By Grace Jacobson / News Director

This week is Banned Books Week.

The annual event highlights current and historic attempts to censor books in schools and libraries.

Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read and this year’s theme is “Let Freedom Read.”

In 2022, the American Library Association (ALA) documented the highest number of attempted book bans since the ALA began documenting censorship more than 20 years ago.

Around 1,300 attempts were documented and over 2,500 titles were targeted.

The vast majority of those titles were written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ or BIPOC communities.

You can see the list of the top 13 most challenged books of 2022 at ALA.org.