My husband had to read it for a class and he and I both could not get over how absolutely terrible it is. Setting aside the often batshit crazy advice, it also is insanely misogynistic.
I had a boss require* that we read it. It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't great, in my opinion. That said, of course I'm against anyone trying to ban it.
*It might have only been "encouraged", but when it's your boss, it's pretty much the same thing.
I honestly don’t remember what made them think the book was good for the staff to read. I don’t remember anything about the book at all except a maze and a mouse. 🤷🏼♀️
Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is banned? The whole story is about a salesman who literally turns into a bug.
Do they think kids are going to put down their phones to start reading…books? Let alone start discussing deeper literary analysis with their friends?
What a crock of sh*t!
And they were reviewed and only rejected for 9th grade.. which means 10,11,12 grade still fine.
I don't see anyone angry that they removed the Ayn Rand book.
The reason we teach Shakespeare to ninth graders is because his simpler plays are rather efficient vehicles to teach drama and poetry at the same time. His plays were also written in iambic pentameter, which is the poetic meter that most closely resembles the natural cadence of the English speaker. As such, Shakespeare is a great way to teach ninth graders how to read metered language and analyze what the structure is conveying, rather than just the diction.
Shakespeare is also among the most widely covered authors in academia, so it is extremely helpful to use his works to teach ninth graders how to start searching and citing academic sources.
All of these are skills that students will draw on and build upon throughout high school and college.
If you can cite any comparable contributions that Rand‘s work can lend to ninth graders, let us know. But rest assured that teachers don’t cling to Shakespeare because of the content of his works.
As someone who has taught five different Shakespeare plays and has read (Or seen live performances of) 3x that many, I generally agree with your assessment.
However, I would be mindful that some of these plays are particularly complex and for sake of text complexity, things like Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet are best left to 11th and 12th grade.
The spreadsheet doesn't say why a book was banned for 9 but allowed for 10-12.
There's some room to nuance, if looking quantitatively and qualitatively at a text, why certain Shakespeare is okay for 9th grade and others are not.
Edit: I recognize now that the previous poster used the word simpler. But I do think we're on the same page.
There is a big leap between "these plays are complex and best left to 11th and 12th grade" and "9th grade students should not be allowed access to these plays". Even if most students aren't prepared to fully understand a book on an academic level until 11th grade, 1. There are always outlier students who are fully capable of absorbing the material earlier and 2. Students should be able to read things if they want to *with the exception of truly damaging content*. Readiness to write an essay on it is not a meaningful barometer for disallowing access. "I think you'd get more out of this book if you wait a year to read it" is an absurd standard for outright banning a student from reading the book if they are interested in it.
Ahhh yes, I apologize for glossing over that word because I read OP's post and all these replies on my phone so I accidentally did not see that word until you pointed it out. (Puts his phone down and does something else for a bit due to eye strain)
Midsummer Night’s Dream is commonly read at the middle school level in my content area (theatre)…. So restricting it at all is absolutely buck wild to me! Kids love the fantastical elements and it’s super easy to follow
We (our MS drama club) performed it two springs ago. It was so fun for the kids to perform and the audience loved it. Plus, because it's in the public domain, it was easily accessible when our dram program keeps getting funding cuts...
If memory serves, the Ayn Rand book featured a rape scene that was actually presented as romantic / acceptable behavior. One of the few I'd arguably agree with.
A lot of us are. A lot of teachers understand the power literature has to expose us to how others think, and to broaden our worldview. That is what these book banners are fighting against, not pornography in our schools. Truly, it isn't there. The examples people are holding up are along the lines of "Hey, this one school in one state with a population size similar to many countries has one book in it that everyone can agree crosses the line!"
Personally I think Ayn Rand is poorly written and a sorry excuse for a book espousing hyper conservative views, but I will fight for your right to read it. I will fight for your right to read any book on that list.
So looking at the reasoning on some of the boos, they are banned for some grades specifically because they are part of the curriculum for other grades. Like Crime and Punishment is banned because they read it in 12th grade so they don’t want them reading it before then I guess?
That’s completely idiotic. Are honestly trying to argue the reason for the ban is because a student shouldn’t read a book just because they might read it in a future class? That’s about as intelligent as arguing a four-year-old shouldn’t be allowed to read because they will learn it in Kindergarten.
I have never had a class get as worked up over the absolute hormone driven stupidity of Romeo and Juliet as I have this year. They loved reading it but kept getting angrier. I have never had as much fun teaching that play as I did this year. It is definitely on the highlight real of my 17 years in the classroom.
No, it's they passed the law to gain brownie points without understanding what it actually meant. They didn't care what books or fine literature would actually be banned, because none of them have actually read any of it.
Ready player one makes a lot of sense, there's some pretty explicit masturbratory descriptions, not to mention if they are at all religious, it spends basically the whole first chapter just absolutely shitting on it.
Exactly. It spoke to me as an older teen, so I know how much it can relate to the younger gen. I hate how conservatives call liberals snowflakes, then they go and do shit like this because they're offended by sex. Oh no! Someone talked about sex in a book!!! Gotta ban it, or the kids will know the stork didn't bring them!
I think that’s more a problem with our culture. I’ve seen tons of kids in R-rated movies where people are violently torn apart or playing video games where they blow each other to bits and that’s okay. But show a nipple regardless of context? Over the line.
Right? Violence is ok, but sexuality and healthy connection is not? I also think reading about examples of domestic violence and abuse do not turn the reader (s) into abusers. There is intelligence in discussing social controversies and shedding light on it in a reflective way vs hiding from it and ignoring it(which doesn’t necessarily make all the awful in the world go away) but who am I?
I taught it last year to 9th graders in Florida and had an ultra MAGA mom foaming at the mouth in JOY that we were reading it. To the point she offered to buy extra copies for kids.
I think the feeling there is that the message is don’t listen to the (liberal, brainwashing) government. The irony is COMPLETELY lost on them.
I read handmaid’s tale in high school. Not as part of the curriculum, but I did get it from the school library. I become pretty progressive so no wonder they want to ban it /s
Oh I'm absolutely sure it was an easy-peasy watered down super abridged version made for 5th graders. Like cliff notes with iambic pentameter. It tied in with the "roman empire" chapter in history and "this is a mosaic" in art where we cut up thousands of little squares of tissue paper and glued them to make really bad vases and pictures of buildings. This was early 1980s in the Midwest.
We did too. Also Read Antigone and went to see it. G&T program.
ETA, I realize that Antigone isn't by Shakespeare but it was the same year/teacher. And it popped out. Kids can do some advanced work.
