John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is just one of hundreds of classics that have been banned or challenged in the United States this year, according to the American Library Association. The growing list also includes “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Catcher in the Rye.” LA Times entertainment reporter Emily St. Martin recently wrote about a 33% increase in book bans up from last year, and joined Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today.”

PEN America’s report shows the sharp increase in book bans nationwide. St. Martin explained that groups are targeting books that deal with race, sexual abuse and LGBTQ+ issues. 

“Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’ is one of the most banned books. That one deals with themes of race, racism and sexual abuse. And we have ‘Looking for Alaska’ by John Green and ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower,’ which is an amazing book that was turned into a movie. And it’s a quintessential teenage story. Because... one of the main characters struggles with having been sexually abused as a child and he’s trying to make sense of that and move on with his life. It’s under attack,” St. Martin said.

St. Martin talked about the sources of the complaints against certain books.

“They are coming from small community-led and parent-led advocacy groups. They kind of organize and they all work together using websites. There’s one called Book Looks, and a lot of them are just looking at the books and then filling out these complaint forms. They haven’t read the book. They have no familiarity with the literature themselves. And they’re just taking the complaint that is listed on these websites and filing them in their county,” St. Martin said.  

There have been verified reports that many of the people who are showing up at school board meetings to speak out against books don’t have kids in the school.

Florida is the leading state for banned books in the nation. 

“Florida is a bit of an epicenter of book bans. And they were at first using the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill as an excuse, but then they pivoted to HB1069, which bans books based off of sexually explicit content. But it’s very vague language,” St. Martin elaborated. “In Texas, there was recently a big win where a Trump appointed judge actually shot down one of the bills, wanting to rate books and have each book list a rating on the binding.

Last month, California passed a law barring schools from banning textbooks based on LGBTQ+ content. 

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