Banning books: Protecting kids or erasing humanity?

Kasey Meehan says it was her long-held love for books that made her become, in one sense, their political advocate.

“As simple as that sounds, I think that’s what brings many folks on the team to this role,” says Ms. Meehan, program director of the Freedom to Read initiative at PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for freedom of expression at the intersection of human rights and literature. “For many of us, reading has just been such a foundational part of our own self-discovery and a kind of self-awareness-building experience.”

In some ways, it is this very power of books and ideas that has often thrust them into the center of politics, either to bolster existing authority or to pose a threat. Given the emotional impact of literature