SAVE OUR STORIES
During Banned Books Week 2024, the Banned Wagon—powered by Penguin Random House, Unite Against Book Bans (UABB), First Book, and Little Free Library—hit the road for its second Banned Wagon tour, stopping at bookstores and libraries in eight American communities across the Midwest and the South.
In addition to the tour, the Banned Wagon expanded its reach through its Save Our Stories donation initiative, where every scan of the QR code featured on the outside of the Wagon and within materials triggered a donation of a banned book to a community in need through a partnership with First Book. Lastly, the Banned Wagon partnered with Little Free Library to drop banned books at over 50 Little Free Libraries along the tour route. Through these activations, the Banned Wagon made over 20,000 banned book donations to communities across the country.
THE TOUR
The Banned Wagon visited eight communities with a high volume of book bans and challenges. In addition to independent bookstores, the 2024 route included libraries in response to the alarming 92% increase in books targeted for censorship at public libraries in 2023, according to the American Library Association (ALA).