Hey, kid.
Yeah, you. Do you like reading?
Do you like the way books make you think and challenge conventional teaching?
Of course you do.
Well, there are some books that some school districts across Texas don’t want you to read. Grownups. Boy, do we suck.
Texas, long the leader in the nation in book bans, was recently bumped to the No. 2 spot by Florida. By a wide margin. According to the nonprofit free speech group PEN America, Texas school districts attempted to ban 438 books in the fall semester of 2022 in school districts such as Conroe, Texarkana, Katy, Keller and Belton. Last year, the Frisco Independent School District had the longest banned book list in the state with 315 entries. Earlier this month, PEN America released its latest report, "Banned in the USA: The Mounting Pressure to Censor," revealing that the Lone Star State accounted for 625 book bans from July 2022 to June 2023, compared with Florida's 1,406 bans. (The free speech advocacy group includes in its list books that were "restricted or diminished, for either limited or indefinite periods of time," though some of those books have returned to shelves following reviews. A spokesperson for Frisco ISD notes via email that a "total of 111 books can no longer be found in Frisco ISD libraries.")
It's only going to get worse in the coming semester, even as challenges to the bans make their way through the appeals court system. Kasey Meehan, the program director for PEN America’s Freedom to Read initiative, says two factors are driving this sudden and alarming rise in book bans. It starts with state legislation — in our case, Texas House Bill 900, drafted by Rep. Jared Patterson, a Republican from Frisco, and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott last June. The bill, known as the Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Education Resources or (ironically) READER Act, provided broader definitions for the removal of “sexually explicit material” from public school libraries, according to state legislative archives.
“School districts started responding by banning books before it was even implemented,” Meehan says.
The other driving factor is local and national advocacy groups — with names like Citizens Defending Freedom and Moms for Liberty — calling for bans on books. Members of these groups show up at school board meetings to express their disdain for books such as Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and even Henry Louis Gates’ And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK, and lobby to get them off school bookshelves.
“What we’ve seen is a pattern of book challenges that are typically brought by very well-organized activist groups as part of a concerted effort to create a wedge issue with the intent of creating legislation, policies and regulatory changes to how libraries operate,” says Shirley Robinson, the executive director of the Texas Library Association. “It’s putting libraries in the middle of a culture-war issue.”
Those are just the banned books we know about so far. The Grapevine-Colleyville (GCISD) school board implemented a set of guidelines in the summer of 2022 that excludes books using a broader definition of what it considers to be “pornography” as well as books that discuss “critical race theory and other systemic discrimination ideologies” and “gender fluidity and gender theory,” according to school board records.
Lara Trevino, a member of the Protect GCISD advocacy group and the mother of two children who attend school in the district, says she’s tried to get the district to produce a list of the books they’ve removed from library shelves and classrooms for over a year. She’s not sure such a list even exists. (Since the district won't formally release a list of what's banned, we're calling books that have been discussed for removal as "likely" banned, based on advocates' discussions with the district about the titles.)
“They are choosing the books my kids get to read,” Trevino says. “So I if want my kids to learn about Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks, they are no longer allowed to do that.”
Here are some of the naughty books these groups don't want you to see, along with excerpts from some of the "offensive" bits:
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Banned by Conroe and Keller ISDs; the graphic novel version banned by Frisco and Keller ISDsThere’s a sick irony about banning The Handmaid's Tale. If anyone had bothered to read Margaret Atwood’s timeless novel about a dystopian world run by a white, patriarchal, totalitarian theonomy, they might have learned something about the dangers of suppressing thought and speech.
Atwood’s most famous novel is no stranger to banned book lists. According to PEN America, 34 districts have banned Atwood’s works, making her the third-most-banned author in the nation behind Ellen Hopkins (52) and Sarah J. Mass (36). A good number of the challenged books tend to home in on one particular passage or explicit scene or scenes as if they speak for the entire book’s worthiness. Conroe ISD simply listed the book as one that “did not meet selection criteria” and Keller ISD as one that ”does not meet content guidelines,” according to its book challenges archive.
Sexual content is one of the most common reasons for banning a book, but there may be more at play than someone's definition of pornography. The conservative parents' group GCISD Parents, which declined to comment for this story, cites two such passages on its website and incorrectly cites one of the descriptions as a passage portraying a house of ill repute when it’s actually describing scenes from pornographic movies shown to the Handmaids, fertile women assigned to bear children for high-ranking men, as a way to further indoctrinate them into their dystopian regime and suppression of sexual freedom.
