For about as long as he has been a published author, John Green has faced attempts to censor his books. His debut novel “Looking for Alaska,” a coming-of-age story with references to drug use and sex, has been challenged in schools for at least fifteen years and has regularly landed on the American Library Association’s list of most banned books. . Last year it received more than 50 challenges in schools across the country.
But the recent discussion about whether his books are appropriate for teens feels more personal, and like an escalation of a growing movement to ban and limit access to books, Green said.
A public library in its home state of Indiana introduced a new policy earlier this year requiring library staff to remove books with sexually explicit content from its children’s and teen sections and return them to its adult collection. The decision by the Hamilton East Public Library meant that more than 1,800 young adult books were moved, including such classics as Judy Blume’s “Forever” and Laurie Halse Anderson’s “Speak”, as well as two of Green’s novels, “Looking for Alaska” and “The Fault in Our Stars.”
“I love Indiana so much, and it breaks my heart to see that kind of radicalism in a public library,” says Green, who lives in Indianapolis.
The mass relocation of YA titles in Hamilton East has sparked intense public criticism, in part because Green’s beloved books were dragged along during the purge. But it is by no means an isolated incident.
Efforts to ban books have exploded in the United States over the past two years, spurred by conservative groups and lawmakers who have targeted books they deem inappropriate, mostly titles that address race and LGBTQ issues. Recently, a growing number of public libraries have responded to complaints by removing books from the children’s section or placing them in a locked room where parental consent is required.
In Montgomery County, Texas, commissioners voted in July to pass new library policies that prohibit people under the age of 18 from accessing books with “explicit” content, including many LGBTQ-themed works. A library board in Campbell County, Wyo, passed a measure this summer requiring librarians to remove all books containing sexual content from children’s and teen sections, firing the library director after she refused to move the books.
In Crawford County, Ark., the library system removed LGBTQ-themed children’s books and placed them in a separate, age-appropriate “social section,” a policy that is being challenged in court. And after residents of Marion County, Miss., complained about LGBTQ content in the popular YA graphic novel series “Heartstopper,” a library board agreed to move it to its adult section and conduct a review of all books for young adults. section.
Librarians and free speech advocates say such practices, while not new, are emerging and may amount to a form of censorship.
“I consider this censorship because it denies access to the intended audience,” said Emily Knox, chair of the National Coalition Against Censorship. “Nobody wants to be called a censor, so one of the ways you do that is by blocking access.”
At a time when conflicts over books have divided communities, the debate over Green’s novels is particularly fraught. His successful novel “The Fault in Our Stars,” which follows two teens with cancer who fall in love, has sold approximately 25 million copies and is particularly resonant in Indiana, where most of the novel is set.
As a literary celebrity with a huge online following, Green has now become a somewhat reluctant conscript in a raging culture war over which books are appropriate for young readers, and who gets to decide.
“This is an escalation on the part of far-right groups who want to control what kind of information teens have access to,” said Green. “‘Looking for Alaska’ has been removed from dozens and dozens of school libraries over the past year, so the public library is the next logical step.”
The controversy over young adult books at the East Hamilton library began in early 2022, after the library received challenges for 11 books that patrons deemed inappropriate, including non-fiction titles for teens about sex education. After a caustic public debate over whether such works belonged in the children’s section, the board instituted a new policy that would restrict all books containing explicit references to sex to the adult section. In the spring, they added new restrictions requiring library staff to review YA titles not only for sexual content, but also for certain profanity and criminal acts.
By mid-August, library staff had reviewed more than 3,500 young adult titles and moved more than 1,000 books, sparking widespread complaints from community members opposed to the removal.
Public outcry against the policy intensified last month after Green posted to inform on social media called the policy “ridiculous” and sent an outraged response letter to the library board.
Last Thursday, after weeks of pressure, the library board voted to suspend and re-evaluate the policy. The books that have already been moved to the adult section will remain there while the policy is paused, but may be returned to the young adult section pending decisions by the board, the library director and board chairman said in a statement to The Times.
While many residents who attended last week’s library board meeting criticized the policy, some spoke out in favor of moving books with explicit content. One speaker supporting the moves, Julie Boyd, brought a stack of books she said had explicit content and read a sex scene from Courtney Summers’ novel “I’m the Girl.” “I don’t want kids reading this,” she said.
Moving books so that they are inaccessible to intended readers could constitute both a violation of the First Amendment and a lapse of a librarian’s professional duties, says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association.
“If you shelve John Green’s books because you don’t like the content, that could lead to an unconstitutional act,” Caldwell-Stone said.
In the past, courts have ruled that such practices violate the First Amendment. In 2000, a judge ruled that the city of Wichita Falls, Texas, violated residents’ right to information after the city implemented a library policy that resulted in two children’s books featuring LGBTQ characters being removed and placed in the adult section.
For now, the status of Green’s books and hundreds of other titles moved to the Hamilton East Public Library remains unresolved.
Green said he will never get used to his books, some of which deal with teen romance and intimacy, being labeled as pornography. But it was especially shocking to hear such allegations being made so close to home.
“It’s always pretty tough for me,” he says. “But it’s definitely a little harder when it’s in your hometown, and you’re aware of the fact that you have to walk through the grocery store with those people.”
Green, who has spoken and written about his struggles with anxiety, said he was reluctant to get involved because the controversy makes him “super extra anxious,” but felt compelled to do so because the librarians who suffered the most under the criticism cannot speak up for fear of losing their jobs.
“I believe very strongly in freedom of expression and in the right of teenagers to read, and I strongly believe that other parents should not have any say in what my children read,” he said. “As long as that battle continues, I feel obligated to give my voice to it.”
