Chicago-area libraries, other institutions hold events for Banned Books Week

This week is Banned Books Week, a tradition going back 44 years in response to challenges to books in schools, libraries and bookstores.

Organizers from the American Library Association say Banned Books Week "highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas."

Banned Books Week events were planned in the Chicago area throughout the week, including a series of live readings by professional actors from the City Lit Theater company. The annual "Books on the Chopping Block" event features dramatic readings of short excerpts from the 10 most frequently banned books in the U.S. in 2025.

"Books on the Chopping Block" will appear at 7 p.m. Wednesday, the Northbrook Public Library, at 1201 Cedar Ln. in Northbrook; at 7 p.m. Thursday at Women & Children First bookstore, at 5233 N. Clark St. in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood; and at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Edgewater Branch of the Chicago Public Library, at 6000 N. Broadway.

"Books on the Chopping Block" events were also held this week at City Lit Theater itself in Edgewater, and at the DePaul Theater School Lobby.

The University of Chicago is also touting its Banned Books Initiative, which features a collection of more than 2,000 banned books and supports academic research on book bans and their impact.

Dulcey Hunter joined the U of C last month as the Banned Books Postdoctoral Scholar with the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression.

Quoted in a UChicago News article, Hunter noted that bans or curriculum restrictions on books have a "chilling effect" on education.

"Teachers may be self-censoring," Hunter was quoted. "Many educators, due to professional strain, fear of retribution or backlash, decide not to incorporate controversial texts and stick with the safe choices."

Hunter told UChicago News that last year, 92% of all book challenges in the U.S. came through coordinated efforts by "pressure groups, government officials, and decision makers," while only 3% came from individual parents.

According to the American Library Association, the following books were the most frequently banned in 2025:

• "Sold," by Patricia McCormick, the story of a 13-year-old girl named Lakshmi who lives in a poor mountain home in Nepal after her father tells her she must find a job when the Himalayan monsoons wash away her family's crops. She thinks she is going to work in as a maid, but ends up being sold into the sex slave trade in India.
• "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky, a coming-of-age novel about a shy and intelligent high school freshman named Charlie who is traumatized by the suicide of his best friend. Charlie navigates his way through high school and experiences with sex, drugs, family issues, and loss.
•  "Gender Queer," by Maia Kobabe, an autobiographical comic about the author's journey of self-identity—including challenges with adolescent crushes and coming out to family, bonding over erotic gay fanfiction with friends, and facing the trauma of pap smears.
• "Empire of the Storms," by Sarah J. Maas, the story of the path to the throne for Aelin Galathynius amid a looming war. Alliances and rivalries have been formed, and those who possess magic are at odds with those who do not. As Aelin fights to protect those she loves, her past role as an assassin lingers.
• "Late Night at the Telegraph Club," by Malinda Lo, a story set in 1954 about a 17-year-old girl named Lily Hu who falls in love with another girl, Kathleen Miller, in an America hostile both to lesbians and to Chinese Americans like Lily amid the Red Scare.
• "Tricks," by Ellen Hopkins, a verse novel about five teens who come from different walks of life, but all need love, acceptance, safety, and family. One of the teens, Eden, is the daughter of a hellfire-and-brimstone preacher and is having a secret love affair. Another, Seth, is a gay farm kid whose mother has died and who is hiding his sexuality from his father. Whitney is good-looking and intelligent, but overshadowed by her "better" older sister. Ginger lives in poverty with a drug-abusing and sexually deviant mother. Cody tends to his mother's emotional and financial needs with his stepfather having died.
• "A Court of Thorns and Roses," by Sarah J. Maas, the story of a 19-year-old huntress named Feyre and a faerie in search of retribution who drags her to a "treacherous" magical land. Her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, turn from "icy hostility" to "fiery passion."
• "A Clockwork Orange," by Anthony Burgess, the classic novel set in England in a dystopian future, telling the story of a 15-year-old boy named Alex who leads a violent gang and undergoes an experimental rehabilitation therapy designed to suppress his brutal tendencies. The novel explores free will, fate, and morality, and was famously adapted into a classic film by Stanley Kubrick in 1971.
• "Identical," by Ellen Hopkins, the story of 16-year-old identical twin sisters Kaleigh and Raeanne, daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother. The family harbors dark secrets, and the girls themselves turn to self-destructive behaviors.
• "Looking for Alaska," by John Green, the story of a boy named Miles "Pudge" Halter who leaves his Florida home for an Alabama boarding school in search of what French writer François Rabelais called "The Great Perhaps." He encounters friendship, love, and tragedy as he is drawn to a spellbinding and enigmatic girl named Alaska Young.
• "Storm and Fury," by Jennifer L. Armentrout, the story of an 18-year-old girl named Trinity Marrow who is going blind, but can see and communicate with ghosts. Her power is part of a secret so dangerous that she has been in hiding in a compound where gargoyle shape-shifting Wardens protect her from demons. If the demons find out about her power, she will be devoured. Trinity's safe world blows up when reports surface that something is killing both demons and Wardens.