Libraries amplify ‘freedom to read in Spokane’ and feature challenged titles for ‘banned books week’

A dozen or so books are arranged neatly on a stand in the Central Spokane Public Library, waiting for an interested library patron to pause to flip through their pages, skim the back cover or check out the book.

Though these books exist peacefully and are readily accessible in the downtown library and others around the county, that’s not the case for the same titles in many collections across the nation.

Between January and August this year, there have been over 400 challenges on materials or services offered by libraries across the nation, as tracked by the American Library Association. These challenges, or complaints from library patrons to remove titles from shelves targeted more than 1,100 unique titles.

These numbers are lower than the same point in time last year, but higher than in 2020, when library staff around the nation noticed a sharp increase in book challenges.

A challenged book is one that someone formally requests to be reviewed or removed from a library or school. If a banned book has been removed from that particular collection, though, it’s likely still available elsewhere.

In recognition of these contested titles, the American Library Association holds a national Banned Books Week to remind readers of books available to them that may not be elsewhere.

“We’re just amplifying the message of freedom to read in Spokane,” said Amanda Donovan, director of marketing and communications at the library. “Letting people know this is a nationwide issue of an increase of banned and challenged books, but at Spokane Public Library, we support the freedom to read.”

At various libraries in the city and county library system, staff have created collections of titles that have been challenged elsewhere to advertise their availability locally. Staff reference a list of challenged books from the American Library Association and pull the titles from their stacks to be featured the last week of September.

Downtown, titles like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” long and repeatedly challenged for its use of a racist slur, and “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” whose 82 challenges include in a Missouri school district for queer and sexual content, line their banned books section.

“You have the right to choose to read this,” Donovan said. “You also have the right to choose not to if you don’t want to, and families can make those decisions for themselves, but our point is they’re here.”

Books are challenged for myriad reasons, though in recent years, books detailing experiences of queer people or people of color have been the target of challenges.

Of the 10 most frequently challenged titles, seven were for having queer content among their list of offenses, as reported by the American Library Association. Books are also challenged for sexual content, profanity, drugs or being inappropriate for their targeted age demographic.

These themes have persisted through the decades in book challenges, though the most common offenders change year after year. From 2010-19, the most frequently challenged were “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, the “Captain Underpants” series by Dav Pilkey and “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher.

Other titles to crack the top 100 kept by the American Library Association include John Steinbeck’s classic “Of Mice and Men,” biography “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” the “Bad Kitty” picture book series by Nick Bruel and The Holy Bible.

“If you think about the variety of books that are on there, you’ve got everything from the Bible to ‘Genderqueer,’ ” Donovan said. “Such a wide variety of books; there are ones that you can’t even believe would be challenged in there.”

The variety in challenges reflects that present in library stacks, where staff select titles representing a range of perspectives and stories in which readers can find both “mirrors” and “windows,” analogized Sheri Boggs, who selects titles to appear in the youth section of Spokane County Library District.

“Mirrors are things that reflect you back to yourself: your experiences, your beliefs, your culture,” Boggs said. “But then there’s also windows, and I feel like that’s a huge part of what we do. Those open up you and your kids to a wider world.”

It’s critical to keep books that serve different roles for different people in stacks so that readers retain their “intellectual freedom,” Boggs said, tied to the First Amendment’s freedom of speech and integral to the democratic process.

“We have a variety of things across kind of the spectrum, like anything that would have one side or another, we try to have all the sides represented, Boggs said.

As such, the library is an equal opportunity offender, eliciting challenges and complaints from myriad ideological viewpoints, Boggs said.

“A good library will have something that could offend anyone,” Donovan said. “To have a range of perspectives and opinions so that you can come in and find what you need to be an informed citizen.”

Challenges in the county aren’t frequent; Boggs said she gets one every couple of months in the youth department. When a patron challenges a book, Boggs said staff are diligent in doing a formal review of the title: referencing professional reviews, checking to see if other patrons requested it be stocked and who’s checking it out.

Though available to concerned patrons, Boggs said complaints or comments from library users to staff are more common than formal challenges. They’re often resolved with conversation, staff explain why they may offer a particular title to ease concerns.

“It’s not that often, and we really encourage our staff to have a dialogue with customers. That’s the first step and a lot of the time people just want to be heard,” Boggs said. “To be able to express themselves like, ‘Hey, this book seems kind of sketch,’ or ‘I don’t like these illustrations,’ and we just encourage staff to listen and take into consideration what they’re saying.”