Writing Lessons & Advice: Book Resumes

A previous lesson touched on the controversies of banned and challenged books. These measures aim to limit, if not remove, material from public circulation. Such actions ultimately violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, hinder intellectual freedom, and just backfire on their intentions. Additionally, libraries are governed by their own Bill of Rights that defends against “exclusion of any material on the basis of its origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.” As touched on in the last lesson, the same document does allow for access restriction, but only within the parameters between parents and their children. Instead, the fourth article in this bill encourages cooperation “with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas”.

The American Library Association (ALA) and Unite Against Banned Books are two major organizations fighting against literary censorship. They track book challenge reports and provide news, information, and events for awareness and advocacy. Earlier this year, the two organizations partnered together to create a new resource for their efforts: book resumes, brief documents highlighting qualifications of a book in question.

According to the ALA: “...Book resumes are easy-to-print documents designed to help support readers’ access to books that are targeted by censors. Each book resume summarizes the book’s significance and educational value, including a synopsis, reviews from professional journals, awards, accolades, and more. Where possible, the book resume also includes information about how a title has been successfully retained in school districts and libraries after a demand to censor the book. These documents are in a PDF format that can be downloaded and printed for easy sharing with administrators, book review committees, and the public at board meetings.”

Unite Against Book Bans says book resumes “provide necessary context from those who have read the books in their entirety. They demonstrate the educational value and significance these titles have. Book resumes can be shared...as a counterpoint to the toxic messaging that books with certain viewpoints and ideas are dangerous or that librarians and teachers are trying to harm youth by providing access to books. [They] can also aid book review committees tasked with determining whether a book meets the school or library’s selection criteria.” Additionally, they’re another tool intended to make sure underrepresented authors, titles, and subject matter are not suppressed.

This book resume project was announced in February 2024 and resumes for nearly 290 titles were listed as of July 3rd. The selection ranges from classics to contemporary to books by and about Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) and those who are LGBTQIA+. Many more can be anticipated given the amount and frequency of potential censorship. Unite Against Book Bans says new book resumes or updates to existing ones are made every four to six weeks.

Book resumes are a tool grounded in independent reading/studying to point out the value in a text despite any offensive content--an implication I made in the earlier lesson. Book protests tend to focus on nothing else, which is a disregard to the publication. So book resumes present a work on the whole to people who are curious, concerned, or make decisions about what young people learn/read/access. As an outlet through which all entities (potentially) work together, it may even be a very practical way to adhere to the fourth article in the Library Bill of Rights and the greater sense of intellectual freedom.

Hope your memory on banned/challenged books is refreshed or that your interest is piqued if you weren’t familiar before now! Check out the previous lesson for more background. Check out the resumes or related projects I found during this research (links below). Get connected with the ALA and/or Unite Against Banned Books to find more events and ways to support the freedom to read!

Has a book resume given you a fresh perspective on a challenged book? Does a banned/challenged book you love have a resume yet? Is there a topic you want me to cover in the future? Let me know by reaching out to me in the comments, the chat, or through the socials!