The theme for Banned Books Week 2025 (October 5-11, 2025) is “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 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.
“People don’t challenge materials that don’t say something to the reader. If you look over the materials that have been challenged and banned over the years, they are the materials that speak to the condition of the human being, that try to illuminate the issues and concerns that affect human beings. They’re books that say something, and they’re books that have meaning to the reader. Innocuous materials are never challenged.” -- Judith Krug, inaugural director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom
Books have been banned or challenged throughout history and this trend continues today. A banned book is a book that may be:
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials based upon the objections of a person or a group thereby restricting the access of others.
A banning is the removal of those materials that have been challenged and that challenge has succeeded.