was thought to promote anti-police views, contain divisive topics, and be “too much of a sensitive matter right now”
Reasons: banned and challenged for sexual references, profanity, violence, gambling, and underage drinking, and for its religious viewpoint
Reason: claimed to be sexually explicit
Reasons: challenged and banned because of offensive language, racism
Reasons: banned and challenged because it was deemed “anti-cop,” and for profanity, drug use, and sexual references
Reasons: Banned and forbidden from discussion for referring to magic and witchcraft, for containing actual curses and spells, and for characters that use “nefarious means” to attain goals
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity and for “vulgarity and sexual overtones”
Reason: challenged for LGBTQIA+ content
Those facing censorship challenges can find support and inspiration in this book, which compiles dozens of stories from library front lines.
Cadegan shows how the Church’s official position on literary culture developed over this crucial period.
Censorship and book burning are still present in our lives. Lawrence Hill shares his experiences of how ignorance and the fear of ideas led a group in the Netherlands to burn the cover of his widely successful novel, The Book of Negroes, in 2011.
Presents summaries and censorship accounts of books that have been banned throughout history for political, religious, sexual, and social reasons.
Examines the history and issues surrounding works banned because they contained language or ideas unacceptable to a religion, state, or moral standard.
This book illustrates the extent and frequency of political censorship of many kinds of literature.
-From the American Library Association
