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A friend reached out to me in October with a question that he thought was maybe one I’d find basic in the context of years and years of anti-censorship work and coverage. How could he best support his mom’s interest in banned books during the holiday season but not rely solely on buying a banned title for a gift?
Not only was this far from a basic question. It got me thinking about how many other people may find themselves in this position, especially going into the fifth year of unrelenting attacks on books, as well as public libraries and public schools. But this isn’t just about gifting season. It’s about where and how to invite folks into the fold when it comes to fighting for intellectual freedom. The end of the year and the fresh start of a new one are prime opportunities for thinking about building your community and your coalitions.
So how can you support anti book censorship work through holiday giving? Here are 10+ ideas. Some will be pretty straightforward ways to support efforts in overturning book censorship and supporting public institutions of democracy. Others will stretch you and your gift recipient a little bit more, perhaps offering the chance to spread holiday energy throughout the coming year. Some ideas will have a financial investment, while others can be done for little or no money at all.
Each of these ideas can be mixed and matched. Have fun and get creative here–those two things are big parts of where and how we sustain momentum in change-making.
Gift A Banned Book & Set Up a Letter-Writing Date
Purchasing banned books isn’t off limits when thinking about where and how to support the anti-censorship cause. Just pair the book purchase with some kind of action to go along with it. Contrary to popular belief, most authors whose books are banned see no financial gain from being banned; instead, their books are removed from public access points like libraries. If those books were not front list titles, and most are not, they are most likely not sitting on bookstore shelves, whose space for inventory is tight. Purchasing a banned book, especially one that may not be at the top of the “most banned” lists, does matter, and it allows you to gift something physical.
When you make the decision to purchase a banned book, do what you can to make that purchase through an independent bookstore. If the title isn’t on shelf, you can request the book from the store. If you want to purchase online, go through an outlet like Bookshop.org, where you can set up your account to help financially benefit the independent bookstore of your choice. If your gift recipient is more of the audiobook type, purchase through Libro.fm.
Once you select whatever book or books you’ll be gifting, this is where you set up your advocacy component. With the book, include a note that you and the gift recipient will set up a standing date–be it monthly, bimonthly, once a quarter–to get together to write letters in support of libraries. These letters can be done with a focus on local libraries, as well as done at the state and federal level. Dates like these will be the perfect place to learn how your local institutions operate, who oversees them, and where and how you can reach the politicians representing you in your home state, as well as at the federal level.
Even if you’re in a region where libraries have been fairly protected, telling these institutions and the people who oversee them that they’re doing a good job matters. So often, they only ever hear complaints. How refreshing it is to hear that they’re doing a good job developing a diverse collection that meets the needs of a whole community. Legislators need to hear this, too; it’s especially easy to send a kudos letter if you’re in a state with an anti-book ban law and/or where bad bills have been kept from passage.
Alternately, you and your giftee can make a standing date to actually attend local board meetings. This requires more time and effort and it can feel far more formal than writing a letter. But think about where and how you can make it a social event. Grab coffee beforehand or make plans to get dinner together to talk about the books you’ve been reading and loving after the meeting.
Pair a Banned Book with a Book About Book Bans
In addition to selecting a banned book to gift, pair those titles with any number of books that have published in the last several years that relate to book bans, to censorship, or to the topics that have helped drive book censorship. The book about book bans can be fiction or nonfiction, but the goal is to help illuminate how a book goes from shelf to under fire.
What are some possible books about book bans to pair with a banned book? Here are but a few suggestions:
Match A Banned Book With a Book About Anti-Book Ban Advocacy
 A riff on the previous idea, this one is an opportunity to continue to help you and your giftee grow in anti-censorship advocacy. A number of great resources exist to help people consider where and how they can contribute to the movement to end book bans. Ban This, noted above, is one such resource. Another one is this tremendous digital guide by the Freedom to Read Project, Turning the Page: An Advocate’s Guide to the Freedom to Read. Put together by parents who’ve been working on-the-ground to overturn book bans in public schools and public libraries, it is a wealth of personal stories, practical tips, and advocacy tools to help support doing anti-censorship work in one’s own backyard. It was put together this fall, so it is one of the most–if not the most–up to date resource on pro-literary advocacy in this era of book bans. |
Turning the Page is available in exchange for a monetary donation to the organization who put it together. If that’s a challenge, you can get access to the guide for free by signing up for the Freedom to Read Project’s mailing list. All of the information you need about the guide and access to it is available here.
You can tuck a note into a physical book explaining that there’s a digital gift waiting for the recipient in their inbox.
Purchase a Banned Books from a Banned Book Focused Shop or Organization
Buying a book may be all you have the financial, emotional, or mental capacity for at this point in the year, and there’s zero shame in that. Again: those purchases matter. But in addition to buying a banned book from an independent bookstore, you can level up the impact such a purchase makes by choosing to purchase from a bookstore or organization whose mission stems from or directly connects to anti-book ban work.
