Abstract
For the past few years, the United States has seen a dramatic increase in book challenges in public libraries. Surprisingly or perhaps not, the challenges and corresponding legislation correlate with the nation’s political divisions. Largely blue states have fewer challenges and legislation aimed at protecting the right to read, while red states have more challenges and are trying to place additional restrictions on libraries and their collections through legislation. This article takes a brief look at how book challenges and intellectual freedom issues in public libraries differ between red and blue states.