There's a new (and easy) way to share banned books in your community. Here's what to know, according to someone who fights book bans across the country.
How One Man Is Fighting Book Bans in His Community and Across the Country
Updated Sep. 24, 2024
It started as a random act of kindness: Mitchell was brainstorming ideas of how he could help in his New York community. In between donating blood and volunteering at a school, he landed on the idea of finding a way to get banned books into the hands of teens who would otherwise not have a chance to read them. It became a passion project for him.
“Getting a book to someone who really needs it, especially if it’s one they aren’t able to get themselves, is one of the kindest things you can do for another human being,” he says, speaking to Reader’s Digest on the condition of anonymity. Mitchell isn’t his real name, but the threats he’s received since beginning his anti-book-banning project are very real.
And yet he continues to fight. One way he does this is through the national network of Little Free Libraries—tiny, often handmade structures through which people can exchange books for free. The nonprofit Little Free Library organization is dedicated to making books available to everyone, everywhere. You can leave a book or take a book—including banned books.
With a just-released interactive map of book-banning hot spots and Little Free Library locations, it’s easier than ever to share important books with those who most need them. Read on to learn how to use Little Free Libraries to get banned books into the hands of readers and find out how you can fight book banning in your community.
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The book-banning problem
“I went to Catholic school growing up, and I’m sure that there were books I would have enjoyed but weren’t available in my library—I didn’t know they existed,” Mitchell says. Those books could have truly impacted his life. As a trans kid, he saw very little representation of his experience in books, art or movies. That all changed when, as an adult, he stumbled across the right book.
He was browsing in a bookstore when he spotted a novel with a main character who was trans. “I didn’t even buy the book, but just seeing that helped me so much. It validated my identity,” he says. “That’s the power of a book.”
And that’s why book banning is so problematic. Unfortunately, it’s also on the rise. As PEN America reports, there were 3,362 instances of book banning in the 2022–2023 school year, a whopping 33% increase from the previous school year. On top of the unprecedented number of bans, the country is also seeing a rise in censorship laws.
It has a profound effect, particularly on the most vulnerable kids. “I’m opposed to censorship in general, but for me, the real issue is what it’s telling people about themselves,” Mitchell says. “Banned books send a terrible message that whatever it is you’re banning—gender, sexual orientation, sex education, religion, race—is so bad that people shouldn’t know about it or even talk about it. When people label a book that represents your experience as ‘bad’ or a ‘problem,’ then they are inherently saying that you are also ‘bad’ or a ‘problem.'”
How to use Little Free Libraries to get around book bans
To give kids the kind of help and support he found later in life, Mitchell started putting banned books into the Little Free Libraries around him. He quickly branched out, researching book bans across the country to find out which titles were banned, and where. Working with local volunteers, he helped get those exact books into the communities that needed them.
What began as a community project quickly ballooned into a nationwide network of volunteers bent on fighting book bans. Before long, he was collecting donations from all over the world to send to his underground book distributors.
Mitchell wasn’t the only one with this idea. The Little Free Library organization saw the value of lending libraries in an age of escalating book bans and created an easy way for the average person to make like Mitchell and share beloved books.
Using American Library Association and PEN America data on book bans, the nonprofit created an interactive map of book-banning hot spots and Little Free Libraries across the country.
You can use the map to see which areas have taken book banning to the extreme and how your state stacks up against the rest.
- Florida: The state has the highest number of attempted book bans, with 2,647 titles at risk.
- Texas: It comes in second for the number of book bans, with 1,469 attempted book bans.
- New York: The state where Mitchell lives has 80 attempted book bans.
- Vermont and Delaware: Gold stars go to these states, which have zero attempted book bans.
So how, exactly, can you use the map? It’s easy:
- Look up which books are banned in your area—or anywhere in the United States.
- Zoom in to find local Little Free Libraries.
You can leave banned books in any Little Free Library. And if you’re trying to get your hands on banned books, you can check the lending library in your area.
Why use a Little Free Library to get a banned book
In the age of the internet, you can find almost anything online. So you may be wondering why people don’t just get the banned book from someplace it isn’t banned—like Amazon.
It’s about safety and discretion, Mitchell says. “Everywhere else leaves a trail, either a digital or physical record of that person getting that book,” he explains. “[Little Free Libraries] keep no records at all, which makes it easier and safer for people to get banned books.”
In other words, this is ideal for people who are afraid of their families finding out that they are reading a certain book. Think of queer teens living with homophobic parents. They might want to read LGBTQ+ books but fear what could happen if they were caught. Or think of teens being homeschooled without sex education. They’d be able to get a book like It’s Perfectly Normal—a basic explainer about sex that is currently on many banned lists.
Besides, some people don’t have money to drop on books. That’s why libraries are crucial and bans are so destructive. For instance, kids who rely on libraries to access diverse children’s books—which are often some of the most banned—may not be able to afford to buy those same books.
How to fight book bans in your area
Fighting book bans takes courage: to stand up for the freedom to read and to stand against opponents who consider certain books dangerous. In areas of the country where books are a hot-button topic, fighting bans is even more important—and sometimes risky. Remember, we’re keeping “Mitchell’s” identity anonymous. That’s because he and his underground book army have received threats, both of violence and of litigation.
“Giving books shouldn’t be dangerous, but in some places you can be arrested or sued for ‘distributing explicit material,'” he says. Some people will even threaten volunteers or destroy Little Free Libraries in an effort to keep banned books from getting out. “If it were just me, I’d put my name and face out there everywhere, but I have to protect my volunteers,” he says. “Some of them are in risky places.”
What can you do to help?
- Start a banned book club.
- Visit Unite Against Book Bans’s book résumés to learn more about the titles frequently challenged and banned.
- Get involved with Banned Books Week events—it runs from Sept. 22 to 28.
- Drop off a book in a Little Free Library near you. Use the interactive map or the mobile app to find one.
- Purchase banned books from Little Free Library’s Bookshop.org storefront. You’ll support both Little Free Library and your local bookstore.
It’s worth finding a way to help in your area. “Every time I see a banned book at a [Little Free Library] in my area that I relate to, even if I don’t take it, I’m still so grateful that someone recognized it is important information,” Mitchell says. “It makes me feel like I’m part of this community.”
About the expert
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Why trust us
At Reader’s Digest, we’ve been sharing our favorite books for over 100 years. We’ve worked with bestselling authors including Susan Orlean, Janet Evanovich and Alex Haley, whose Pulitzer Prize–winning Roots grew out of a project funded by and originally published in the magazine. Through Fiction Favorites (formerly Select Editions and Condensed Books), Reader’s Digest has been publishing anthologies of abridged novels for decades. We’ve worked with some of the biggest names in fiction, including James Patterson, Ruth Ware, Kristin Hannah and more. The Reader’s Digest Book Club, helmed by Books Editor Tracey Neithercott, introduces readers to even more of today’s best fiction by upcoming, bestselling and award-winning authors. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. For this piece on Little Free Library’s banned book map, Charlotte Hilton Anderson tapped her two decades of experience as a journalist and interviewed a person using Little Free Libraries to fight book bans. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- Mitchell, a volunteer (using a pseudonym) who shares banned books via Little Free Libraries; Zoom interview, Sep. 20, 2024
- Little Free Library: “Book Ban Map”
- PEN America: “Banned in the USA: State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools”
- Associated Press: “Utah bans 13 books at schools, including popular ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ series, under new law”
- News Channel 9: “Tennessee law expands book bans in schools, targeting LGBTQ+ content and more”
Originally Published: September 24, 2024