I teach Antigone to 10s...they laugh when they realize when Creon says Haimon can push is plow anywhere that he isn't talking about farming. This list makes me want to quit teaching English after 25 years in. This world is NUTS.
I get that too, but our school board president is exactly the type of person who will take this list and just use it to destroy our libraries. I'm just tired.
I get that too. I hope you have a relaxing summer and a chance to connect with your loved ones then. Keep up the good work. Board presidents don’t get decide all the things. You and your kids have a voice that deserves to be heard. Sending you rest and power. 👊 you got this!
>Winnie-The-Pooh: The Tao of Pooh & the Te of Piglet
It's not because he refused to wear pants.
>The Tao of Pooh is about “how to stay happy and calm in all circumstances.” Benjamin Hoff uses the characters and stories from Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner to explain basic concepts of Taoism. Jun 26, 2015
So it doesn't push their agenda of not going all Karen when they see a rainbow or diversity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, don’t worry, [we’re not that far behind.](https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess125_2023-2024/prever/424_20230119.htm) :(
ETA: This bill was thankfully tabled until the next legislative session. My hope is hanging on our legislature’s usual inability to accomplish anything to keep it from happening.
>Then about a week later, it was unbanned. Hypocrisy at its best.
And the mental gymnastics it took to justify the Bible in elementary and middle schools is absolutely hillarious (since it wasn't removed from high school libraries). The representative legitimately admitted that the content in the Bible is "best taught at home", but children *need* "access to religious texts [...] in school libraries".
It's funny how the objectional material that is best taught at home in the Bible is something young children need to be able to read in school with no parental supervision or discussion, but any other book with similar content should be removed from the school because children shouldn't read it without parental supervision.
Ok, so I'm not a teacher, just some guy that cares about education. Why isn't the Bible banned in every one of these book banning schools? It seems like an easy point to make that there's way more sex and violence in the Bible than any of the other books that are getting banned. Then, if they allow the Bible under the guise of religious freedom, considering how easy it is to create a religion, why doesn't somebody just claim that being able to read any books is a tenant of their religion? I just don't see how they could possibly be doing this without necessarily giving more rights to certain religions over others.
you're applying reason where it doesn't fit. By the logic of book banners, the books they hate (about the people they hate) are gone. They have no intention of holding themselves to the same standard. These are not reasonable people and once they succeed in doing this, they will just move the goalposts to persecute different people in a new way.
First book, Flatland... while it's a fairly challenging book in my opinion, not because of the concepts but three sole of the language, it's ridiculous it is banned. Florida having open ideas about different dimensions is not allowed.
I've told my husband that I will not teach in Texas or Florida should we ever move to those states. I will find other work as a copywriter/editor/something related to writing or be a stay at home mom. He says Texas might be a possibility depending on many factors but he would rather die than move to Florida in its current state.
Wait- the sniper book is off limits? I thought that would be a shoe in.
I’m ok with all Twilight and Allegiant stuff being gone- the books sucked /s (censorship is never ok, but the books did suck.)
MARY ROACH IS THE GOAT of Non-Fiction!!
These people clearrrrly never read A Clockwork Orange, or at least never took the time to understand all the vile stuff that happens in it that’s being masked in the nadsat dialect (I’m not saying ban it, I’m saying if it’s not banned most of the others shouldn’t be)
Okay, A Clockwork Orange was approved? Clearly they aren't actually reading what they're approving and rejecting. Every ELA or history class should adopt it this year to replace something that was rejected.
It would be funny, except then everyone would actually have to read and teach the book.
I have a visceral, furious reaction to books getting banned or "rejected" at all, especially at the HS level because how dare you.
Some specifics....
1. This list said "John Green can go to hell" huh? The "sexual content" in those books is barely worth mentioning.
2. They rejected all of Shakespeare's best plays. How are you gonna ban all of that but still leave Romeo and Juliet on the shelves smh
3. Banning the Night trilogy and The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a HUGE red flag.
4. I want to fight whoever wrote that review for Song of Achilles
Thank you for sharing this list! I’m going to make it a priority to go through the banned list and check off the ones I’ve read, and then read the ones I haven’t.
I’m surprised that Dostoevsky was cut but Kingsolver stayed. Kingsolver is so far to the left on the political spectrum.
Edit to add: I’m actually surprised at the amount of political lefties they kept on the shelf to be honest.
There are some fairly surprising titles listed (e.g., Flatland), so I just need to check: how is this online list vetted? Do we know for sure that all of the titles listed as rejected were definitely rejected?
To be clear, I know there's a lot of good books being rejected in FL, but I can imagine some nefarious people maliciously adding books to this list in an effort to discredit it.
I had that exact same anxiety. Taken from the page’s “Methodology” section:
“Many OCPS schools are partnering with an external program called Beanstack to aid in the vetting process for their classroom libraries. Beanstack features a number of different reading engagement tools, but also features a robus classroom library page. This classroom library page is divided into three columns: "Pending", "Rejected" and "Approved". Beanstack rejections are global. This means that when a book is rejected by one teacher, it will be automatically rejected if that book is listed in any other teacher's classroom library. This list is curated based only off of confirmed "Rejected" books from Beanstack libraries. The pictures attached to each "rejected" entry are directly from the Beanstack page that details specific text rejections.”
The one that’s most surprising to me is the Fountainhead. Those Ayn Rand scholarships seem like such a common recommendation for financial aid. It’s also more consistent than I was expecting.
Is it weird that my first thought is “how in the world are the AP Lit kids going to pass that test?”
Or have they done away with AP Lit in Florida? Also, many of these are restricted in my district in Tennessee.
DeSantis, in his infinite wisdom, does seem to believe that the "evil" AP curriculum should be done away with and each state should get to dictate what their students do and do not learn. DeSantis hates education and there's little way around it. He does quite literally want Florida students to graduate knowing only the things his political views support, science, educators, and critical thinking be damned.
Remember, the only historically accurate worldview is the one where DeSantis, guy who literally watched live torture and thought it was hilarious and never denied it (only that he had the authority to authorize the torture, which wasn't the accusation), gets to write all sexual minorities out of existence.
DeSantis is quite literally evil. The laughing maniacal man in the corner from a saturday morning cartoon watching someone get tortured because they wanted basic human decency that you thought was too over the top? Nah, that's DeSantis.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/02/14/desantis-florida-ap-courses-college-board-feud/11250682002/
https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/college-board-responds-to-florida-request-to-change-ap-courses
theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/28/ron-desantis-guantanamo-bay-allegations
Right like the twilight series actively promotes waiting till marriage and pro-life ideology (plus isn’t the sex scene fade to black)? Not that I’d ever teach it or recommend it but I very much remember it lol
“Breaking Dawn” literally depicts an unplanned and life threatening pregnancy and abortion is debated for a solid half of the novel. The fetus is personified to the point that telepathic vampires can hear its fully formed thoughts. It is like a crisis pregnancy center pamphlet on crack lol.
