The The American Library Association (ALA) recorded 1,269 attempted book bans in 2022—the highest number since the ALA began collecting data on library censorship. Most challenged books are for young readers and are by or about IBPOC or 2SLGBTQIA+ persons. In ENGL 279 Literature and Censorship: Banned and Challenged Children’s Literature, students will read a range of banned, challenged, and controversial books for children and young adults from the nineteenth century to the present. Assigned texts may include novels, graphic novels, picture books, memoirs, and non-fiction. Classes will incorporate discussion of the contexts and content of calls that these texts be removed from libraries and schools. What ideas about literature, youth, and innocence inform such calls? Is “protecting” young people from certain literature ever justifiable? The course will be divided into thematic units based on some of the most common reasons children’s books are challenged, such as sexual content, religious and political viewpoints, 2SLGBTQIA+ topics, and representations of race.
