By Heather Camlot
During the 2023-24 school year, the United States had 10,046 school book bans targeting 4,231 titles, according to Pen America. While that sinks in, let’s do some cross-border library comparisons. According to a 2024 study by the Canadian Federation of Library Associations, reported book challenges in the United States totaled 1,247 in 2023. In Canada, that number was 197. However, on a per capita basis, Canada’s challenges were higher and, at 49.7 percent, surpassed our Southern neighbour’s 44.1 percent in the attack on 2SLGBTQIA+ books.
We convened five authors whose books have been challenged, banned, or shadow-banned, meaning they have been quietly restricted or removed from easy access.
Christine Baldacchino (CB): Author of two books, including Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, about a boy who likes playing dress-up. The picture book was tied for fifth most banned book in the U.S. in the 2023-24 school year.
Danny Ramadan (DR): Author of eight books, including the Salma series by Annick Press, about a young Syrian girl who moves to Canada. Her uncle has a husband. The 2023 shadow ban by the Waterloo Catholic District School Board was lifted.
David A. Robertson (DAR): Author of more than 30 books, including Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story, about the murdered Indigenous teenager, and 7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga, the story of one Indigenous family, including time at residential school. Alberta Education lists both books as not recommended.
Cory Silverberg (CS): Author of four books, including Sex is a Funny Word, a middle-grade book about bodies, gender, sexuality and relationships. Their books continue to be challenged.
Robin Stevenson (RS): Author of more than 30 books, including board books Pride Colors, a celebration of unconditional love, and Pride Puppy! about a dog getting lost at a pride parade, which is involved in a U.S. Supreme Court case, with a decision likely in June.
What was the reason for your book(s) being challenged or banned?
CB: “Pushes the LGBTQ agenda,” “sexually explicit,” “content inappropriate for minors,” and “goes against religious teachings.” We all know what it comes down to, though—a lot of words for “bigotry.”
CS: For including queer and trans characters and experience, and for discussing the topic of sex and gender. When people show up at library board meetings to complain about our books [with illustrator Fiona Smyth], they often mischaracterize and outright lie about the content of our books, saying that our books “teach” masturbation or include pornographic images. Neither of which is true.
DAR: One of the main reasons for Betty was visual inference of abuse—a bizarre reason since Betty was murdered. The most ridiculous reason was for 7 Generations from Edmonton Public Schools—it required teachers to have pre- and post-conversations with students. You’re banning this book because it requires teachers to do their job? What an insult to teachers.
DR: The school board had never directly communicated with me on the reasons why the book was banned. However, the fact that the list of the four books shadow-banned were all minding themes around queer and trans identities and inclusion speaks volumes.
RS: My books are nearly always challenged because of homophobia and transphobia. Pride Colors has been called “sexually explicit,” “obscene,” and “pornographic” because some of the photos of babies show families with two moms or two dads.
What was it like to be told your book is being pulled off the shelf?
CB: I was angry. Tired. Sick to my stomach. I’ve lost time, hair, and fingernails I’ve chewed down to my knuckles. I’ve lost a lot of sleep worrying about those on the front lines—the teachers, librarians, story hour organizers, and volunteers—and all those kids suddenly being told to hate something they never really thought anything of before—things that may include themselves now.
CS: It’s depressing and disturbing, but it’s not that surprising. What is so upsetting is being constantly reminded of how little some adults care about the safety of others, especially young people, if that safety in any way makes them uncomfortable.
DAR: At first it was upsetting, because I always write my books for educational settings. Now, when it happens, whether it’s my book or someone else’s book, I’m ready to fight for that book to be used, to be read, to be an implement of change in the education system. They are books that have a profound benefit to kids and teachers.
DR: I was stunned. To have the book targeted this way right here [in Canada] felt quite personal. I also felt a bit helpless. The concept of shadow banning is very elusive and probably widespread.
RS: It’s pretty upsetting. It’s a reminder that a lot of people hate queer people, don’t want us included and would like to take away our rights and force us back into the closet.
Does this give you pause about your writing, validate it, or perhaps both?