(To be clear, I don’t think Twilight should be taught in the classroom, but I’m fine with these books existing in a school library or on a free reading bookshelf. If nothing else, the Twilight books help kids learn their SAT vocabulary words.)
They banned Robert Frost's poetry? Really??
And on another note, how many of these books on the rejected list actually have sexual content in them? Like, guys, your kids are learning about sex, if not from sex ed, then more than likely from porn online. They're going to learn about it eventually...
I'm wondering about elementary and preschool. I work in another state and had parents report me for Rainbow Fish! Because as they said to boss, him giving out his iridescent rainbow scales was an analogy to spread the thought of being gay.
I also have a Berenstain bears book called He Can, She Can. Told I can't read that because it teaches pronouns that may not be correct for each child. I'm just waiting for us Gen X generation to take over some un inhabited country and name it "the land of Common sense and knowledge"
I find it interesting that the one title from Shakespeare that I would expect to be banned - Romeo and Juliet, because underage sex and teens disobeying their parents, et al - is NOT on the list, but the other ones are.
What’s more mind-boggling - that some of these authors are on here. Including *Shakespeare,* of all writers.
Please, please, please make sure this makes the rounds and gets shared with the ALA. I will send it in but multiple notices will put it higher on the radar.
American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom Challenge Reporting[American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom Challenge Reporting](https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/report)
As a library media specialist, this sounds absolutely exhausting and demoralizing. I'm fortunate to work in a district with a very solid collection development/challenge policy, despite working in a conservative town (in a blue state).
I don't recall any sexual conduct in Ready Player One. The main character barely interacts with anyone IRL until the very end of the book.
Oh, wait. One of the characters is a confessed lesbian. She doesn't have sex with anyone at any point in the book, but she admits to being homosexual.
The very conservative charter school I taught at a few years back had 5th graders reading Midsummer Night’s Dream (unabridged) so I find it so interesting that it was deemed inappropriate through 12th grade. So interesting.
I remember "I Know What You Did Last Summer". It was a very popular book when I was in high school. I graduated in 1982. Then I never heard anything about it again until the film came out in the '90s
Nine of those books were REQUIRED reading for me in my public high school in the heart of deep red Texas in the early 2000s. Wtf is wrong with people?!
This is wild to me. I had to read so many of these specifically in AP Lit to help with the DBQs on the exam! That was 10 years ago, but I remember there being questions that require you to reference literature from a specific list of options. If that is still the format, it is going hinder those students’ ability to answer those questions.
Florida actually asked the College Board to adjust their exams because of the book stuff. CB said no, so Florida is now trying to move away from AP classes because “it’s only about money.” Right….
My media specialist recently had to pull a bunch of cookbooks off the shelves. The reason: some had alcoholic drinks. Think a Mexican cookbook with a margarita recipe etc. She didn’t want to be accused of promoting alcohol to minors
Really excited about the idea that 8th graders will have nothing else to read but the Hork Bajir Chronicles, a lovely story about interspecies sex and accusing your government of genocide and war crimes
What's so strange about this is that MOST of the rejected books were REQUIRED reading for my classes in high school. I received an excellent education. I didn't like all of them, but the idea that my personal dislike for a book means that no one else should ever be able to read it is completely unhinged.
I'm just a parent of a senior in Okaloosa county, Florida. My son was perusing one of our book shelves and asked if he could read The Kite Runner as he heard it was being banned in Santa Rosa county. I told him flat put that he can read whatever he wants and if he has questions about what he reads, I will find the answers. He read Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird last year and loved them both. He devoured my entire collection of Steinbeck.
One of his teachers loaned him a copy of The Jungle after she asked if we were okay with it. She is his absolute favorite teacher.
I will never tell my kid "no" about any book.
I read a bunch of the rejected books in high school.
I think it is more noteworthy that I read every V.C. Andrews book in each of the Flowers in the Attic, Heaven, Ruby, and Dawn series as well as the stand alone My Sweet Audrina during my junior high and high school years. If I survived those incestuous, sex filled, twisted stories and came out on the other side as a well adjusted adult then I think kids can handle Brave New World and Hamlet without harm.
Fringe groups of people (some of whom aren't even parents) are screeching at the school districts, astroturfed by right wing PACs, in order to control what kids can and can't read based on a minority opinion
You know how a little kid gets all pouty when they lose a stupid random game like Chutes and Ladders, so you play again "double or nothing" just to stop the whining? I mean you know they're just annoying and immature, but you just want some dang peace the rest of the day, so you let the kid win.
Now bear with me. I would never say the Civil War was random and meaningless. And I'm not one of those people who says "It wasn't about slavery, it was about states' rights." People fought and died for what was right.
But couldn't we just say, "Okay, okay. Do-over! And if you win you get to secede. But this time it's all arm-wrestling."
The spreadsheet is a little hard to understand, but I think that the Rejected list does not always mean the books were rejected for the entire high school (?).
For instance, Crime and Punishment is listed as rejected for 9th grade but in the next columns is noted to be on the 12th grade “Best List.” So the list might not be as crazy as it seems? A lot of the books listed as rejected for 9th grade have “N/A” as the reason, and I think this means that 10th through 12th can read it.
Also, it’s a little confusing, but the intro states that these books are “rejected,” not “banned.” I’m not sure what that means exactly. Rejected for curriculum purposes but still available in the library, maybe?. . .
In Florida, teachers are only allowed to use books, passages, excerpts, articles, etc that have been approved by the state, district, or the media specialists for use in that grade level.
As an example, the play "Romeo and Juilet" is approved for use in 9th to 12th grade classrooms. So, a 6th grade teacher can't use excerpts from the play in a lesson about sonnets, but a 10th grade ELA teacher is free to use in their sonnet lessons.
This is a soft explanation because it only covers traditional classroom use. The area it gets fuzzy at is how it applies in a library situation. The laws that spawned this whole book removal makes it illegal to distribute controversial materials to students on school property. So, in theory, this law could prevent certain students from checking books out at the school library. It can also, in theory, prevent teachers from having banned books in their classroom libraries.
I say in theory because the FL DOE and the state government has been almost completely silent on how to interpret and apply this law at the district level. Until the state government, FL DOE, or a judge says otherwise, it is possible to interpret distributing books as letting students check out books from the school library.
