Michael Connelly, Nikki Grimes, Judy Blume and other authors unite against book bans

NOTE: This article is a republication- Source: NPR (by Isabella Gomez Sarmiento).

Last school year, Florida implemented more book bans than any other state in the country — accounting for more than 40% of all bans in the U.S — according to a report issued by PEN America in September.

On Wednesday, during what the American Library Association has deemed Banned Books Week, more than a dozen best-selling authors, including Michael Connelly, Judy Blume and Nikki Grimes, said they are uniting to take a stand against censorship in the state's schools and libraries.

"It's a crazy world when kids are told, 'You should not read that book.' And I think that's a universal feeling among people who do what I do," Connelly told NPR. The crime fiction writer, who grew up in Florida, said he developed a passion for literature thanks to titles like To Kill A Mockingbird. The book was was temporarily removed from Palm Beach County school libraries last year — and had been challenged in other schools and libraries across the U.S.

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