The Livingston Public Library will hold a community discussion of Jacqueline Woodson's memoir "Brown Girl Dreaming" on Thursday, Oct. 8, as part of Banned Books Week.
The event, called "Right to Read Night," is a national program run by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), according to the West Essex Tribune. Banned Books Week runs Oct. 4 through Oct. 10 under the theme "Let Books Be. Protect the Freedom to Read."
Residents who want to join the conversation can pick up a free copy of the book at the library's Patron Services Desk beforehand.
A book under fire
"Brown Girl Dreaming" is a 2014 memoir written in poetry. Woodson tells the story of growing up as an African American girl in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. The book won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, the NAACP Image Award and a Newbery Honor.
It has still been banned.
PEN America listed "Brown Girl Dreaming" among banned middle-grade nonfiction titles in its report on book bans in public schools during the 2024–2025 school year. Nationally, the American Library Association tracked 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025, the second-highest total the organization has ever documented. Separately, ALA documented 5,668 books banned from libraries that year, the highest single-year count since it began compiling censorship data in 1990.
Woodson herself has spoken about the trend. At the Bologna Children's Book Fair in April, she told Publishers Weekly that her own books have been challenged. "What's so heartbreaking is going into schools and seeing empty shelves," she said.
Woodson served as the Library of Congress's National Ambassador for Young People's Literature from 2018 to 2019.
How to take part
The Right to Read Night discussion starts at 7 p.m. at the Livingston Public Library, 10 Robert Harp Dr. Copies of "Brown Girl Dreaming" are available at the Patron Services Desk. The library can be reached at (973) 992-4600.
Upcoming in Livingston
- Oct. 8 — Right to Read Night, Livingston Public Library, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 26 — U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors free concert, Livingston