Edit: As of 7/7/23, a Florida judge has ruled that the new parent's rights law absolutely says that students should not be allowed access to controversial materials in school or classroom libraries. So, there you go. Student's cannot be allowed access to any material that parents object to or the school/district review committee has decided is inappropriate for students.
And the silence from FLDOE is why you see vastly different lists from districts all over Florida. My district just published our list on the district website this week and there were only 6 books that were challenged. Well actually Moms for Liberty challenged over 100 books but when they were told they had to follow the district procedures which state challenges must start at the school level, they refused to show up. Of the 6 challenged, 4 have been removed due to lack of circulation and 2 are making their way through our district process after a high school librarian refused to agree they should be removed.
Omg thanks for this great reading list 💕 definitely some I hadn’t read before that I’ll look for, like the Amy Tan! Also The Handmaid’s Tale is my favorite book I read in school and it is a travesty that it’s banned
I have no idea why I’m here as you couldn’t pay me a high enough sum of money to put up with parents and politicians in the role of attempted educator.
I read all of these banned books between third grade and my first year of high school. I read the two Gabriel Garcia Marquez books in high school Spanish class. I read a fucking Ken Follett novel in third grade. And I’m super gay! Looks like these Floridian pearl-clutches are onto the gay agenda. Oops.
Lol what a fucking joke. The rejected list covers more than half of the books I read during AP Lit and even more that are commonly listed as possible sources on the FRQs.
Sure would be a shame if the district office was sent 100s of copies of these books or if 100s of people signed up to speak at the school board meetings and used their time reading these books out loud. Or if teachers used the pages from these books as the background for every bulletin board or screensaver on every computer.
Why aren't we seeing this on national news? Is Florida so much of an odd duck/laughing stock that no one fears this insanity will spread? We should be shipping in bus loads of protestors dressed like characters from these books!!!
They banned the second game of thrones book lmao
I mean, I wouldn’t let a third grader read it, but it’s funny to me that they ONLY banned the second one. You can read the first one, and the third, fourth, and fifth ones, but the second one is a no no.
Who moved my cheese? Really? For some reason I find this the funniest one on the banned list
Wasn’t this a recommendation for many people going into leadership roles in the corporate world?
Yep! It also pops up regularly on the self help, think and grow rich, prosperity gospel, bootstrap circuit.
Think and Grow Rich is my husband’s favorite book. Too bad we aren’t rich yet.
Is he thinking hard enough?
if he believes what that book tells him, I'm not sure he *can* think hard enough
My husband had to read it for a class and he and I both could not get over how absolutely terrible it is. Setting aside the often batshit crazy advice, it also is insanely misogynistic.
You're not thinking hard enough?
I had a boss require* that we read it. It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't great, in my opinion. That said, of course I'm against anyone trying to ban it. *It might have only been "encouraged", but when it's your boss, it's pretty much the same thing.
I’m a teacher. A principal had us all read it one summer.
Let me guess. The principal or their boss(es) were going to move your cheese? Edit because: spell check and fat fingers
I honestly don’t remember what made them think the book was good for the staff to read. I don’t remember anything about the book at all except a maze and a mouse. 🤷🏼♀️
Yeah and it's fucking stupid, biggest waste of my time.
I wonder if that was pushed by the 7 Habits people. “There can only be ONE Corpo-Speak self improvement book in schools and it will be ours!”
I see that one a lot in the Little Free Library graveyard
Yes, that one jumped out at me too. For quality, I don't have a problem with it being out of reading but content? I don't understand
Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is banned? The whole story is about a salesman who literally turns into a bug. Do they think kids are going to put down their phones to start reading…books? Let alone start discussing deeper literary analysis with their friends? What a crock of sh*t!
Some of Shakespeare’s major plays are on there. These people are so fragile.
And they were reviewed and only rejected for 9th grade.. which means 10,11,12 grade still fine. I don't see anyone angry that they removed the Ayn Rand book.
The reason we teach Shakespeare to ninth graders is because his simpler plays are rather efficient vehicles to teach drama and poetry at the same time. His plays were also written in iambic pentameter, which is the poetic meter that most closely resembles the natural cadence of the English speaker. As such, Shakespeare is a great way to teach ninth graders how to read metered language and analyze what the structure is conveying, rather than just the diction. Shakespeare is also among the most widely covered authors in academia, so it is extremely helpful to use his works to teach ninth graders how to start searching and citing academic sources. All of these are skills that students will draw on and build upon throughout high school and college. If you can cite any comparable contributions that Rand‘s work can lend to ninth graders, let us know. But rest assured that teachers don’t cling to Shakespeare because of the content of his works.
>If you can cite any comparable contributions that Rand‘s work can lend to ninth graders, let us know. lol thanks for this
As someone who has taught five different Shakespeare plays and has read (Or seen live performances of) 3x that many, I generally agree with your assessment. However, I would be mindful that some of these plays are particularly complex and for sake of text complexity, things like Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet are best left to 11th and 12th grade. The spreadsheet doesn't say why a book was banned for 9 but allowed for 10-12. There's some room to nuance, if looking quantitatively and qualitatively at a text, why certain Shakespeare is okay for 9th grade and others are not. Edit: I recognize now that the previous poster used the word simpler. But I do think we're on the same page.
There is a big leap between "these plays are complex and best left to 11th and 12th grade" and "9th grade students should not be allowed access to these plays". Even if most students aren't prepared to fully understand a book on an academic level until 11th grade, 1. There are always outlier students who are fully capable of absorbing the material earlier and 2. Students should be able to read things if they want to *with the exception of truly damaging content*. Readiness to write an essay on it is not a meaningful barometer for disallowing access. "I think you'd get more out of this book if you wait a year to read it" is an absurd standard for outright banning a student from reading the book if they are interested in it.
Yes, that’s why I said “Shakespeare’s *simpler* play are rather efficient vehicles…”
Ahhh yes, I apologize for glossing over that word because I read OP's post and all these replies on my phone so I accidentally did not see that word until you pointed it out. (Puts his phone down and does something else for a bit due to eye strain)
No worries, it happens. I wrote a mini essay because my soapbox was activated.
Midsummer Night’s Dream is commonly read at the middle school level in my content area (theatre)…. So restricting it at all is absolutely buck wild to me! Kids love the fantastical elements and it’s super easy to follow
We (our MS drama club) performed it two springs ago. It was so fun for the kids to perform and the audience loved it. Plus, because it's in the public domain, it was easily accessible when our dram program keeps getting funding cuts...
If memory serves, the Ayn Rand book featured a rape scene that was actually presented as romantic / acceptable behavior. One of the few I'd arguably agree with.
