The Battle to Ban Books

Every year, numerous books are threatened to be stripped off shelves. Within the past few years, over 7,200 books have been challenged and in 2025, the American Library Association (ALA) lists the official count of banned books at 5,668 titles, with an extra 920 texts being restricted in some form.

For the majority of bans, books are restricted due to violence, profanity, sensitive themes and other offensive statements within the text, such as differing religious points of view, and speaking out against the government. However, most of the time a book is pulled off the shelf for bias and unjust reasons. Adults say it is to “protect young minds,” but whose minds are we really protecting? We need to expose the younger generation to the real world, so they can learn to get by on their own and grow empathy.

One popular banned book, which many St. Paul students are familiar with is The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. Although the title is not nationally banned, some public school districts have challenged and restricted this book. Hintonʼs coming-of-age novel includes frequent mentions of gang violence and substance usage among the protagonists.

While her novel is traditionally read around grade seven, adults have been found issue with the bookʼs underlying themes of drinking, smoking, familial dysfunction, and teen violence. However the book teaches its readers important lessons, such as maintaining innocence and looking past someoneʼs social status.

Another often-banned book is Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, even though it is a children's book. The banning of Whiteʼs novel is often cited for “religious objections over talking animals and themes of mortality." You mean to tell me, this book is banned in schools because of talking animals? You have got to be kidding me! By this logic, you might as well ban all the Disney movies, right? Sorry Mickey, you have to go!

In 2006, a parent meeting was held in Kansas, where they said that talking animals are "unnatural and blasphemous" because “humans are the highest level of creation.” It is a childrenʼs book for crying out loud. Their kid is busy laughing about a talking pig and the parents believe it is going to alter their future for the worse.

Other honorable mentions are Looking for Alaska, To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451, and an abundance of other titles regularly deemed to be classics of high school education. Each book I just mentioned is either banned or is currently being challenged to get banned.

As an avid book reader, I hate this! If adults don't want their children reading about certain topics, they can research them ahead of time, before they go rushing to challenge the book and school access to said book. If parents have mature and responsible children, they ought be content if their children stay within their age range of books.

Books are wonderful works composed by very talented authors that should be safeguarded and cherished, with school access being protected, not challenged.