Sept 18-24, 2022
Banned Books Week 2022
Join us in the library as we celebrate the freedom to read! Banned Books Week is September 18-24, 2022, and recognizes the importance of standing up to infringements of personal liberties including the right to research, read, and encounter information on ones own terms. This year has been especially fraught in the State of Missouri, and local organizations like the Missouri Library Association, Missouri Association of School Librarians, the ACLU-MO and others have spoken out against book bans. Join us in advocating for the rights of readers, read a banned book today!
Banned Books Week 2022
Intellectual Freedom in Missouri
Intellectual Freedom in the News
SB 775- Banning Graphic Novels
Blue Is the Warmest Color
Blue is the Warmest Color is a graphic novel about growing up, falling in love, and coming out. Clementine, a high school student, has an average life: she has friends, family, and the romantic attention of the boys in her school. When her openly gay best friend takes her out on the town, she wanders into a lesbian bar where she encounters Emma: a punkish, confident girl with blue hair. Their attraction is instant and electric, and Clementine finds herself in a relationship that will test her friends, parents, and her own ideas about herself and her identity
Blankets
Blankets is the story of a young man coming of age and finding the confidence to express his creative voice. Craig Thompson's poignant graphic memoir plays out against the backdrop of a Midwestern winterscape: finely-hewn linework draws together a portrait of small town life, a rigorously fundamentalist Christian childhood, and a lonely, emotionally mixed-up adolescence.
Watchmen
This stunning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of superheroes plagued by all too human failings. The concept of the super hero is dissected and inverted as strangely realistic characters are stalked by an unknown assassin. Originally published as a 12 issue series in 1986 and 1987, Watchman remains one of DC Comics' most popular graphic novels.
Persepolis
An intelligent and outspoken only child, Satrapi--the daughter of radical Marxists and the great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor--bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
V for Vendetta: New Edition
Set in a futurist totalitarian England, a country without freedom or faith, a mysterious man in a white porcelain mask strikes back against the oppressive overlords on behalf of the voiceless. Armed with only knives and his wits, V, as he’s called, aims to bring about change in this horrific new world. His only ally? A young woman named Evey Hammond. And she is in for much more than she ever bargained for…
Banned Books 2021- A Year in Review
Organizations to Contact
Are books being challenged in your school or community? Contact these organizations for guidance and support.
Ask a Librarian
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Nixa, MO Students Read Banned Books
Featured List-- Banned Books
- Frequently Challenged BooksTake a look at books the library has to offer for checkout! Read a banned book today!
Recent Developments in Missouri
In August 2022, SB 775 was signed into law. This bill modifies Missouri Revised Statute 573.550 to create a hostile environment for teachers and librarians helping students find materials in the library. In a shift in tactics, this provision targets visual art rather than targeting the written word, which is a much easier argument to make in light of the First Amendment. This means that books subject to SB 775's changes are mostly graphic novels and manga. Librarians have rallied against this and related efforts as they have done for decades. The Missouri Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee, MASL (Missouri Association of School LIbrarians), The Missouri branch of the ACLU, the NAACP and others continue to champion your right to read what you choose, and to access information in the library. Find this year's battle for intellectual freedom below.