CB: It hasn’t given me pause, no. Validation? Yes. Absolutely. “If you kick enough sand on a fire, the fire will go out” is where my mind is at these days. If I can contribute even one cup of sand…
CS: I write books for young people, and as best as I can. I don’t concern myself with what adults think of my work. It’s not for them.
DAR: It doesn’t give me pause whatsoever. You have to make people uncomfortable; there are hard truths. The parents and grandparents who are calling for these book bans didn’t read this stuff themselves. That’s why they should read it.
DR: I flipflop on that whenever I think of this matter. Standing up to lift my own community is important to me. Sometimes, I must think about the logistics of my career. A teacher might not buy my future books. A student might not pick up the troublesome book. All of this means that my opportunities as an author will be limited.
RS: It’s definitely hard to not let thoughts about book challenges influence what I am writing. At the same time, the backlash we are experiencing right now shows how fragile human rights are and the necessity of opposing censorship and book bans.
Book bans are in the 5-digits in the U.S. What’s really going on?
CB: People are being told that something is being stolen from them—money, personal safety, freedom of speech, freedom of religion—and these books are the tools we’re using to pull the wool over their eyes so good people won’t notice it happening. What’s actually being stolen from good people is knowledge, the tools for understanding and empathy.
CS: Book challenges are not some broad grassroots movements of parents. It is a small group of people who are connected to right-wing, white supremacist groups, who sometimes are not parents or do not have children the age of the books they are challenging, who are responsible for most of these challenges.
DAR: I think it is a bunch of ignorant, fearful people who aren’t comfortable with discussions around gender identity or historical accuracy, and they are projecting that fear onto kids. They think they are sheltering them, but all they are doing is perpetuating ignorance. If you take the books away, the kids are in trouble, and we are in trouble.
DR: There is a political movement to deny children their right to keep their empathy toward others. They target children’s ability to connect and make community. A community that’s divided is much easier to control—to move toward homogenies.
RS: I don’t think it’s possible to separate these book challenges and bans from the larger attack we are seeing on diversity, equity and inclusion in the United States. These challenges and bans aren’t just about books—they’re an attempt to erase or make invisible the communities whose families and identities they represent.
What message are these bans sending?
CB: People behind these book bans will tell you they're doing what they're doing to protect their child. What they're actually doing is taking away their child's agency, a fundamental life skill. “Well, I can’t trust my kid won’t come home with whatever I think the wrong book is, so I’m just going to empty out the entire library except for the five books I approve of, just to be safe, and everyone else can kick rocks.”
CS: One message is that other people have power over you to decide what you should learn and how. An effect of the bans is that many of us won’t find ourselves in books in our library, or in books we can access at all. We will, as many have before us, grow up thinking that we are alone, that our experience of the world is unique and perhaps wrong.
DAR: We’re giving into fear and ignorance and intolerance.
DR: The message is clear: your difference is shameful. It needs to be hidden. It needs to be fixed.
RS: Censoring 2SLGBTQIA+ representation tells students that no matter how much they contribute to the world, queer people can be made invisible because of who they are. The children of parents who want books banned are often the ones who most need these books. And of course, all young people’s right to read, learn, seek information and think for themselves is undermined.
Do you worry about how publishers react to challenges and bans? Perhaps booksellers and librarians, too?
CS: I think we’ll see, or maybe are already seeing, a kind of chilling and silencing effect. Publishers that don’t have deep pockets won’t be able to choose books that they believe are likely to get attacked because they won’t be able to support them. Larger publishers may continue to publish books that are likely to be challenged, although maybe not as many, and perhaps they will be drawn only to certain perspectives.
DAR: I haven’t heard a worry like that. There are reasonable people who believe in the power of storytelling. I would be shocked if someone chose to publish or chose to put a book on a shelf or chose to teach a book based on the concession of fear. You can’t make decisions based on the fear of other people. It should make you want to publish that book even more.
DR: I’m lucky that my publisher is quite liberal in their approach to their catalogue. However, I see the movement toward a less inclusive publishing industry rising. We see large publishers who commit to creating different lists for different locations (i.e., White-centric lists to Red U.S. states, vs. more diverse ones to Blue U.S. states). We see fear of publishing the nuanced stories and focus on the more generalized ones.