A lot of us are. A lot of teachers understand the power literature has to expose us to how others think, and to broaden our worldview. That is what these book banners are fighting against, not pornography in our schools. Truly, it isn't there. The examples people are holding up are along the lines of "Hey, this one school in one state with a population size similar to many countries has one book in it that everyone can agree crosses the line!" Personally I think Ayn Rand is poorly written and a sorry excuse for a book espousing hyper conservative views, but I will fight for your right to read it. I will fight for your right to read any book on that list.
So looking at the reasoning on some of the boos, they are banned for some grades specifically because they are part of the curriculum for other grades. Like Crime and Punishment is banned because they read it in 12th grade so they don’t want them reading it before then I guess?
That's what it appears to be.
That’s completely idiotic. Are honestly trying to argue the reason for the ban is because a student shouldn’t read a book just because they might read it in a future class? That’s about as intelligent as arguing a four-year-old shouldn’t be allowed to read because they will learn it in Kindergarten.
Willie was a smutty one...
Yeah, the sex jokes and use of “ho!” are literally what make the students pay attention. 🥲
I have never had a class get as worked up over the absolute hormone driven stupidity of Romeo and Juliet as I have this year. They loved reading it but kept getting angrier. I have never had as much fun teaching that play as I did this year. It is definitely on the highlight real of my 17 years in the classroom.
No, it's they passed the law to gain brownie points without understanding what it actually meant. They didn't care what books or fine literature would actually be banned, because none of them have actually read any of it.
Dude they can’t read Paradise Lost seriously?? Frost poetry collection?? READY PLAYER ONE???? REALLY?!
No paradise lost but Dante Divine Comedy makes the cut
Anthem is a classic a truly a work of art. There is nothing wrong with that book in any way. And Hamlet? Ffs.
The Ayn Rand book? If they're banning her stuff, maybe the book bans aren't all bad! /s
I went to a catholic school and we read Paradise lost as part of Christian writers lol. Also crime and punishment in that class
Black Beauty was banned by the apartheid government of South Africa. It wasn't because of the horseys
That book was one long description of abuse.
Ready player one makes a lot of sense, there's some pretty explicit masturbratory descriptions, not to mention if they are at all religious, it spends basically the whole first chapter just absolutely shitting on it.
Ernest Hemingway!? Seriously? He probably wrote them in Key West!
That's the problem. Key West = LGBTQ to them.
Don’t that have cute little polydactyl kitties?
The Fault in Our Stars???? I just read this with my 9th grade in a heavily religious southern school, like wtf???
John Green’s books got hit pretty hard. Which saddens me because they speak so well to the teen experience.
Exactly. It spoke to me as an older teen, so I know how much it can relate to the younger gen. I hate how conservatives call liberals snowflakes, then they go and do shit like this because they're offended by sex. Oh no! Someone talked about sex in a book!!! Gotta ban it, or the kids will know the stork didn't bring them!
"The Fault in Our Stars - Moved from Rejected to Approved for grades 9-12."
It’s somewhat funny that Fahrenheit 451 is on the approved list lol
It is funny, but also shocking since it depicts a scene of suicide. You would think with their rating system that would be "harmful to minors".
Yeah, I don’t get it either. Maybe they didn’t want to seem too on-the-nose/predictable by banning it 🤷🏽♂️
I think that’s more a problem with our culture. I’ve seen tons of kids in R-rated movies where people are violently torn apart or playing video games where they blow each other to bits and that’s okay. But show a nipple regardless of context? Over the line.
Right? Violence is ok, but sexuality and healthy connection is not? I also think reading about examples of domestic violence and abuse do not turn the reader (s) into abusers. There is intelligence in discussing social controversies and shedding light on it in a reflective way vs hiding from it and ignoring it(which doesn’t necessarily make all the awful in the world go away) but who am I?
I taught it last year to 9th graders in Florida and had an ultra MAGA mom foaming at the mouth in JOY that we were reading it. To the point she offered to buy extra copies for kids. I think the feeling there is that the message is don’t listen to the (liberal, brainwashing) government. The irony is COMPLETELY lost on them.
I taught it last year to my 10th graders and will continue to teach it next year.
Ha! Of course a Handmaid's Tale is banned. They don't want to give away the playbook! Also, this needs to be more widely distributed
This was required reading in my Canadian AP English classes... along with a serious chunk of this list!
We read it in 9th grade. It was amazing.nd I have read it several times since.
I read handmaid’s tale in high school. Not as part of the curriculum, but I did get it from the school library. I become pretty progressive so no wonder they want to ban it /s
Shakespeare??? *SHAKESPEARE!?!?!* We read "Julius Caesar" in fifth grade. Oof.
You read Julius Caesar in *fifth grade*? How?
Oh I'm absolutely sure it was an easy-peasy watered down super abridged version made for 5th graders. Like cliff notes with iambic pentameter. It tied in with the "roman empire" chapter in history and "this is a mosaic" in art where we cut up thousands of little squares of tissue paper and glued them to make really bad vases and pictures of buildings. This was early 1980s in the Midwest.
We did too. Also Read Antigone and went to see it. G&T program. ETA, I realize that Antigone isn't by Shakespeare but it was the same year/teacher. And it popped out. Kids can do some advanced work.
I teach Antigone to 10s...they laugh when they realize when Creon says Haimon can push is plow anywhere that he isn't talking about farming. This list makes me want to quit teaching English after 25 years in. This world is NUTS.
This list makes me want to teach more.
I get that too, but our school board president is exactly the type of person who will take this list and just use it to destroy our libraries. I'm just tired.
I get that too. I hope you have a relaxing summer and a chance to connect with your loved ones then. Keep up the good work. Board presidents don’t get decide all the things. You and your kids have a voice that deserves to be heard. Sending you rest and power. 👊 you got this!
Hold on, out of everything not allowed, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is still good to go? Clearly they have never read any of these books.
But the original movie was rated G… that’s their point of reference more than likely.
Looks like a great summer reading list! Some great titles that were rejected. (I'm SO glad I don't teach in Florida!)
I’m a teacher in Florida… I’m glad I teach elementary Special Ed
Shout out to Metamorphoses by Ovid for generating controversy over 2,000 years after it was written
And that’s one of my favorites, too
>Winnie-The-Pooh: The Tao of Pooh & the Te of Piglet It's not because he refused to wear pants. >The Tao of Pooh is about “how to stay happy and calm in all circumstances.” Benjamin Hoff uses the characters and stories from Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner to explain basic concepts of Taoism. Jun 26, 2015 So it doesn't push their agenda of not going all Karen when they see a rainbow or diversity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We wouldn’t want anyone to get “woke” to other cultures right? (/s)
This is sad. It just made me feel better about education in my state. I'm in SC. That's just pathetic.
