Who Is Winning The Fight Around Book Bans?

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**Sasha-Ann Simons** (0:42)
Hey, Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons and this is In the Loop.
Stick around to the end of this episode to get the latest on what's happening in and around Chicago with a panel of WBEZ journalists. But first, maybe you haven't heard about it in a while, but book bans are still on the rise across the country. It's even happening in states like Illinois where lawmakers have banned book bans in schools and libraries. The American Library Association tracked more than 4,200 book challenges in 2025 alone, and many of the targeted titles focus on history, activism, and the experiences of people of color. One Illinoisan caught in the middle is Veronica Arreola. The activist and author wrote a children's book that's now on several banned books lists. In this episode of the pod, we check in with her and a panel of experts to discuss what is driving this new wave of challenges and what it means for learning, freedom of expression, and our broader social climate. At the table, Veronica Arreola, author of the children's book, J Is for Justice. She's also the 24th District Counselor for Chicago's Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.
Jarrett Dapier, who's a Youth Services Librarian at the Niles Main District Library and author of the new graphic novel, Wake Now in the Fire. And Dan Montgomery, Executive Director of the American Library Association, the first non-librarian to lead the organization in its 150 year history. Now there's so much to discuss here, but I wanted to start with a basic definition so that we're all on the same page. Here's Dan with the difference between book bans and censorship.

**Dan Montgomery** (2:22)
I think that you could say that book bans are sort of censorship on the ground in an active way, if you will.
And there's always been attempts in this country to censor information and access information. What we're seeing now, however, is an extraordinary blooming explosion of book ban attempts. You quoted that 4200 figure. So the ALA, yeah, we have a report of the State of America's Libraries every year that looks back. So in the year 2025, there were over 4200 titles, separate individual title attempts to ban books all over the country. And just for context, before about 2019, that average was about 200 and some, OK? In about 23, there were 5,000, went down a little bit the next year. But last year, they're back up. I think one of the really important things, Sasha, is that most of these bans, they are not from parents. That's often what people think. Oh yeah, parents want to ban or limit books for kids. No, only 2% come from parents. The vast majority, over about 95%, come from big, dark money political groups and government officials.
And that's Veronica's case was in Virginia, was a government official that wanted to strike her book.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:42)
Yeah, tell us a bit more about that, Jarrett, the groups and the people who are behind these book bans and their motives or what it seems.

**Jarrett Dapier** (3:50)
Yeah, so I wrote a picture book called Mr. Watson's Chickens. It was my first picture book. And it's about a same-sex couple who have an overwhelming chicken problem.
And it's funny, it's light-hearted.
But they really don't like it in Alabama. And a perfect example of what Dan's talking about is in North Shelby, Alabama, Mr. Watson's Chickens was put on a pride display in the children's room during Pride Month. And the local, very conservative officials protested. And there was a very big controversy in town with a lot of people coming out to defend the books on that pride display. And the board of directors at that time in the library said that they were going to keep the books and they're going to keep pride displays. However, the response was the more conservative members of the board then coordinated an attack on the board itself with help from state officials. So the board ended up being dissolved and appointed by the governor. And the appointments were all people who were anti-trans, anti-queer and anti, all the things you talked about. All of the critical history that we, that our kids know.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (5:08)
What a coordinated effort. And Veronica, I see the look on your face because I'm sure this is hitting close to home. Your book, J Is for Justice, it's appeared on several banned books lists. It's a children's book, which, you know, again, might be surprising to some, even hearing Jarrett's story a moment ago. What is your book about?