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School librarians across the country are waiting anxiously to find out when their school or school system will get hit with the culture war's latest favorite weapon: the book ban. Since late 2021, prominent book challenges have appeared in Florida, Missouri, Virginia, Washington, and my home state of Texas, among others-and each week seems to bring more. My own school district has had at least three formal reconsiderations and a smattering of informal complaints.
From my perspective as an educator and a school librarian who has worked across age levels, the reconsiderations themselves don't bother me as much as the precedent: We're normalizing the use of school libraries as a battleground in political conflicts that have no place in the classroom.
Book challenges and the reconsideration process are a natural part of how libraries function in a democratic society; we want our patrons and stakeholders to be invested in our libraries and provide feedback. Criticism and discourse are necessary to ensure the viability of a collection.
This wave of book...