PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – The American Library Association says book bans remain high; 2025 saw the second-highest number of book challenges to restrict or remove a book documented by the ALA.
Book bans and attempted bans remain at record highs, with ‘Sold’ topping the list
More than 4,200 unique titles were challenged in 2025.
“A book challenge is any time a community member disagrees with a book that is in a library’s collection, and then they work with the library, with the community, to decide whether or not it belongs there,” said Dr. Jennifer Brown, the executive director of the Virginia Library Association.
The majority of the books challenged for removal were brought by groups or government officials, with just a small percentage by parents.
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Dr. Brown says it could take weeks to months to get a book off the shelves. She says librarians in the state have to have an ALA-accredited library degree plus follow policies and procedures for how they handle book challenges.
“When somebody comes through and challenges an item, what we do is we have a process to really go back and analyze that particular item within the scope of the entire collection, within the scope of the community,” said Dr. Brown.
Dr. Brown adds a group of people with varying opinions and backgrounds have to read the book and decide if it belongs in the collection.
The ALA says 40% of the books challenged were represented by LGBTQ characters and people of color.
“On the other hand, we’re seeing in Virginia that the challenges are typically hitting school libraries, and we see that happening first and then sometimes that’ll trickle into other communities surrounding those schools,” said Dr. Brown.
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The top books with attempts to restrict access or have a library remove them were ‘Sold’ by Patricia McCormick, followed by The Perks of Being a Wallflower because of its sexually explicit writing.
“Libraries are a place where we try not to have an agenda as much as possible so we’re here to create balanced collections that have differing opinions and differing experiences so that we can make informed decisions about our lives,” said Dr. Brown.
More than 5,600 titles faced bans from libraries, with over half of the books challenged for removal, according to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, making it the highest number of titles censored in one year.
Dr. Brown says the General Assembly commissioned a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to do a study on how many books were challenged and taken out of school libraries from 2020 to 2025. 10 On Your Side found that most of the removals were happening in Hanover County and Rockingham County; more than 125 books were removed in Hanover County, and Rockingham County removed 57.
Local school boards have the authority to select and remove school library books. In the study, it says, “State law requires divisions to set policies related to instructional materials, which applies to library books only when required for a class assignment or educational program.”
The study also says state law does not require school divisions to have a specific policy relating to selection and evaluation of library books or challenges to library books when they are not instructional materials. The majority of schools removed books due to sexually explicit content or local policy.
“What they were finding in the study was that the reason this was happening was because of a lot of ambiguity in state law about informing parents of material that had sexually explicit content in the instructional material,” said Dr. Brown. “A lot of folks were taking instructional material to main school libraries as well, because, you know, they’re under the same roof.”
According to Dr. Brown, this year, Governor Spanberger signed a bill, SB19, that clarified what instruction materials were and how they had to align with the curriculum and that does not include materials that are in school libraries and should not be used for the purpose of censorship.
‘So we’re headed in the right direction in order to really start protecting that freedom to access and freedom to information and freedom to other people’s stories,” said Dr. Brown.
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