In the first eight months of 2023, Connecticut joined the ranks of nine other states – including Texas, Florida and Virginia – for having more than 100 book challenges (Torres).

In the first eight months of 2023, the ALA (American Library Association) charted 695 challenges nationwide, consisting of almost 2,000 books. These eight months constituted a 20 percent increase over all twelve months of 2022. (Steddick).

Between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, nearly 1,700 challenged books were actually banned, according to PEN America (Harkay), demonstrating a steady climb in both challenges and actual bans over the past several years. Data tracked by the ALA shows that most of the challenged books focus on LGBTQ+ characters or characters of color (Craven).

Connecticut towns that have experienced book challenges include Newtown, Brookfield, Darien, Fairfield, Colchester, Guilford, Old Lyme and Westport (Otte).

According to Kate Byroade, a library director in Colchester, many complaints and challenges originate not from within the community, but from without. For instance, groups like Moms for Liberty target books that focus on LGBTQ+ and characters of color. It’s a well-funded national organization with chapters in both Hartford and Fairfield counties (Harkay). (It was revealed in December 2023 that Moms for Liberty co-founders Bridget Ziegler and her husband, Christian Ziegler, participate in sexual threesomes, after a woman accused Christian Ziegler of rape. Newsweek) In Newtown, for example, where a challenge for the books Flamer and Blankets erupted, Flamer had never been checked out of the school library and Blankets had been checked out twice, most recently in 2015. Yet those two books came under attack (Harkay).

“A book challenge is a demand to remove a book from a library’s collection so that no one else can read it,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Overwhelmingly, we’re seeing these challenges come from organized censorship groups that target local library board meetings to demand removal of a long list of books they share on social media,” (Craven).

Typically, books are challenged – reconsidered is another term - before they can be banned. A book ban occurs when a governmental agency, such as a board of education, deliberately removes a book. While anyone can challenge a book, most schools and libraries have procedures that must be followed before a decision can be reached that would remove a book from the shelves. Despite this, however, schools are receiving anonymous challenges that bypass established procedures (Mutchler).

According to Katie Huffman, director of the Phoebe Noyes Griffin Library in Old Lyme, the people who argued against certain books there circumvented normal policies, did not talk to the professional library staff, and tried to “provoke a response driven by emotion rather than a duly established policy” (Otte).

Since the majority of book challenges center around people of color and LGBTQ orientation, it is often argued that these books don’t belong in a collection because they don’t reflect the values of a community. However, Huffman pushes back on that interpretation of a library’s purpose.

“Many members of the public fundamentally misunderstand the library’s role in the community. The idea that the library should reflect community values not only sets an impossible standard, for no single understanding of community values exists, but it stands in the way of providing collections that represent the broad range of human experience,” she said. (Otte).

These attacks led librarians to approach the state legislature to devise legislation that would protect both librarians, who are often personally threatened, and the procedures which would allow for a transparent process for evaluating a book challenge (Otte).

One of their proposals was the Libraries for All Act. The act would make public library policies subject to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This would mean that a library could not remove a book based on the race, gender identity, or sexual orientation of the book’s characters since they would fall under the protection of the Civil Rights Act (Otte).

The proposed act reads, “Incorporating civil rights principles into library policy would shift the focus from a book’s appropriateness to its relevance for a protected class” (Otte). This would offer protections to libraries that keep books about characters of color and LGBTQ from discriminatory challenges.

The CT law SB 2, An Act Concerning The Mental, Physical And Emotional Wellness Of Children, which passed in 2023, originally contained language with proposed protections for libraries through the creation of “sanctuary public libraries” that could lend books that may have been banned in other locations. The language about sanctuary libraries was later removed (Harkay).

Meanwhile, according to the Connecticut Library Association, “Among other things, this legislation [SB 2] restored funding to a budget line that had been zeroed out since 2016, which allows for incentive grants to principal public libraries - as long as they have collection management policies” (CLA Advocacy). Those policies would necessarily have to include the procedures required in the event of a book challenge.

Instituting clear procedures for considering challenges is becoming increasingly important both for public libraries and boards of education.  For example, after a parent challenged a book at the elementary school level in Darien, the Darien Board of Education proposed a policy directing how parents can challenge classroom materials. The challenge must originate from a parent of a current student in the school and then the challenge must go through the district’s chain of command: teacher, principal, and then the filing of a formal complaint with the superintendent. Then, the Superintendent’s Review Committee will schedule a hearing (Hersh).

The review committee will be formed on a case-by-case basis, made up of teachers and parents according to the materials being challenged. In other words, the committee for a book challenge at the elementary school level will include elementary school teachers and parents of current elementary school students at that school as well as administrators from the superintendent’s office (Hersh).

Refer to the other pages in this Guide for a list of organizations fighting censorship and information on the growth of state legislation around the county that is imposing censorship on schools and libraries.

“These attacks on our freedom to read should trouble every person who values liberty and our constitutional rights. To allow a group of people or any individual, no matter how powerful or loud, to become the decision-maker about what books we can read or whether libraries exist, is to place all our rights and liberties in jeopardy.” – Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Director, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom

Works Cited

CLA Advocacy. Connecticut Library Association. 2024, https://ctlibraryassociation.org/Advocacy. Accessed 7 Feb. 2024

Craven, TinaMarie. “Banning books: In CT, titles for teens are being challenged.” CT Insider, 31 May 2023, https://www.ctinsider.com/entertainment/article/book-bans-challenges-connecticut-bipoc-lgbtqia-18109005.php.  Accessed 7 Feb. 2024

Harkay, Jessica. “Newtown is weighing a book ban. It’s not the only CT town to do so.” CT Mirror, 1 June 2023, https://ctmirror.org/2023/06/01/newtown-school-book-ban-vote-board-education-flamer-blankets/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2024.

Hersh, Mollie. “Darien schoolbook, curriculum challenges could be decided by rotating list of teachers, parents.” Darien Times. 12 Oct. 2023, https://www.darientimes.com/news/article/darien-book-curriculum-challenges-bans-18419778.php. Accessed 7 Feb. 2024.

Mutchler, Kayla. “Connecticut sees sharp increase in calls to ban books from public libraries, schools, officials say.” Westport News, 14 Apr. 2023, https://www.ctinsider.com/westport/article/book-bans-challenges-increase-ct-17895886.php. Accessed 7 Feb. 2024.

Otte, Emilia. “Librarians push for legislative protections in response to book challenges.” CT Examiner, 6 Dec. 2023, https://ctexaminer.com/2023/12/06/librarians-push-for-legislative-protections-in-response-to-book-challenges/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2024.

Steddick, Madi. “CT had over 100 book challenges this year. Librarians ask lawmakers for help.” WSHU, 7 Dec. 2023, https://www.wshu.org/connecticut-news/2023-12/07/ct-book-bans-librarians-ask-lawmakers-for-help. Accessed 7 Feb. 2024.

Torres, Lesley Cosme. “Librarians across CT celebrate banned books: ‘It’s the freedom of choice,’ one leader says.” Connecticut Public Radio, 3 Oct. 2023, http://www.ctpublic.org/news/2023-10-03/ct-librarians-encourage-reading-banned-books-its-the-freedom-of-choice.  Accessed 7 Feb.2024