Posted on April 27, 2022 at 9:58 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Library patrons in one Texas county have banded together to sue elected officials over the removal of certain books from the shelves.
NPR reports that the plaintiffs have accused Llano County (northwest of Austin) of violating the First Amendment for banning books from the public library.
The suit says that contrary to officials' statements, the targeted books are not, in fact, pornographic.
Among the books identified in the lawsuit as having been banned: In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak; It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, by Robie H. Harris; and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson.
The suit also alleges that county officials suspended the use of OverDrive because they couldn't remove two particular books from it.
A Llano County official said the county wouldn't comment on the pending lawsuit.
(And now that your blood pressure is already up ... here's a column from the Arizona Mirror arguing that, unfortunately, book bans don't actually result in higher sales, a common silver-lining comment we hear in response to news of book challenges.)
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Categories: Today in Books