“Men are sex machines, said Aunt Lydia, and not much more,” Atwood wrote. “They only want one thing. You must learn to manipulate them, for your own good. Lead them around by the nose; that is a metaphor. It’s nature’s way. It’s God’s device. It’s the way things are.”
Meehan says themes like same-sex relationships and gender identity are also especially prevalent in book bans because “if there’s any LGBTQ+ representation, that gets conflated as being obscene.”
“The Handmaid’s Tale has been a canon classic for years,” Meehan adds. “It’s on high-school reading list material. Something is happening now where this book is being suddenly questioned and challenged. Part of the new effort of this movement we’re watching unfold is to restrict any sexual content in books or LGBTQ+ representation, none of which is porn.”
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
Banned by Belton and Keller ISDsKaur’s book of deeply personal poems began popping up on the list of banned books over the last year or so. According to PEN America, Milk and Honey has been banned in five states including Texas, where it's been flagged in 10 separate schools or districts.
The poems depict sexual experience that sometimes become violent, and they include single-line illustrations. Moms for Liberty, which also did not respond to requests for comment, says on its website that the book was removed for its “illustrations depicting non-sexual nudity” as well as “sexual activities including sexual assault.”
“You pinned my legs to the ground with your feet and demanded i [sic] stand up,” Kaur wrote in a passage also cited by the mom group.
They neglected, however, to include the passage immediately following this line, which speaks to Kaur’s themes of courage and strength to overcome the trauma of sexual assault.
“The rape will tear you in half,” Kaur wrote, “but it will not end you.”
The ban of Kaur’s book became so widespread that the author felt the need to address it on Instagram last April, saying that removing books like these will only make it harder for students to speak out when they become victims of sexual assault. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, rape is the most underreported crime in the U.S., with 63% of adult cases going unreported. Only 12% of child sexual abuse cases are reported to police.
“I remember sitting in my school library in high school, turning to books about sexual assault because I didn’t have anyone else to turn to. This is the reality for many students,” Kaur wrote. “We all find comfort in literature that reflects our experiences. Now that books about sexual assault and other topics are being banned. I worry for students who rely on school libraries for access to literature.”
The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johns
Banned by Keller ISDThis graphic novel is a middle-school story about a shy, sensitive, bisexual girl named Faith who finds friends when she's relegated to the lower tier of her soccer team, the Bloodhounds. If you survived the hell of middle school, then you can easily relate to Faith, who worries more about fitting in than becoming even a middle-of-the-road soccer player and dives into her talent as an artist to escape her confusing world.
Some parents in Keller, however, wanted the book away from the eyes and minds of younger students because it showed (wait for it) depictions of middle schoolers (oh, no) in bed (auuuuuugh!) kissing. (Wait, that’s it? Really?)
On page 159, both characters are having a sleepover and lying in bed together. Sammy comes out to Faith as trans and asks if they can kiss. They are fully clothed and the kiss is consensual.
“Visual images make people react differently,” Meehan says.
They sure do.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Likely banned by Grapevine-Colleyville ISDGCISD doesn’t have an official list or even an online registry of books it deems inappropriate for students. Parents like Trevino say they have tried to get the district to be more transparent about its policies and the books it deems unfit for students but they get “no response or if I get a response, it just says, ‘Thank you for your email.’ If we do anything, we get stonewalled.”
Tommy Rogers formed a banned book reading club at Grapevine High School last year following the GCISD school board's sweeping policy changes that led to the cancellation of the school’s annual book fair and the removal of several books from classrooms and libraries. One of the books was Things Fall Apart, one of Rogers’ favorite books. Published in 1958, the debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe examines the effect of European colonization in Africa, and Rogers suspects it had something to do with “the depiction of the European colonizers.”
“The white man is very clever,” the character Obierika says in an exchange with the protagonist Okonkwo toward the end of Chapter 20. “He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
Rogers conjectures that Okonkwo’s suicide toward the end of the novel also contributed to the decision. Okonkwo’s pain is just one of the lessons readers have been taking from Achabe’s novel for decades. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 4 in 10 students in the U.S. felt “persistently sad or hopeless” and more than 1 in 5 reported “seriously considering attempting suicide.”
“What mostly connected to me was Okonkwo’s despair throughout the book,” Rogers says. “I’ve had struggles with mental health, and I connected with some of Okonkwo’s pain.”
And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK — An Illustrated Chronology by Henry Louis Gates
Banned by Texarkana ISDTwo years ago, former Texas Rep. Matt Krause released a list of 850 books targeted for expulsion from the state’s school libraries. The list, obtained by The Texas Tribune, included only the books’ title, author and year of publication.