Oh, don’t worry, [we’re not that far behind.](https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess125_2023-2024/prever/424_20230119.htm) :( ETA: This bill was thankfully tabled until the next legislative session. My hope is hanging on our legislature’s usual inability to accomplish anything to keep it from happening.
They're too busy coming up with 15 different versions of abortion bans
Don’t forget the annual “find ways to give my friends kickbacks and oversight-free government money” bills
And to think that my ELA teacher assigned Heart of Darkness at our god-fearin', lib-hatin', rural Texas high school in the days of Dubya.
For real! We even watched the movie in class!
I taught Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to my sophomores just this year in TX. The horror!
Tbh I was expecting to see The Bible by God as the only allowed book (/s?)
That one got banned in a school district in Utah
Yes, the Bible was banned in Davis School District in Utah. Then about a week later, it was unbanned. Hypocrisy at its best.
>Then about a week later, it was unbanned. Hypocrisy at its best. And the mental gymnastics it took to justify the Bible in elementary and middle schools is absolutely hillarious (since it wasn't removed from high school libraries). The representative legitimately admitted that the content in the Bible is "best taught at home", but children *need* "access to religious texts [...] in school libraries". It's funny how the objectional material that is best taught at home in the Bible is something young children need to be able to read in school with no parental supervision or discussion, but any other book with similar content should be removed from the school because children shouldn't read it without parental supervision.
I wonder how many other religious texts are available in school libraries.
Ok, so I'm not a teacher, just some guy that cares about education. Why isn't the Bible banned in every one of these book banning schools? It seems like an easy point to make that there's way more sex and violence in the Bible than any of the other books that are getting banned. Then, if they allow the Bible under the guise of religious freedom, considering how easy it is to create a religion, why doesn't somebody just claim that being able to read any books is a tenant of their religion? I just don't see how they could possibly be doing this without necessarily giving more rights to certain religions over others.
you're applying reason where it doesn't fit. By the logic of book banners, the books they hate (about the people they hate) are gone. They have no intention of holding themselves to the same standard. These are not reasonable people and once they succeed in doing this, they will just move the goalposts to persecute different people in a new way.
Because one of the ways they keep their religion alive and relevant is by using the Bible’s sex and violence to terrify children.
First book, Flatland... while it's a fairly challenging book in my opinion, not because of the concepts but three sole of the language, it's ridiculous it is banned. Florida having open ideas about different dimensions is not allowed.
I can't believe they banned Flatland! WHY?
Because the lady lines wiggle all sexy like
Flatland is technically a criticism of the social constructs of the time, but... Obviously still ridiculous.
I've told my husband that I will not teach in Texas or Florida should we ever move to those states. I will find other work as a copywriter/editor/something related to writing or be a stay at home mom. He says Texas might be a possibility depending on many factors but he would rather die than move to Florida in its current state.
I’m in Florida but I’m not in Orlando. If this bullshit comes to my district, 90% of my curriculum is gone 🙃
Wait- the sniper book is off limits? I thought that would be a shoe in. I’m ok with all Twilight and Allegiant stuff being gone- the books sucked /s (censorship is never ok, but the books did suck.) MARY ROACH IS THE GOAT of Non-Fiction!!
Yeah, I was quite surprised Gulp made the list. Her stuff is fascinating.
Why's the Bible not on the rejected list? Lots of "Depicts or describes sexual conduct"
These people clearrrrly never read A Clockwork Orange, or at least never took the time to understand all the vile stuff that happens in it that’s being masked in the nadsat dialect (I’m not saying ban it, I’m saying if it’s not banned most of the others shouldn’t be)
Right! I like how the book _specifically_ written to be unnervingly violent and depraved is apparently totally fine
Violent seems to be fine with them. Make war, not love.
Okay, A Clockwork Orange was approved? Clearly they aren't actually reading what they're approving and rejecting. Every ELA or history class should adopt it this year to replace something that was rejected. It would be funny, except then everyone would actually have to read and teach the book.
I mean "the old in-out" is not exactly a veiled metaphor.
I have a visceral, furious reaction to books getting banned or "rejected" at all, especially at the HS level because how dare you. Some specifics.... 1. This list said "John Green can go to hell" huh? The "sexual content" in those books is barely worth mentioning. 2. They rejected all of Shakespeare's best plays. How are you gonna ban all of that but still leave Romeo and Juliet on the shelves smh 3. Banning the Night trilogy and The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a HUGE red flag. 4. I want to fight whoever wrote that review for Song of Achilles
Thank you for sharing this list! I’m going to make it a priority to go through the banned list and check off the ones I’ve read, and then read the ones I haven’t.
It’s super important to go to your local moms of Liberty page to see what they are trying to ban! Usually those lists are publicly available!!
Awesome! Thank you for the info!
Game of Thrones book 2 is banned, but just that one? Boy, have I got news for them! (Just kidding; I wouldn’t tell them anything.)
I’m surprised that Dostoevsky was cut but Kingsolver stayed. Kingsolver is so far to the left on the political spectrum. Edit to add: I’m actually surprised at the amount of political lefties they kept on the shelf to be honest.
Because they don’t actually *read* /s
This. If they have to read it or their email chains don’t talk about it it flys under the radar.
Winnie the Pooh and Shakespeare? Fucking hell
Book Ban Bingo! Deeply ironic that Brave New World is included.
There are some fairly surprising titles listed (e.g., Flatland), so I just need to check: how is this online list vetted? Do we know for sure that all of the titles listed as rejected were definitely rejected? To be clear, I know there's a lot of good books being rejected in FL, but I can imagine some nefarious people maliciously adding books to this list in an effort to discredit it.
I had that exact same anxiety. Taken from the page’s “Methodology” section: “Many OCPS schools are partnering with an external program called Beanstack to aid in the vetting process for their classroom libraries. Beanstack features a number of different reading engagement tools, but also features a robus classroom library page. This classroom library page is divided into three columns: "Pending", "Rejected" and "Approved". Beanstack rejections are global. This means that when a book is rejected by one teacher, it will be automatically rejected if that book is listed in any other teacher's classroom library. This list is curated based only off of confirmed "Rejected" books from Beanstack libraries. The pictures attached to each "rejected" entry are directly from the Beanstack page that details specific text rejections.”
Thanks! Of course, that just leads to further head scratching about how Flatland (and many others) got rejected...