Some possibilities include:
Then, include a note with your gift that talks about where you purchased the title and what that bookstore or organization does to combat censorship. It’s a fantastic way to gift a book, to support the efforts against censorship, and to introduce your gift recipient to cool people and places to know.
Curate a Thematic Media Guide to Gift and/or to Pair With a Book
Another idea–and one that would allow you to take elements of several of the ideas above without an additional financial investment–is to create a media guide to topics related to the banned book you’re gifting and/or book banning in general. This might look like a Canva-created publication, be it print or digital, that includes some of the best podcast episodes on the state of book bans, excellent longform journalism related to book censorship, links to stories about people who are doing on-the-ground work, online newsletters worth subscribing to, and interviews with the author/s whose book you are gifting.
Making something like this is so personal and unique. You get the chance to share things you’ve found interesting or motivating with someone who is looking for a way into advocacy and activism. You can tailor what you share to the giftee based on what you know about them or what they’ve told you they want to be doing (but maybe haven’t yet had the time or capacity to do!).
Alternately, maybe you do the above and/or also include a roundup of information for getting started in anti-book ban work. This could include listing who is on the school board and/or library board, when and where they meet, what their contact information is, and/or where and how you can get involved with your local library.
This kind of gift is one that’s perfect if actually spending money on a gift isn’t in the budget this year. You can add some recommended reading based on books the giftee likes or has mentioned wanting to check out; perhaps you even add a coupon to go with them to get a library card if that’s something that’s been on their to-do list, too. You could pull together a list of banned books that are outside of the top 10 that you know your giftee would enjoy reading and include a note with links to the where, why, and how of the book being banned. You can find this information in PEN America’s report “The Normalization of Book Banning” or Tasslyn Magnusson’s Censorship Attacks database, hosted at EveryLibrary (Tasslyn’s tracking is the basis of both databases, though they cover slightly different things–PEN’s are confirmed bans while the EveryLibrary database tracks things throughout the process and is updated a little less frequently).
Develop a Guide to Where To Access Libraries of Banned Books
Purchasing a book may not be in the budget, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still help support someone’s interest in book bans. There’s a great opportunity to especially impact young people who are passionate about the cause but may be unaware of what resources are out there or what they themselves have access to as minors.
There are several initiatives across the country that are providing access to banned books and/or inclusive literature. Each one is different, so be conscious of noting what your gift recipient may or may not be personally eligible for. Among the virtual resources include:
You can pop this information into Canva, format it to be a bookmark, and then include that bookmark in any book (or other item) you’re gifting. This kind of project would be a worthwhile one if you’re donating a banned book into, say, a Little Free Library.
Gift Anti-Book Ban Merch from An Organization Doing the Work
Wearing anti-book ban clothing, pins, stickers, or totes can signal to other people that protecting access to books in public libraries and schools is important to you. This helps find other likeminded people, something that is helpful in creating community and building a coalition in the fight for the right to read.
You can, of course, pair a great piece of flair with a banned book. The goal with this idea is to seek out those anti-book ban goods from people and organizations who are using that money to fund their work.
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There are a lot of great options to choose from. Some places with fun anti-book ban, pro-reading goods that support freedom to read efforts include:
As a bonus, you could include with your gift a note about where you purchased it from and the good work that organization is doing.
Make a Monetary Donation to a Meaningful Cause
You can take this suggestion in numerous ways–i.e., this is the gift or you pair a banned book gift with a donation–and you can choose whether these are recurring donations at designated intervals (say, $5 a quarter for a year) or a one-time donation (such as $25 all at once). Here are four ideas, but know there are others.
Gift a Quarterly Mini Book Club
Maybe you cannot afford to purchase four banned books at once as a gift. But perhaps what you can do is gift one book and present to your recipient the idea of a quarterly banned books club. You’ll pick four dates throughout 2026 to get together to discuss one banned book; the first one is the gift, while the remaining three titles are those you mutually agree upon as your next picks and you’ll each acquire the book on your own (buy it or borrow it!).
But this isn’t just about the books themselves. They’ll form the basis of the book club, but each of those club meetings will also involve choosing one focus area of anti-book ban advocacy. Perhaps at your first meeting, you’ll discuss the book at hand and then develop a handy voter’s guide to the upcoming school and/or library board elections you can share with your networks. Maybe in the second quarter, you read your banned book and then watch a webinar featuring library workers and/or authors talking about the impact of book bans.
Choose books and activities that will expand your thinking, get you engaged, and, most importantly, offers the most precious gift of all: time.
Drop in a Free Bookmark
Whatever path you choose or that you create, consider printing out one or both of these “How to Fight Book Bans” bookmarks and slip it into whatever you’re gifting.
Want more ideas? You’re in luck, as there was something in the air in the last couple of weeks. The Freedom to Read Project has also developed a guide for incorporating Freadom into your holiday plans.
Note: Your eyes do not deceive you. This week’s link roundup will be included in next week’s post. Until then, happy gifting and gift-brainstorming.
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