“There was never a specific objection filed,” Meehan says. “There was no substantive complaint and no due process followed in removing the book. We just know this book was on a bigger list of books from Matt Krause’s office.”
Some other titles on the list covering similar themes include Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World and Become a Good Ambassador by Beck Albertalli and They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.
It’s hard to pick out a quote form Gates' book that Krause and Texarkana ISD might be trying to suppress because neither has offered a solid reason or complaint except that the book has been judged to be another form of “critical race theory” based on the book’s search-engine keywords. At least judging a book by its cover requires some form of reading.
It's a chilling reminder that bigotry not only continues but is gaining momentum online and in mainstream political channels, and its threat extends beyond purported efforts to root out critical race theory. It there's a common thread running through which books are targeted for bans, it's that they often offer points of view that are non-white, non-straight and non-Christian. The Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism found a 38% increase in the distribution of antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda from 2021 to 2022.
“I think our sense was that the list was just generated from a keyword search,” Meehan says. “It’s not critical race theory, but it’s possible the people behind the book bans would lump it under a critical race theory ban because it talks about America’s racism, highlights racial flashpoints in our history and the policing history that affects different racial groups.”
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Likely banned by Grapevine-Colleyville ISD.The Kite Runner is widely considered to be a modern literary classic. Edward Hower, writing in The New York Times Book Review, called it “powerful,” “a vivid and engaging story” and “a story of fierce cruelty and fierce yet redeeming love.” The novel tells the story of a boy growing up in Afghanistan from the fall of that nation's monarchy to the rise of the Taliban.
Rogers brought up his objections to the board's decision to ban the book at its August 2022 meeting. He believes the board yanked it off shelves because of a scene involving sexual assault that’s considered to be the turning point of the novel and because of its depictions of racism in pre-revolutionary Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan is like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage and someone has to take out the garbage,” the violent, racist character Assef says to protagonist Amir toward the end of the book when (spoiler) Assef joins the Taliban.
“That’s what you were doing in Mazar, going door-to-door? Taking out the garbage?” Amir asks.
“Precisely.”
“In the west, they have an expression for that,” Amir says. “They call it ethnic cleansing.”
“Do they?” Assef responds. “Ethnic cleansing. I like it. I like the sound of it.”
The scene is dark but the practice is an evil reality that still exists in parts of the world — one that apparently GCISD would prefer students not learn about. Amnesty International reported last year that the Taliban deliberately targeted and killed six people in a nighttime raid on a family's home in Ghor that included a 12-year-old girl, indicating "a pattern of attacks on ethnic minorities and members of the former security forces" since the U.S. left the region in 2021. Mohammad Mahmodi, a Tom and Andi Bernstein visiting human rights fellow at Yale Law School's Schell Center for International Human Rights, said in a recent op-ed published by The Hill that the Taliban has "sought to erase religious and ethnic minority groups" since taking power in 2021.
“There’s absolutely nothing in it that shouldn’t read by a high schooler,” Rogers says. “It’s just ridiculous that they even contemplated removing it.”
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Banned Texarkana ISDSilvera’s young adult novel about two teen boys who meet on an app designed to forge friendships among those facing their last day on Earth was one of 23 that Patterson deemed to be “obscene,” Meehan says.
What could be obscene about two guys trying to make the most of the time they have left on Earth? Maybe it has something to do with the ending (again, spoiler).
“I kiss the guy who brought me to life on the day we’re going to die,” Mateo says.
“’Finally!’ Rufus says when I give him the chance to breathe and now he kisses me. ‘What took you so long?’”
“'I know, I know. I’m sorry,'” Mateo responds. “'I know there’s no time to waste but I had to be sure you are who I thought you were. The best thing about dying is your friendship.'”
Referring to LGBTQ+ people and their stories as "obscene" can have a harmful effect on impressionable teens who feel isolated just because of who they are. According to The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization, suicide is the second leading cause of death among people age 10–24, and LGBTQ+ youth are four times as likely to attempt suicide.
Imagine how it feels when a major political figure is exploiting your sexual orientation to score some quick points in the polls.
“Typically what we’ve seen is parents or community members have a voice in challenging or having a book reconsidered,” Meehan says. “Having political leaders put out lists is new.”
Forever… By Judy Blume
Banned by Frisco ISDWe get it. Parents who have to give "the talk" to their kids can find themselves in an especially uncomfortable situation. That's why we have Judy Blume.
Blume speaks candidly and openly about young love and the awkward sexual feelings our bodies put us through in that cruel age known as puberty. That's why the celebrated young-adult author has faced censorship since the beginning of her career. Forever…, the first novel Blume published, in 1975, faced a ban in Florida’s Martin County School District not long after its release. Now almost five decades later, it’s been removed from Frisco ISD’s schools due to “obscene content.”
