Public K-12 Schools Must Remove 7 Books But Can Keep 3 Classics, South Carolina Board Says | South Carolina Daily Gazette
Four books from Sarah J. Maas, along with Damsel by Elana Arnold, Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover, and Normal People by Sally Rooney, were removed from the libraries and classrooms in South Carolina's public schools, while 1984 by George Orwell, Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee stayed on the shelves. The decision was the first time the board considered whether to remove or keep books under a new regulation banning books with “sexual conduct." Board members voted unanimously in line with recommendations from the Department of Education staff and a committee that reviewed the books.

Arizona School District Will Pay $89K to Settle Book Ban Lawsuit | Arizona Daily Sun
Matanuska-Susitna (AZ) Borough School District will pay $89,000 to settle a lawsuit that challenged the district’s decision to unilaterally remove several books from school libraries. The decision came two months after a federal judge ruled that the district improperly removed more than four dozen books from school libraries amid parental complaints about their content. Other parents sued the district after the removal, which included books like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, took place without an organized review process.

Florida Congressman Debuts Bill to Cover School Costs of Defending Books with LGBTQIA+ Content | MSN
Rep. Maxwell Frost is introducing the Fight Book Bans Act as his state struggles with the cost of defending challenged books.  Libraries and schools are forced to pay thousands of dollars to defend their decisions to investigate accusations of inappropriate content and defend their decisions to include the titles in their collections. Frost’s bill would help cover the costs of the defense.

25 Books and Graphic Novel Series Have Been Removed from Pennsylvania District's Libraries This Year | The Philadelphia Inquirer
Under a new policy, the Pennridge School District in Bucks County, PA, has removed seven books and graphic novel series, deeming them “age-inappropriate.” That’s in addition to the 18 the district removed based on the old policy.

‘Children Have the Right to Great Stories': Head of Astrid Lindgren Award Stands Fiirm Against Book Ban | The Korea Herald
Speaking out against book bans, Asa Bergman, head of office at the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, expressed strong opposition to banning books at school libraries, emphasizing that “access to literature for children and young adults will always be a precondition for democracy and openness.” “I’m against book bans of any kind, anywhere,” Bergman told The Korea Herald on Thursday in Seoul, following her lecture on the prestigious children’s literature award and the right of young people to read stories.

ALA Vows to Defend Intellectual Freedom and Access to Information Against Political Threats  | ALA
In response to the results of the 2024 election, the American Library Association vowed to continue its defense of the core values of librarianship in the face of political threats.