42. What’s behind the push to ban books?
According to the American Library Association, there were 330 attempts to ban books between September 1 and December 1, 2021. In 2019, there were only 377 attempts for the entire year. Book challenges are clearly increasing in our schools. What types of books are targeted, and why are people demanding censorship? What is the impact on our kids and society at large when we decide to hide a story from our children’s eyes? In this episode, Dr. Emily Knox, associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, joins Kevin to discuss the motivations behind book banning and what it means for our children.