Library and Banned Books News 5-23-2025
Hello Friends,
As usual, this is not all of the library and banned books news this week because there’s too much and the word count becomes too long.
Knox County Schools reaches 113 banned books
Knox County Schools bans 65 more books from libraries under state law
There are now 113 books that are banned in Knox County, according to the school district.
Last July, Knox County’s board of education passed a policy to remove “explicit” books from everyday student access in response to Tennessee’s new Age-Appropriate Materials Act.
Specifically, KCS’s policy bans books that “contain nudity or descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence or sadomasochistic abuse.”
School districts statewide are updating their libraries to comply with the new law. The number of books removed has greatly varied with some removing hundreds of books and others only removing a select few.
NOTE: the article includes a complete list of the banned books. Some that I’ve read include those below. If I have reviewed or discussed the book in a previous Substack, the title is linked to that review. Of all these books, the one that I would remove is Lucky, but not for the reasons the banners removed it. As it turned out, the wrong man was imprisoned for Sebold’s rape and assault with a deadly weapon. So the book has it wrong. It’s a tragic story—NYT article gift link for details.
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
milk and honey Rupi Kaur
Wicked Gregory Maguire
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison
Shine Lauren Myracle
Breathless Jennifer Niven
Out of Darkness Ashley Hope Perez
Mrs. Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children - Graphic Novel Ransom Riggs
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Erika L Sanchez
Lucky Alice Sebold
In The Night Kitchen Maurice Sendak
A Light in the Attic Shel Silverstein
Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut
Everything, Everything Nicola Yoon
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie
Me, Earl, & The Dying Girl Jesse Andrews
Go ask Alice “Anonymous”(Beatrice Sparks)
Chopsticks Anthony Jessica
Forever Blume Judy
Draw Me A Star Eric Carle
Just Listen Sarah Dessen
A Stolen Life Jaycee Duggar
Water for Elephants Sara Gruen
Billie Jean King’s Biography
Billie Jean King deserved better from a South Carolina school district | Opinion from The State
Despite King’s trailblazing past and state ties, the [Lexington-Richland 5] district restricted access to an illustrated, inspirational and age-appropriate book about her for 5- to 9-year-olds at several elementary schools because it briefly mentions that the woman who won 39 Grand Slam titles — 12 in singles, 16 in women’s doubles and 11 in mixed doubles — happens to be a lesbian. …
Lexington-Richland 5 Superintendent Akil Ross’ decision to pull the book from shelves after one parent complained — and to require parental consent from all the other families whose kids want to learn more about King — is because less than 3% of it was about being gay.
New Hampshire 324
Bill derided by authors as enabling book banning heads to Ayotte’s desk from the New Hampshire Bulletin
HB 324 would require all New Hampshire school boards to adopt a complaint process that parents could use to object to obscene materials — and potentially remove them. Currently, school districts can choose their own policies for how to allow parents to object to materials.
Under the proposed law, parents may submit written complaints alleging that a book or other material is obscene. To qualify, the content must appeal “to the prurient, shameful or morbid interest of minors,” and depict nudity, sexual acts, or sadomasochistic abuse in a way that is “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors.”
The material must also lack “serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value for minors,” and be inappropriate to the age group to which it is made available. If it doesn’t meet all four of those requirements, it cannot be removed. …
Rep. Glenn Cordelli, the Tuftonboro Republican who proposed the bill, disagrees that it is meant to ban books.
“I see it more as a parents’ rights bill for parents to object to materials in some schools,” Cordelli said in an interview Thursday, just before the Senate vote.
Cordelli has read on the House floor passages from some books he says should be removed, including “Here and Queer: A Queer Girl’s Guide to Life,” a 2022 advice book for teenagers, and Speak, an award-winning 1999 young adult book about a high school freshman who is raped. [Vic’s Note: I include this last paragraph because the books Cordelli wants to ban do not meet the requirements under the proposed law that are listed in the earlier paragraphs.]
