Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship by focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books. The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools.

Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.

"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 Banned Books Week 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 American Library Association (ALA) documented 821 attempts to censor materials and services at libraries, schools, and universities in 2024. In those cases, 2,452 unique titles were challenged, which significantly exceeds the average of 273 unique titles that were challenged annually during 2001–2020.

"The most common justifications for censorship provided by complainants were false claims of illegal obscenity for minors; inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters or themes; and covering topics of race, racism, inclusivity, equity, and social justice."

“Books are an essential foundation of democracy.”

~ Pioneering actor, New York Times-bestselling author, and activist George Takei, honorary chair of Banned Books Week 2025. Read more at bannedbooksweek.org. 

Read for Your Rights.

The Goffstown Public Library supports your Constitutional right to access the information you want and hopes you will exercise that right by reading a challenged book. Visit the Library to interact with this week's banned book displays and check out a book, or see a selection in the catalog.

Banned Books Week is an annual week-long event celebrating the freedom to read, highlighting the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community – librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types – in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

Since the 1990s, the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom has compiled an annual list of titles that have been most frequently challenged and/or banned.

Learn more at ala.org/bbooks.