Unite Against Book Bans, an initiative of the American Library Association (ALA), hosts Banned Books Week every year. This year’s Banned Books Week starts in just a few days and runs from October 4 to 10. More than 4,200 books were challenged in 2025, and we need to...
book bans
Watch This: How book banners are threatening librarians
If you were asked to list dangerous jobs in America, you might think of firefighters, power line workers, or maybe people in construction. But librarians? In a recent survey, U.S. library workers reported more than 8,200 traumatic incidents in their jobs, ranging from...
Read This: Book banners are coming for librarians
A federal judge just ruled that librarians can now be arrested and criminally charged in Arkansas for providing access to certain books. This is the latest phase in the nationwide book banning movement that our friends at PEN America have been tracking since 2021....
Okay, But Why Are Romance Novels Political?
When people think of romance novels, the first thing that comes to mind is shirtless men with windswept hair on the covers of mass-market paperbacks, or maybe the “damsel in distress” main character who is waiting for a love interest to come and save her from the clutches of evil. They’re often not thought of as ‘real’ reading, because they are stories typically written by women, for women, and starring women. But what if the truth is that even the most “raunchy” novels of the genre are deeply political?
Do This: Unite Against Soft Censorship
The only way to end censorship, whether it’s the quiet removal of books from library collections or in-your-face book bans, is to fight it head on. We saw a huge example of this – and a big win for free speech – this week when ABC and Disney returned Jimmy Kimmel and...
Watch This: Learn How to Spot Soft Censorship
A lot of people are talking about freedom of speech right now. As Americans, it's a right that has always defined us and that we all hold dear. That’s why the majority of us oppose book bans and censorship. The rise in book bans over the past few years has been well...
Read This: The Quiet Danger of Soft Censorship
We’ve been fighting the explosion of book bans since Red Wine & Blue started. PEN America reports 16,000 book bans in public schools since 2021 — a level not seen since the 1950s during McCarthyism. This increase has been driven by organized groups with a...
Do This: Celebrate Right to Read Day
Monday, April 7 is Right to Read Day — a day to celebrate and defend our freedom to read while we also bring attention to the rising, extremist attempts to take it away. We are a partner with Unite Against Book Bans, a program of the American Library Association, and...
Watch This: The Right to Read is Under Attack
We are proud to be one of more than 200 organizations and tens of thousands of individuals who make up the American Library Association's Unite Against Book Bans. Together, we’re helping our communities advocate for the freedom to read. On April 7, 2025, we’re...
Read This: A New Era of Fighting Book Bans
In a few weeks, we’ll celebrate Right to Read Day as part of National Library Week. National Library Week celebrates how reading and libraries enrich our lives and communities. It started in the 1950s over concerns that Americans were reading less and spending more...
Recent Posts
Do This: Make your Voting Plan for the Midterm Elections
There are probably a lot of reasons fewer people vote in midterm elections than in presidential elections. Maybe they don’t know that they’re happening. Maybe they don’t know who is running for state and local offices, or they don’t realize how important those offices...
Watch This: Heather Cox Richardson’s Midterm Election Advice
Midterm Election Day is just around the corner on November 3, but early voting has already started, or is starting in many states soon. In other words, the election is now! We know it’s important to vote in the midterms, but we also know that many of our friends and...
Okay, But Why Should You Vote for Attorney General?
Americans don’t talk about attorneys general very much. Many of us don’t even know who our state attorney general is or what they do, but attorneys general have the power to shape our daily lives. Read more to learn what state attorneys general do, and why it’s important to vote for them!
Read This: Five reasons to vote in the midterm elections
We are just 26 days away from midterm Election Day, so let’s spend the next few weeks getting ourselves and everyone we know ready to vote. Voters usually turnout more in Presidential elections than they do in midterm elections. For example, 66% of voters cast a...
Do This: Participate in Banned Books Week
Unite Against Book Bans, an initiative of the American Library Association (ALA), hosts Banned Books Week every year. This year’s Banned Books Week starts in just a few days and runs from October 4 to 10. More than 4,200 books were challenged in 2025, and we need to...