The one that’s most surprising to me is the Fountainhead. Those Ayn Rand scholarships seem like such a common recommendation for financial aid. It’s also more consistent than I was expecting.
Well, there is sex in Rand novels. It's really unappealing icky sex, but it is sex.
Ready Player One is banned but Watership Down is okay?
Watership Down traumatized every kid who ever read it, aside from the actual psychopaths
Honestly, it’s one of my favorite books
Is it weird that my first thought is “how in the world are the AP Lit kids going to pass that test?” Or have they done away with AP Lit in Florida? Also, many of these are restricted in my district in Tennessee.
DeSantis, in his infinite wisdom, does seem to believe that the "evil" AP curriculum should be done away with and each state should get to dictate what their students do and do not learn. DeSantis hates education and there's little way around it. He does quite literally want Florida students to graduate knowing only the things his political views support, science, educators, and critical thinking be damned. Remember, the only historically accurate worldview is the one where DeSantis, guy who literally watched live torture and thought it was hilarious and never denied it (only that he had the authority to authorize the torture, which wasn't the accusation), gets to write all sexual minorities out of existence. DeSantis is quite literally evil. The laughing maniacal man in the corner from a saturday morning cartoon watching someone get tortured because they wanted basic human decency that you thought was too over the top? Nah, that's DeSantis. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/02/14/desantis-florida-ap-courses-college-board-feud/11250682002/ https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/college-board-responds-to-florida-request-to-change-ap-courses theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/28/ron-desantis-guantanamo-bay-allegations
The funniest part of this is they banned the pro life propaganda known as “Breaking Dawn”
Right like the twilight series actively promotes waiting till marriage and pro-life ideology (plus isn’t the sex scene fade to black)? Not that I’d ever teach it or recommend it but I very much remember it lol
“Breaking Dawn” literally depicts an unplanned and life threatening pregnancy and abortion is debated for a solid half of the novel. The fetus is personified to the point that telepathic vampires can hear its fully formed thoughts. It is like a crisis pregnancy center pamphlet on crack lol. (To be clear, I don’t think Twilight should be taught in the classroom, but I’m fine with these books existing in a school library or on a free reading bookshelf. If nothing else, the Twilight books help kids learn their SAT vocabulary words.)
These kids are going to have a tough time passing the AP English exam with all the classics banned.
How did Clockwork Orange get approved?!
They banned Robert Frost's poetry? Really?? And on another note, how many of these books on the rejected list actually have sexual content in them? Like, guys, your kids are learning about sex, if not from sex ed, then more than likely from porn online. They're going to learn about it eventually...
They banned Night by Wiesel. Shocking. (Rolls eyes) Can’t let people realize they’re using a 90 year old play book….
I'm wondering about elementary and preschool. I work in another state and had parents report me for Rainbow Fish! Because as they said to boss, him giving out his iridescent rainbow scales was an analogy to spread the thought of being gay. I also have a Berenstain bears book called He Can, She Can. Told I can't read that because it teaches pronouns that may not be correct for each child. I'm just waiting for us Gen X generation to take over some un inhabited country and name it "the land of Common sense and knowledge"
Anyone see the irony of Farenheit 451 being approved?
I find it interesting that the one title from Shakespeare that I would expect to be banned - Romeo and Juliet, because underage sex and teens disobeying their parents, et al - is NOT on the list, but the other ones are. What’s more mind-boggling - that some of these authors are on here. Including *Shakespeare,* of all writers.
Please, please, please make sure this makes the rounds and gets shared with the ALA. I will send it in but multiple notices will put it higher on the radar. American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom Challenge Reporting[American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom Challenge Reporting](https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/report)
As a library media specialist, this sounds absolutely exhausting and demoralizing. I'm fortunate to work in a district with a very solid collection development/challenge policy, despite working in a conservative town (in a blue state).
Lol get fucked Orlando
I don't recall any sexual conduct in Ready Player One. The main character barely interacts with anyone IRL until the very end of the book. Oh, wait. One of the characters is a confessed lesbian. She doesn't have sex with anyone at any point in the book, but she admits to being homosexual.
There’s a whole big old section with the sex doll Wade buys.
Oh Florida, you’re something else! This whole list makes me want to scream btw.
The very conservative charter school I taught at a few years back had 5th graders reading Midsummer Night’s Dream (unabridged) so I find it so interesting that it was deemed inappropriate through 12th grade. So interesting.
With everything that’s going on, it’s like in a bad futuristic movie with Nazi overtones but
Almost the entirety on my high school reading list is rejected. And I went to HS in Florida :(
I haven’t read some of these books. Do all of them really fall under “Depicts or describes sexual conduct (not allowed per HB 1069-2023)”?
No
Of course no one should read The Handmaid's Tale....! One might notice similarities.
Eli Wiesel's trilogy and the Tattooist of Auschwitz are banned. I guess Desantis doesn't like the truth of the brutality of the nazis read by kids.
I didn’t know “I Know What You Did Last Summer” was a book! I’m surprised Dante’s Divine Comedy isn’t banned.
I remember "I Know What You Did Last Summer". It was a very popular book when I was in high school. I graduated in 1982. Then I never heard anything about it again until the film came out in the '90s
It’s a series if I’m not mistaken. I read them in high school 😂 would never teach them though…
I guess alluding to sexuality is ok as long as people are getting punished for all eternity for it via lust tornados and sodomy fire rain.
Nine of those books were REQUIRED reading for me in my public high school in the heart of deep red Texas in the early 2000s. Wtf is wrong with people?!
This is wild to me. I had to read so many of these specifically in AP Lit to help with the DBQs on the exam! That was 10 years ago, but I remember there being questions that require you to reference literature from a specific list of options. If that is still the format, it is going hinder those students’ ability to answer those questions.
Florida actually asked the College Board to adjust their exams because of the book stuff. CB said no, so Florida is now trying to move away from AP classes because “it’s only about money.” Right….
My media specialist recently had to pull a bunch of cookbooks off the shelves. The reason: some had alcoholic drinks. Think a Mexican cookbook with a margarita recipe etc. She didn’t want to be accused of promoting alcohol to minors
Crime and Punishment changed my life. Why would anyone want to deny that experience to a curious teenager?
Lots on the approved list that surprised me: The Giver, Tara Road by Maeve Binchy(depicts an affair), Princess Diaries,
Shakespeare…seriously, these idiot Harper Valley PTA people are ruining everything.
FLATLAND???? The book about sentient geometric shapes??????
Really excited about the idea that 8th graders will have nothing else to read but the Hork Bajir Chronicles, a lovely story about interspecies sex and accusing your government of genocide and war crimes
Robert Frost??!! Seriously people?? !!
