This year’s Banned Books Week, September 18-24, is a reminder of the unifying power of stories and the divisiveness of censorship. The 2022 theme is “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us. and it underscores how books reach across boundaries and build connections between readers.
Since it was founded in 1982, Banned Books Week has drawn attention to the attempts to remove books and other materials from libraries, schools, and bookstores. All readers deserve to see themselves reflected in the books available to them, and people better understand themselves and each other when given the opportunity to choose what they want to read without restriction.
George M. Johnson (they/them) has been named Honorary Chair for Banned Books Week 2022. Johnson is an award-winning Black nonbinary activist and author of The New York Times–bestselling young adult memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue.The memoir was the third title on the American Library Association’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2021, an annual list released during National Library Week.
Additional information regarding Banned Books Week is available at ala.org/bbooks, or follow Banned Books Week on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram to get the latest updates.