“They’re trying to pass laws about what we can think, what our kids can think, what they can know, what they can talk about,” Blume told Fresh Air host Terry Gross in April. “There’s legislation going on right now that says that girls in elementary school are not allowed to speak about menstruation.”
Forever… is a young adult romance novel about a teenage couple’s sexual awakening and learning not just about their bodies but how the emotional swell of being in love can affect a relationship and even the trajectory of their lives. Blume confronts the scenes with bracing honesty to make the characters more relatable to the readers, especially during scenes of physical intimacy.
“He led my hand to his penis,” says Katherine.
“Katherine … I’d like you to meet Ralph … Ralph, this is Katherine. She’s a very good friend of mine,” Michael says.
“Does every penis have a name?” Katherine asks Michael.
“I can only speak for my own,” Michael responds.
Study after study has shown that shielding teenagers from the realities of sex and their feelings does nothing to protect them from sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancies. Columbia University’s School of Public Health published two papers in 2017 that found abstinence-only sex-education programs and policies are not merely ineffective at their stated purpose of delaying sexual activity — they also “violate adolescent human rights, withhold medically accurate information, stigmatize or exclude many youth, reinforce harmful gender stereotypes and undermine health programs.”
The Big Questions Book of Sex and Consent by Donna Freitas
Reviewed by Frisco ISD and restricted to high schoolsMaybe you’re the type of prude who says that children shouldn’t be exposed to books that talk about sex in fictional terms even if the author’s intentions are to destigmatize natural feelings. Maybe you think they should learn about sex from something more clinical that’s straight to the point, so to speak.
Bookshop.org describes it “a journey into the big questions that will turn you into a thinking person about sex and consent,” adding that it’s not “the fear-based how-to on sex and consent, oversimplified and focused on technicalities that represent so much of our sexual education today.”
Freitas' book simply answers questions like: What is sexual identity? What does it mean to be a boy, a guy, a man, or a girl, a woman? What is sexual violence, consent, desire and love?
One of the more interesting chapters asks: Why are people so afraid of sex? Why is there so much shame around sex?
“The adult people in your life don’t want you to experience a pregnancy when you are not ready, or any of the other possible negative health consequences that can arise from having sex,” Freitas writes. “The adult people in your life don’t ever want you to be the victim of sexual violence or the perpetrator of it either. Your parents’ fears, if they have them, are justified … But …but… ! (There’s always a but!) Those are justified to a point.”
The Journal of Adolescent Health published a study in 2020 that examined three decades of comprehensive sexual education sources and found that education beginning in elementary school “that is scaffolded and of longer duration, as well as LGBTQ-inclusive education,” can lead to “appreciation of sexual diversity, dating and intimate partner violence prevention, development of healthy relationships, prevention of child sex abuse, improved social/emotional learning and increased media literacy.”
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Likely banned by Grapevine-Colleyville ISDSince her district started implementing its anti-LGBTQ and gender discrimination policies, Trevino says she started reading some of the books she heard were no longer in her children’s schools. She came across this heartwarming tale of a family of penguins after learning it had been banned by some Florida school districts.
The children’s book tells the story of a pair of male penguins named Roy and Silo who live in a zoo. They end up raising a baby penguin together from an egg provided by their caretaker, who notices the affection between the two penguins.
“They didn’t spend much time with the girl penguins and the girl penguins didn’t spend much time with them,” the book says. “Instead, Roy and Silo wound their necks around each other. Their keeper Mr. Gramzay noticed the two penguins and thought to himself, ‘They must be in love.’”
The most scandalous behavior Roy and Silo exhibit is to swim together, make a home together on a bed of rocks and hatch the egg, producing a boy penguin named Tango.
There’s no salacious penguin sex or even any “over the tuxedo” behavior. It’s just two penguins who are in love and raise a baby penguin with that love.
“There's nothing sexual about it," Trevino says. "It was a cute book."
***
These book bans aren't just concerning because of how they restrict a student's ability to read the book they wish to read and the scope of their knowledge and understanding of the real world. It's also putting a great deal of strain and pressure on librarians, a profession dedicated to increasing communities' access to information and enlightenment and preserving the tenants of free speech.
"They're being intimidated in their jobs and pressured from their community on social media and people filming them outside of their libraries," Robinson says. "We're seeing librarians leave the profession or self-censorship where librarians are not bringing in media that's very much needed. It's a very challenging environment to be a librarian right now."
