Kelly Jensen is taking some much-deserved time off this week, so today, fellow editors Danika Ellis and Erica Ezeifedi are here to discuss some of the news coming out of Banned Books Week. We can’t cover it all, but we’ve each picked out a few of the biggest and most interesting stories to tell you about: Erica has the first three, and Danika wrote the last four.

The Save Our Stories Initiative Book Kit + a Hey YA Podcast Interview Banned Books Week is winding down, but the Banned Wagon is still en route to its remaining seven destinations. If you’re unfamiliar, the Banned Wagon tour has been making stops at different libraries and bookstores across the Midwest and the South where communities have been hit hardest by book bans. There’s also the Save Our Stories donation initiative, which is expanding the Banned Wagon’s reach to locations not on the tour list.

Through the initiative, hundreds of bookstores and libraries across the country will receive a Save Our Stories box that includes resources to help fight book bans. I was sent one, and it had a copy of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison — one of the frequently banned books being given away free on the Banned Wagon tour — as well as a tote bag and fliers that have a QR code. Each scan the QR code gets between 9/15 and 10/31 results in one book being donated to communities impacted by book bans. So far, there have been 4,4435 scans/books donated.