EA Library - Banned Books Week

When is Banned Books Week?

Banned Books Week UK is 5–11 October 2025.

It is a week to celebrate the books that have been challenged, removed or silenced, and to stand with the people who write, sell and share them.

About Banned Books Week UK

Index on Censorship is the UK partner for the USA Coalition, which runs ‘Banned Books Week’.

Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools. You can read more about Banned Books Week UK here .

Dare to read these?

All the books on the display have been banned or challenged.

Class 2.5 discovered Banned Books and enjoyed lots of discussion about them during their library period.

We have been sharing a Fact of the Day each day during Banned Books Week 2025:

Fact 1: A surprising range of children’s books have faced censorship even in the 21st century. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series has been banned in many schools in the US (and even in one UK school) and on six occasions the books were publicly burned on the grounds that they promoted witchcraft.

Fact 2: Adults have often tried to stop children reading books they considered unsuitable or dangerous: a school board in North Dakota, USA confiscated all the copies of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five which were being used for English lessons. Many of the students refused to give up their books, so the school ordered a search of their lockers and burnt all the the copies of Slaughterhouse Five that they found there.

Fact 3: The Hate U Give is a much-admired novel in our library about a teenager who sees her close friend shot by a police officer. It is high on the lists of books that are “most challenged” in American school districts since it was published in 2017. Because of profanity,drug use and sexual references, but also: “racially insensitive language”. The author's response: “You’re basically telling the kids … that their stories shouldn’t be told. Well, I’m going to tell them even louder. Thanks for igniting the fire.”

Fact 4: In Nazi Germany, many books were considered so dangerous that they were publicly burnt. Liesl Meminger, the Book Thief in Marcus Zusak’s novel, steals a half-burned book from the edge of one of these bonfires.

Fact 5: The beloved children’s book Alice in Wonderland was banned in China in the 1930s as the government believed animals using the same language as humans was a religious abomination. In the 1960s multiple institutions in the United States banned the book, believing the caterpillar and his hookah promoted the use of drugs.

What is Banned Books Week?

This 2024 survey of school librarians reveals that 53% of respondents have been asked to remove books from their libraries, with more than half of those requests coming from parents. In 56% of those cases the book or books in question were removed, many of which were about LGBTQ+ subjects.

A special investigation reveals more than half of UK school librarians surveyed by Index have been asked to remove books from their shelves. By Katie Dancey-Down.

USA: Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2024

The list includes:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content, depiction of sexual assault, depiction of drug use, profanity.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit .

Find out more here.

Craziest reasons books were banned

China banned Winnie the Pooh in 2018 as people were mocking President Xi because of his resemblance to the beloved bear.
The anti-racist To Kill a Mockingbird was banned in schools in Lindale, Texas for ‘conflicting with the values of the community’. Maybe change those values.
Another Texas board banned Moby Dick for the same reason. Hard to know whether their community values were strongly against hunting whales or befriending Native Americans. Let’s hope it’s the former.
Dr Seuss books have been banned in American schools for a number of reasons. The Lorax, for example, for its ‘criminalisation of the logging industry’, but other books were banned for supposedly promoting homosexuality and Marxism.
Charlotte’s Web, Animal Farm and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are just some of the famous examples of books banned in various parts of the world for featuring talking animals.
Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings was banned in Michigan for describing the teachings of Buddhism “in such a way that the reader could very likely embrace its teachings and choose this as his religion.”
The Diary of Anne Frank was banned in certain places in the US, but not just for the sexual passages. Nope. Apparently someone thought it might be “too depressing” to read.