The New York Public Library made banned books available nationwide. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi are some of the titles. The library worked with the publishers and authors to make the titles available to the public for free, with no wait times or download limits. Normally publishers allow libraries to only lend out e-books to a single person at a time, leading to long hold times at public libraries.
Interested readers don't need a NYPL library card or live in the region to read the titles. Hundreds of titles in the public domain will be made available to anyone nationwide through the NYPL's Books For All program.
The NYPL has voiced its opposition to a recent spike in book banning across school districts nationwide. According to a report by PEN America, over the last nine months, more than 1,000 books have been banned from school districts.
New York Public Library President Anthony W. Marx said that the recent instances of book banning are an attack on the very foundation of our democracy.
The 1999 young adult novel Speak, about a ninth grade girl who has refused to talk since being raped at a party, is included in ALA's list of 100 most challenged books between 2000 and 2009. Parents are against its graphic, sexual content. The winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature was flagged for removal in Keller, Texas. In Round Rock, Texas last year, parents challenged the book because it criticized a Supreme Court nominee.
The SimplyE app had to increase its server capacity three times today to account for the spike in downloads, according to an email from the vice-president of communications and marketing. There are no plans to release any more banned titles in the near future.
At this point we are not planning to release more books as part of this project, but we will see how things go.
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