Book bans are on the rise in America.

In the first half of the 2023-2024 school year, PEN America recorded 4,349 instances of books banned, from those centering racial inequality and LGBTQ+ themes to classics like The Great Gatsby and Moby Dick. These bans were driven by new laws and regulations limiting the kinds of books that children can access.

We at Penguin Random House fervently oppose these attempts at censorship because we believe that books make us better, and students in particular deserve access to a wide range of perspectives. Our Book Resumes – resources everyone can use to justify keeping frequently challenged books on shelves and in the hands of readers – can be used to fight against the banning of a specific title.

We stand with our authors and are committed to publishing diverse stories and rich, wide-spanning perspectives. We stand with teachers and librarians and trust their expertise on what books to share with young readers. And we stand with our readers, because everyone deserves to see themselves in a book.