American teens can now access banned books through Long Beach’s free digital library program

Right now, something absolutely incredible is happening in Long Beach, California. The Long Beach Public Library Foundation, which includes 11 neighborhood branches and the flagship Billie Jean King Main Library, just announced that it’s partnering with the Brooklyn Public Library. Their goal? By October 25th, every single teenager in the nation will have free access to books that might have been banned or restricted in their area.

It’s pretty awesome to witness a library fight so fiercely, throwing out copies of Looking for Alaska, or Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, like a bookish Adonis Creed. Because this is precisely what this moment needs: fearlessness and tenacity in the face of censorship.

The partnership that’s changing everything

Libraries are shared havens, safe spaces that offer much more than the Dewey Decimal system. Everyone is welcome here at the public library, whether you’re sitting down and reading, using the printer, or accidentally looking at your phone the entire time, only to realize you got zero work done at all.

But this is different.

This is about libraries transforming into protectors of intellectual freedom and champions against censorship.

Libraries are fighting back. Photo credit: Canva

Here’s how it works: Starting this fall, teens between 13 and 19 years old anywhere in the United States will be able to sign up for a free digital library card from the Long Beach Public Library. All participants must fill out an application to gain access to the library’s digital resources, then renew annually to retain it.

Once approved, they will have full access to the library’s entire collection of e-books and audiobooks through the Libby app. There, they will find a treasure trove of titles that have been challenged or banned elsewhere, such as the New York Times bestseller, Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen, which received 66 bans last year. Or, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky’s cult-favorite coming-of-age tale, which is currently tied for the third most-banned book in America.

These books and stories, they too, are infinite. Credit: Giphy

In fact, Susan Jones, the library’s manager of automated services, told the Long Beach Post that the library actually intends to expand its database of banned books and purchase “titles that may be facing censorship challenges nationwide” to minimize wait times.

With its most recent alliance, the Long Beach Public Library Foundation joins the Brooklyn Public Library's nationwide “Books Unbanned” movement. Inspired by the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement and the Library Bill of Rights, Books Unbanned was founded to “support the rights of teens nationwide to read what they like, form their own opinions, and work together with peers across the nation to defend and expand the freedom to read.” Other members of the Books Unbanned coalition include the Boston Public Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, the San Diego Public Library, and the Seattle Public Library.

“We started Books Unbanned in April 2022, and we really did it in response to all the stories we were hearing about books being banned across the country. … We wanted to figure out a way to get books in the hands of young people who were being denied them,” said Fritzi Bodenheimer, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn Public Library. “We just didn’t feel like, as a public library, we could just sit back and watch this happen.”

A video explaining Books Unbanned. Credit: YouTube

The response has been overwhelming. Bodenheimer urges other libraries like Long Beach to step up and provide books that are under attack, before it's too late.

“Since we launched in April 2022, we’ve had almost 10,000 young people sign up for a card, and they’re from all 50 states. They've checked out … close to or maybe over 300,000 books,” Bodenheimer told the Long Beach Post. “It’s incredibly exciting and heartwarming, and it’s also incredibly heartbreaking because it means there’s a need.”

Why this matters so, so much

Reading is under attack. And the need for action has never felt more urgent. According to the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual report, there were 821 attempts to censor library books and materials in 2024, with 2,452 unique titles being challenged—the third-highest number ever documented by ALA.

What’s particularly concerning is that 72% of these censorship demands came from organized “pressure groups" and "the administrators, board members, and elected officials they influenced,” rather than individual parents (16%) or community members (4%). More than half of these challenges took place in public libraries (55%), with school libraries following close behind (38%).

Let's be clear. The books being targeted aren’t random.

Books aren't challenged or banned by accident. They're targeted.Photo credit: Canva

These are stories written by or about Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), or LGBTQ+ individuals that explore their experiences, histories, and movements. They address race and racism, and dive head-first into the experiences of marginalized communities. In other words, these are the very books that could help young people see themselves reflected in literature or empathize with perspectives different from their own.

“We are witnessing an effort to eliminate entire genres and categories of books from library shelves in pursuit of a larger goal of placing politics and religion over the well-being and education of young people and everyone’s right to access and find information in our libraries,” reports Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

In 2024, these were the top 10 most frequently targeted books:

1. All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson.
2. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe.
3. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.
5. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins.
6. Looking for Alaska by John Green.
7. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jessie Andrews.
8. Crank by Ellen Hopkins.
9. Sold by Patricia McCormick.
10. Flamer by Mike Curato.

Real stories, real impact

The power of this program becomes crystal clear when you hear from the teens themselves, their voices and lives recorded in a collection of thousands of stories called “In Their Own Words: Youth Voices on Books Unbanned."

“The library closest to me is very underfunded, and it is very conservative. It has a plethora of Christian novels, but their novels surrounding people of color and other religions are very limited. As a person of color, it sucks to not be able to see myself in novels I read,” writes an anonymous 17-year-old reader in Texas.

“There are books that I cannot take home because they would put me in danger. Reading digitally allows me to keep myself safe but still give[s] me the ability to read freely,” says another, this time, a 19-year-old in Virginia.

Finally, in California, a 16-year-old explains, “If it hadn’t been for the books available to me about different marginalized people’s perspectives in my school libraries growing up, I might have grown up to be a very different person.”

The fight continues

This partnership represents something bigger than books. It’s about democracy, human empathy, and the belief that all young people deserve access to stories to help them understand themselves and the world around them.

In a time when literary censorship is at an all-time high, Long Beach Public Library’s allegiance with Books Unbanned offers something radical and precious: a glimmer of hope.

Our public libraries are precious. Photo credit: Canva

It’s a reminder that our libraries will not go down easily. That people around the country want to protect intellectual freedom just as much as you do. And they are willing to fight tooth and nail for every young person’s right to read, learn, and grow.

Long Beach Public Library's Books Unbanned program is slated to launch in October 2025, just in time for this year's Banned Books Week, where the theme is "Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.” Is this a blessing from George Orwell himself, telling us that we're heading in the right direction? I hope so.