Parents challenging a long list of books are often using lists compiled by people who oppose book banning.
20 years ago, a group of parents in Fairfax County formed a group known as Parents Against Bad Books. They posted a page on their website of targeted titles that had more than 1,000 books by putting together a list of lists that included, for example, a Waldenbooks promotional list of banned books used to sell copies of Catcher in the Rye and 1984.
Tassllyn Magnusson at PEN America says lists of books to challenge are a kind of currency for people pursuing censorship.
"That conversation very quickly turns to, ‘Well, here's the list. Here's what PEN America said were banned books. Here's what we've found in our own research are bad books to have in schools,'" says Magnusson. "And they're not reading the books, but relying on these sort of crafted lists."
Those carefully crafted lists are being exploited, says Lisa Varga at the Virginia Library Association.
"It's an interesting phenomenon, and I'll quote my teenage son who calls it 'copy paste' who says that there's very little original thought coming from it," Varga says. "It's more taking ideas from other people and manipulating them in a way that you want so that you can have motivation to censor."
So far this year, almost 400 book titles have been challenged here in Virginia – often by people challenging hundreds of books at a time.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
