ABA Right to Read Handbook: Fighting Book Bans and Why It Matters (2024)

The ABA Right to Read Handbook: A Reader's Guide to Fighting Book Bans will provide a comprehensive guide to resisting the epidemic of book censorship through local organizing and engaged citizenship. The Handbook is designed for the potential activist who may only have a few hours to spare each month. It identifies the causes, actors, motivations, and strategies of groups attempting to ban books across the country. It offers step-by-step guides for voting in a school board election, understanding a school board's policies, contacting elected officials, and more. It features interviews with free expression advocates and state-by-state profiles of local advocacy organizations. Finally, the content is organized into a playbook that will allow concerned readers to begin defending the right to read as soon as book bans arrive in their community.