RS: For kids’ books, schools and libraries are a huge part of the market. And while many publishers are committed to publishing diverse titles, publishing is nonetheless a business—and I do worry that if sales drop off sharply because of this hostile climate, publishers may stop acquiring these titles.
Is there any type of content that should be limited?
CB: Back when I was in school and librarians weren’t exhausted from working a second job defending themselves against death threats, they were helping me and kids like me pick the best books for me. Teachers helped me pick the best books for me. My older sister would take me to the public library and help me pick the best books for me. These were all people working together to foster a lifelong love of reading.
CS: I learned early on, from a children’s librarian, that children are their own best censors. When a book is too much for them, or is over their head, they skip those parts or put the book down. Books that we connect with can and will challenge us and may make us uncomfortable, but it doesn’t work to say that book X or topic Y is too much for a 13-year-old or 9-year-old because we don’t know anything about the life and development of that particular 9- or 13-year-old. I trust young people, and I trust librarians.
DAR: You have to be aware of age appropriateness. Dealing with abuse at residential schools is not something you can teach in Grade 1. If you lead up to it by building a solid foundation of knowledge, then you are preparing kids to learn the tough things. That’s not censoring; that’s curating.
DR: I think there is a truth to age-appropriate reading. I would not be comfortable with a 14-year-old reading my memoir, for example. However, librarians are there for a reason—there are more mature children than others. There are children who need support finding something that answers to who they are.
How do we get the message across that we have the freedom to read?
CS: We have to read! And support our local libraries and librarians who support us. I word it that way because, strangely, there are some librarians who seem to be supportive of the idea that a minority of adults should dictate what the rest of us get to read. While they are welcome to their ideas, they are contrary to the basic principles of a public library.
DAR: You keep the books in kids’ hands and keep promoting the books that are being challenged. And be prepared to fight. Don’t give into that fear. The majority of people don’t like book bans.
RS: We need to build coalitions of publishers, authors, librarians, educators and book lovers. We find ways to support those who find themselves on the frontlines of these battles, especially librarians. We also need to enlist the support of the general public. We need to let them know about what is happening and how they can help. Write to school administrators, school board trustees and public libraries to let them know you support the freedom to read.
What would you like to see happen in Canada and the United States?
CS: I would hope that governments continue to support libraries through robust public funding and protect libraries and librarians from the whims of public opinion and political pressures. On a grassroots level, if you believe that libraries should be a place where we can encounter ideas and stories that are very different from our own, then let your public library and your local representatives know this is important to you. The movement of bans and challenges is coming from a minority, but one that has a lot of time and money behind it.
DAR: School boards and libraries need to be prepared through policy to protect literature. The people who are typically calling for books to be banned haven’t even read them. Policy should require the people who want to ban books to read these books. The reading should be confirmed, and then they should be able to challenge it.
RS: In Canada, most challenges play out at a local level, so one of the most important things people can do is to pay attention to local elections and vote for school trustees who support inclusive schools and oppose book bans.
What would you like to tell young readers, teachers, librarians, publishers?
CB: One father claimed I was “promoting another life.” Yes, I’m absolutely promoting another life. One of kindness and acceptance.
CS: Thank you for reading, thank you for engaging with work that is challenging and thank you for sharing work with others that may help us figure out how to live better together in a world that is on fire.
DAR: Recognize the importance of storytelling, the advancement of our communities and dig in and be ready to fight.
DR: When you ban a book, you’re not only denying the existence of this book on your shelves. You’re also harming the career of the author who wrote it.
RS: If we want to fight book bans, we need to all work together.
What would you like to tell the people who are trying and succeeding in banning books?
CB: Just that they’re on the wrong side of history, and their children are the ones who will inevitably suffer the consequences of their ignorance and stubbornness.
DAR: Read a book. Educate yourself. Grow up.
RS: Read the books they are challenging and listen to the young people they want to take them from. [Teens] see reading as a safe and valuable way to explore and learn about themselves and about others. Reading, they say, allows them to learn and develop more complex and nuanced understandings of the world they live in.
Look for new books from David A. Robertson and Robin Stevenson this year, and from Christine Baldacchino in spring 2026.
Heather Camlot is a journalist and editor, and the author of Becoming Bionic and Other Ways Science is Making Us Super and The Prisoner and the Writer.