The American Library Association (ALA) said it's seeing the number of groups across the country trying to ban books continue to rise.

They say they saw a 65 percent increase from 2022 for challenges of books, making it the highest documented year.

You can find more information about the data at this link.

There's an effort to restrict access to some books right here in Northern Nevada.

A petition in Washoe County is asking for books to be moved out of the children's sections of public libraries and removed from school libraries entirely. 

The education advocacy group, Wake Up Washoe County, said this all started with a community member raising a concern.

As a result of that concern, members of the group and the group Nevada Patriot read and reviewed more than 140 books.

They came up with a list of 14 books they want to limit access to:

  • The Hate U Give - by Thomas, Angie
  • Elatsoe - by Little Badger, Darcie
  • The Lovely Bones - by Sebold, Alice
  • Crank - by Hopkins, Ellen
  • Looking for Alaska - by Green, John
  • Beyond Magenta - by Kuklin, Susan
  • Zenobia July- by Bunker, Lisa
  • HeartStopper Volume 3 - by Oseman, Alice
  • Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - by Andrews, Jesse
  • Flamer - by Curato, Mike
  • All Boys Aren't Blue - by Johnson, George 
  • Date Me, Bryson Keller - by Van Whye, Kevin
  • This Day in June - by Pitman, Gayle
  • Hooked - by McIntire, Emily

Since late last year, Washoe County Library Board meetings have included heated debates about books.

It stems from a petition signed by more than 1,300 people.

They're all asking for books with "obscene and pornographic" content to be moved from the kid and young adult section of the library into the adult section.

"When you have graphic representation of the sex act right there in the book, I question if any of that belongs in the young adult section," said Bruce Parks, Chairman of the Washoe County Republican Party and Co-founder of the Nevada Patriot.

Library Director, Jeff Scott, said there's more to these books than sex.

"A lot of times when you look at the content of these materials, the materials here are educational," Scott said.

However, Scott believes people's problems with these books involves more than just the sexual content.

"They're trying to look at banning books that have diverse narratives," Scott said. "They label it as something that's inappropriate for kids, but it's mainly they don't want to hear narratives from people who are not white."

Parks said that's not the case.

"It doesn't matter what demographic this particularly addresses."

Exchanges like this between Parks and Scott go back to the summer of 2022.

Each says the other is unwilling to compromise.

Scott added that he believes young people having access to the internet should be a greater concern.

"That's more of an education a parent needs to do if you're going to give a child access to the internet. That's more of a concern than giving them a library card," Scott said.

Parks disagrees, saying that the internet is easier to manage.

"But there's ways that you can limit access on the internet," he said. "There's plenty of filters that can be put in place, but the library not so much."

That's why Parks said the petition is asking for books to be moved, not banned.

"We're not asking that you remove these books from the library and take them out behind the building and burn them," Parks said. "I am opposed to censorship in any form."

Scott said some of the books in the petition are already in the adult section of public libraries.

After searching all 14 titles, we found six of them there.

Challenges have been filed to move the remaining books and others.

"So, typically we interfile all the YA nonfiction into the adult nonfiction the challenge of "All Boys Aren't Blue" is that it's already in the adult section so I'm not sure why we're having this conversation," Scott said.

The challenge process involves filing a formal complaint about a book or its placement.

First, it goes through the collections manager, Debi Stears. She will then provide a response.

If the person doesn't like the response, then they submit the challenge to Scott, the Library Director.

If the person doesn't like his response, then it goes to the board, where they will make a decision.

When it comes to public school libraries, it's a different story. 

The petition calls for removing the books completely saying no one under 18 should read them.

"Why are these books in our schools, President Smith?" a concerned parent asked during a Washoe County School District meeting in February.

Many who have spoken out to the library board and the WCSD feel their voices aren't being heard, but they are continuing the fight.

"There are 30 schools in the district that have really troubling and over the edge books," said Nichelle Hull, Founder of Wake Up Washoe County.

The WCSD says it already has a policy in place to deal with that.

The district sent a statement saying, "It is the priority of the teacher-librarian to develop and maintain a collection appropriate to the patron that reflects diverse and balanced topics, interests, and reading levels. This is no easy task, and that is why parents are their child’s first educator. Our librarians maintain that parents have the right and responsibility to restrict access of their children – and only their children - to library resources.  A book that may be perfectly appropriate for one student may be of concern to a parent of another."