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Quiz: How much do you know about book bans?

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Book banning, which has risen sharply in recent years, continues to affect kids’ access to books in schools and libraries in various districts all around the country. Over the course of just two and half academic years, the freedom-of-expression organization PEN America has reported book-banning activity in 42 states.

“In the rush to label everything as obscene, works like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and even Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary have been banned, despite their obvious literary value,” says PEN America’s report.

Many students, parents, authors, educators, and community leaders are pushing back against censorship efforts and fighting for the freedom to read. One student in Miami, Florida, summed up the sentiment well: “Trying to hide the kind of unpleasant truth from us, that doesn’t do any good. In fact, that’s harmful.”

Banned Books Week, recognized from September 22 to 28 this year, brings together everyone who loves books to support the freedom to read. You can commemorate the event by taking the quiz below, reading together, requesting diverse books from your library, or finding out how to get involved in your local school board.

Banned Books Week trivia quiz for families

Book banning is a trend that affects kids and families almost everywhere. To learn more about book banning and censorship with your family, take this trivia quiz. It’s sure to start some great conversations about reading, learning, and freedom.

Banned Books Quiz
1. Why was the children’s book Charlotte’s Web removed from classrooms in Kansas?

Answer: A) In 2006, a group in Kansas who believed that books featuring two talking animals must be the work of the devil succeeded in having E.B. White’s 1952 classic, Charlotte’s Web, taken out of classrooms. According to them, humans are “the only creatures that can communicate vocally. Showing lower life forms with human abilities is sacrilegious and disrespectful to God.”

2. Which well-known children’s book was banned in Texas schools in 2010 because the author happened to have the same name as an obscure Marxist theorist?

Answer: D) Bill Martin Jr., the author of the popular animal-themed book for toddlers, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, happens to have the same name as a philosophy professor who writes about Marxism. That was enough to get the book onto a banned books list in Texas schools in 2010.

3. There were more book bans in the first half of the 2023-2024 school year than in the entirety of the previous school year. How many instances of book bans were there in that semester?
Answer: D) There were 4,349 instances of book bans in the U.S. in just the fall of 2023, according to PEN America, an organization that tracks book bans and challenges across the country.
4. Which critically acclaimed graphic novel for middle grade readers was banned simply because it contains gay characters?

Answer: A) Drama is a bestselling graphic novel about a middle school play. The plot includes characters who are in the process of figuring out their queer identities. The book has no profanity, sexual content, or drug or alcohol use, but it has been on banned book lists for having an “offensive political viewpoint” and for being “sexually explicit.”

5. The author of which popular children’s book series once said, “The first negative letter was from a grandmother in Minnesota who was annoyed that [the main character] had acted out and that she wasn’t using the Queen’s English”?

Answer: B) Barbara Park’s beloved Junie B. Jones series, which is known for its main character’s unique voice, realistic age-appropriate behavior, and irreverent manner, was on the American Library Association’s list of the top 100 most banned and challenged books between 2000 and 2009.

6. During one semester, the Elkhorn Area School District in Wisconsin banned 444 books for the district — based on complaints by how many parents?

Answer: A) Based on only one parent’s complaints, all 444 books were banned for the district during the fall of 2023. Wisconsin has had one of the highest rates of book bans in the country in recent years.

7. This true story about two caring penguins at the zoo who became adoptive parents to a baby penguin was accused of being “anti-family.”

Answer: C) The picture book And Tango Makes Three, written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole, is based on the true story of two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. Their zookeeper saw them acting like a family, and trusted them with an egg that needed to be cared for. Despite the story being centered on animal families and caregiving, complainants called it “anti-family” and succeeded in getting it removed from shelves.

8. Which state has experienced the highest number of book bans since 2021?

Answer: C) Florida has had the highest number of ban cases, with over 5,000 since 2021, and 3,135 bans in just the fall of 2023. About half of those instances took place in Escambia County Public Schools, which had the most bans in the country during the fall of 2023.

Take another quiz!

Joanna Eng is a staff writer and digital content specialist at ParentsTogether. She lives with her wife and two kids in New York, where she loves to hike, try new foods, and check out way too many books from the library.

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