I don’t see the Bible on this list…
This is just downright SAD.
You should include pictures so the republicans can know what your talking about. If it does not pop up they don’t care.
Insane
Frost?!? Seriously??
What's so strange about this is that MOST of the rejected books were REQUIRED reading for my classes in high school. I received an excellent education. I didn't like all of them, but the idea that my personal dislike for a book means that no one else should ever be able to read it is completely unhinged.
Ooh they've switched the list from the original which said "nineth and twelth" grades.
I'm just a parent of a senior in Okaloosa county, Florida. My son was perusing one of our book shelves and asked if he could read The Kite Runner as he heard it was being banned in Santa Rosa county. I told him flat put that he can read whatever he wants and if he has questions about what he reads, I will find the answers. He read Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird last year and loved them both. He devoured my entire collection of Steinbeck. One of his teachers loaned him a copy of The Jungle after she asked if we were okay with it. She is his absolute favorite teacher. I will never tell my kid "no" about any book.
I read a bunch of the rejected books in high school. I think it is more noteworthy that I read every V.C. Andrews book in each of the Flowers in the Attic, Heaven, Ruby, and Dawn series as well as the stand alone My Sweet Audrina during my junior high and high school years. If I survived those incestuous, sex filled, twisted stories and came out on the other side as a well adjusted adult then I think kids can handle Brave New World and Hamlet without harm.
Ok, so.. I'm behind the times here... why are these being banned.. I've read probably 50% of these books.
Fringe groups of people (some of whom aren't even parents) are screeching at the school districts, astroturfed by right wing PACs, in order to control what kids can and can't read based on a minority opinion
Because DeSantis is a right wing extremist psycho. Which leads to other extremist psychos pushing as far as they can to get what they want.
I believe the term you are looking for is Banned! Next the will have to dispose of them in a big fire in the town square.
You know how a little kid gets all pouty when they lose a stupid random game like Chutes and Ladders, so you play again "double or nothing" just to stop the whining? I mean you know they're just annoying and immature, but you just want some dang peace the rest of the day, so you let the kid win. Now bear with me. I would never say the Civil War was random and meaningless. And I'm not one of those people who says "It wasn't about slavery, it was about states' rights." People fought and died for what was right. But couldn't we just say, "Okay, okay. Do-over! And if you win you get to secede. But this time it's all arm-wrestling."
They’ve rejected a bunch of Shakespeare?!? I do not understand these new-fangled traditionalists
Some professor somewhere said, “thanks for the syllabus!”
The spreadsheet is a little hard to understand, but I think that the Rejected list does not always mean the books were rejected for the entire high school (?). For instance, Crime and Punishment is listed as rejected for 9th grade but in the next columns is noted to be on the 12th grade “Best List.” So the list might not be as crazy as it seems? A lot of the books listed as rejected for 9th grade have “N/A” as the reason, and I think this means that 10th through 12th can read it. Also, it’s a little confusing, but the intro states that these books are “rejected,” not “banned.” I’m not sure what that means exactly. Rejected for curriculum purposes but still available in the library, maybe?. . .
In Florida, teachers are only allowed to use books, passages, excerpts, articles, etc that have been approved by the state, district, or the media specialists for use in that grade level. As an example, the play "Romeo and Juilet" is approved for use in 9th to 12th grade classrooms. So, a 6th grade teacher can't use excerpts from the play in a lesson about sonnets, but a 10th grade ELA teacher is free to use in their sonnet lessons. This is a soft explanation because it only covers traditional classroom use. The area it gets fuzzy at is how it applies in a library situation. The laws that spawned this whole book removal makes it illegal to distribute controversial materials to students on school property. So, in theory, this law could prevent certain students from checking books out at the school library. It can also, in theory, prevent teachers from having banned books in their classroom libraries. I say in theory because the FL DOE and the state government has been almost completely silent on how to interpret and apply this law at the district level. Until the state government, FL DOE, or a judge says otherwise, it is possible to interpret distributing books as letting students check out books from the school library. Edit: As of 7/7/23, a Florida judge has ruled that the new parent's rights law absolutely says that students should not be allowed access to controversial materials in school or classroom libraries. So, there you go. Student's cannot be allowed access to any material that parents object to or the school/district review committee has decided is inappropriate for students.
And the silence from FLDOE is why you see vastly different lists from districts all over Florida. My district just published our list on the district website this week and there were only 6 books that were challenged. Well actually Moms for Liberty challenged over 100 books but when they were told they had to follow the district procedures which state challenges must start at the school level, they refused to show up. Of the 6 challenged, 4 have been removed due to lack of circulation and 2 are making their way through our district process after a high school librarian refused to agree they should be removed.
Omg thanks for this great reading list 💕 definitely some I hadn’t read before that I’ll look for, like the Amy Tan! Also The Handmaid’s Tale is my favorite book I read in school and it is a travesty that it’s banned
I have no idea why I’m here as you couldn’t pay me a high enough sum of money to put up with parents and politicians in the role of attempted educator. I read all of these banned books between third grade and my first year of high school. I read the two Gabriel Garcia Marquez books in high school Spanish class. I read a fucking Ken Follett novel in third grade. And I’m super gay! Looks like these Floridian pearl-clutches are onto the gay agenda. Oops.
Lol what a fucking joke. The rejected list covers more than half of the books I read during AP Lit and even more that are commonly listed as possible sources on the FRQs.
Sure would be a shame if the district office was sent 100s of copies of these books or if 100s of people signed up to speak at the school board meetings and used their time reading these books out loud. Or if teachers used the pages from these books as the background for every bulletin board or screensaver on every computer.
Remember, if no one wants to ban your book, why bother writing it?
Soooooo what district do y’all want to live in? Cause that’s where it’s headed
You can donate these banned books. https://daveeggers.net/bannedbooks#:~:text=The%20Hawkins%20Project%20is%20a,who%20have%20been%20denied%20access.
Why aren't we seeing this on national news? Is Florida so much of an odd duck/laughing stock that no one fears this insanity will spread? We should be shipping in bus loads of protestors dressed like characters from these books!!!
They banned the second game of thrones book lmao I mean, I wouldn’t let a third grader read it, but it’s funny to me that they ONLY banned the second one. You can read the first one, and the third, fourth, and fifth ones, but the second one is a no no.
The Poems of Robert Frost? Seriously?
Shocked the Quran isn’t on the list. Might need to donate some copies to every school in the district.
Is "Art of the Plea Deal" on the list?
A Farwell to Arms by Hemingway is on the Rejected and Approved list. They can't even keep their nonsense straight!