Dear Editor, 

Books Banneds Affects many students and people It even affects me on a daily basis and this is why, It gets rid of the chance for me to read about other perspectives. The books that are most banned include books written by or about Black, asian-american, other races, And Lgbtq+, This limits my reach to learn about others perspectives and their stories. Sadly some of the most targeted places for books to be challenged are schools, and public libraries we know this because in the article it states, “The number of titles targeted for censorship surged 65% in 2023 compared to 2022, reaching the highest levels ever documented by OIF in more than 20 years of tracking: 4,240 unique book titles were targeted for removal from schools and libraries. This tops the previous high from 2022, when 2,571 unique titles were targeted for censorship. Titles representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals made up 47% of those targeted in censorship attempts. - ALA” this supports what I have said so far because it shows that LGBTQIA+ is one of the most targeted and challenged books out there. I have learned over the semester that most people that challenge books have not read them for evidence. This shows that half of the books that get banned from towns, cities, and even states don't need to ban them.

Furthermore Some of the main people who are affected by banned books include lgbtq+ this is because these people might feel alone and they are more Insecure and nervous about coming out. This happens too much because a lot of the libraries when a book gets challenged they don't want to fight about these things so they just take the books off the shelves! This also happens to People of color some of the evidence that supports this includes the informational picture above

(provided to us by Teacher) and when I looked through the websites it shows the top 3 books that are challenged are about people of color. This affects them by not knowing some of their history and this can confuse them by not knowing what happened to their race, But this can also make other races more racist towards them because they are not educated about how they are treated every day and their perspective. Over all banned books affect so many more people than  can cover so I believe people should not be able to ban books!

• Sincerely, Ryann smith