As March is Reading Month comes to a close, the American Library Association is announcing an increase in book censorship across the country.
Michigan Library Association Director Debbie Mikula says there have been fewer attempts to ban books in Michigan than in Florida or Texas, but many libraries don’t report censor attempts. Therefore, many challenges go uncounted.
“We’re pretty equal to our Midwest counterparts in Wisconsin and Ohio, but we’re still lower,” Mikula said. “I will say that many communities, many schools, many public libraries don’t report attempts to restrict access. They deal with it internally and there’s not a lot of publicity around some of them.”
The ALA say more than 4,200 works in school and public libraries were targeted in 2023. That was an increase from 2022.
