1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

WRITE The freedom to read is a fundamental American right, protected by the First Amendment. Book challenges restrict our student’s access to a wide range of books, limited our public and school library bookshelves to only titles deemed acceptable by a few individuals. Voters overwhelmingly oppose book banning in the United States. Despite this, attempts at book censorship have increased exponentially in the last few years. In some places, people have brought lawsuits or criminal charges against librarians for working in a library that had a book in the collection they disagreed with. Writers and illustrators have also come under fire. By supporting Freedom To Read legislation and supporting bills like H. R. 5527, our libraries can welcome every citizen to read freely and explore the marketplace of ideas, and our states can maintain full liberty for the rights of each individual to form and express our own thought. Petition courtesy of EveryLibrary.