AASL President’s Program Brings Banned Together Author Ashley Hope Pérez to ALA Annual Conference

CHICAGO— AASL President Becky Calzada will host Ashley Hope Pérez, author of Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights, for a compelling conversation on the transformative power of books. Together, they will explore the critical question, “What is lost when books are kept from teens?” This insightful discussion will be part of the AASL President’s Program at the 2025 ALA Annual Conference. Ashley Hope Pérez’s appearance is sponsored by Holiday House.

“Intellectual freedom is a core, foundational belief in our library profession,” said President Becky Calzada. “Books offer readers the opportunity to learn about themselves, learn about others, and explore the world they live in. Through reading and access to books in libraries, we build an informed and engaged democracy.”

Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights is an anthology that spotlights the transformative power of books while equipping teens to fight for the freedom to read. Featuring the voices of 15 diverse, award-winning authors and illustrators, “this anthology combines personal stories, strategies for combating censorship, and resources to highlight both the harms of book bans and the enduring power of literature,” says author Pérez. “I believe that the work we do will always be more effective if we root it firmly in the value of what we stand for, not just the harm of what we stand against.”

President Calzada and author Pérez will also discuss the value of reading and the value of shared community. “Just as books offer us respite, a way to reflect on the past, plan for the future, and explore what’s possible, coming together as a learning community for the shared experience at this event, this conference, and this association also offers respite and exploration of these topics as a library community,” says Calzada.

AASL’s President Program will be held during ALA’s Annual Conference, June 26–30, 2025, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, June 28, 2025, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

For more information about this and other AASL programs at the 2025 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, visit www.ala.org/aasl/annual.

The American Association of School Librarians (www.aasl.org), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.

Since 1935, Holiday House has been proud to gather talented authors and illustrators to publish quality books that entertain, enlighten, and educate children. Known for having a deep list of timeless and award-winning books for children and young adult readers, Holiday House publishes the award-winning I Like to Read® series of picture books for emergent readers. In 2018, it launched its first eponymous imprints, Margaret Ferguson Books and Neal Porter Books. The iconic logo of the Holiday House little boy is by Ernest H. Shepard, the renowned illustrator of The Wind in the Willows and the Winnie-the-Pooh books, from the original edition of The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame. For more information, visit holidayhouse.com.