North Carolina House Bill 636
'Where do we draw the line?': NC legislation targets public school libraries from wfdd
House Bill 636, titled “Promoting Wholesome Content for Students,” passed April 16 by the N.C. House of Representatives, would require public school districts to establish a community library advisory committee of five parents and five district employees, tasked with reviewing and recommending books and other materials to be placed in school libraries, investigating parent and community complaints about those materials, and reviewing materials before a student book fair. Additionally, the bill would allow parents and residents of the county where the public school is located to sue a school that fails to comply with the bill up to $5,000 per violation. …
[Madison Markham, coordinator of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program] said that in other states with similar laws that include unclear language, PEN America has observed an “over-compliance” among librarians and educators due to uncertainty about which books to remove from the shelves and fear of losing their jobs. South Carolina’s Regulation 43-170, passed in 2024, is similar to HB 636 in that it discusses sexual content, though more specific in its definition, for “any age or age group of children,” and led to hundreds of books being pulled across the state, Markham said. South Carolina is one of three states, along with Utah and Tennessee, to permit statewide school book bans through state law.
Another related bill, HB 595, discusses several education-related topics, including sex education. It establishes strict criteria for selecting books in public school libraries, and, notably, would charge public school employees and librarians with a Class 1 misdemeanor if they distribute material deemed harmful to minors.
Both HB 595 and HB 636 use the word “harmful” to describe content that should not be available to minors in public schools and libraries. For Gold, the question of what books meet the definition of harmful is the most stressful part of HB 595.
Texas HB 1375 Dies without a Vote
Texas Booksellers Defeat Bookstore Bounty Bill from American Booksellers Association
HB 1375, Texas’s bookstore bounty bill, died without a vote last Thursday, May 15. Had it passed as introduced, the bill would have allowed anyone to file a civil suit seeking damages against a commercial entity or its shareholders if they could plausibly claim a minor was harmed by content they created, published, or displayed.
Giving “harmful to minors” material to minors is not something booksellers do — especially since it’s already illegal in the Penal Code. But even if claimants had no hope of winning their suits, we know from experience it wouldn’t stop some bad actors from suing anyway in hopes of getting a settlement or chilling booksellers’ speech. The bill would have led to a cottage industry of frivolous suits that would have disproportionately impacted the small businesses that can’t afford to fight. It could have put independent bookstores out of business.
It’s no accident that HB 1375 didn’t even get a vote on the floor. The bill was placed on page 25 of the 30-page agenda for the last day of the session, a sign that legislators knew the bill had problems and had no desire to move it forward.
How did they know the bill had problems? Because they heard about it from booksellers and those who love them. The public comment on this bill was overflowing with demonstrations of why this would be bad for booksellers, readers, publishers, and authors — but especially booksellers
Top Safety Tips for Those Defending the Freedom to Read from PEN America
Nevada AB 416 Hopes to Move Book Ban Decisions to Courts
As culture wars flare at libraries, Nevada lawmaker seeks to move book ban decisions to courts from the Daily Indy (Nevada Independent)
The bill would limit the power of local library staff and trustees to remove books, instead tasking courts with deciding whether materials are truly “obscene.”
Library board meetings have become ground zero for debates about banning certain books or making them harder for children to access, particularly when they deal with LGBTQ+ and diversity, equity and inclusion topics. …
“There are many times when individuals come up to give public comments, the rhetoric that they use is hateful, harmful and straight out hate speech,” organizer Naseem Jamnia told The Nevada Independent. …
But Assm. Brittney Miller (D-Las Vegas) is hoping to defuse the controversies through AB416, a bill that takes decisions about book removals out of local school and library officials’ hands and instead moving them to court — something she said will ensure more consistency in bans from one jurisdiction to the next.
The bill would criminalize two types of actions — including trying to share sensitive information about library employees or threatening them — as felony offenses, punishable by one to four years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
AB416 passed the Assembly on a 29-13 vote on Wednesday, with two Republicans voting yes along with all Democrats. The bill is exempted and it still needs to clear several more legislative steps by the end of the session, which is less than two weeks away, to become law. …
If AB416 passes, individuals wishing to challenge a book will need to petition a court, which will review it and decide if the book is “obscene.” If the book is deemed obscene, there will be a court-created statewide list of banned books to ensure libraries don’t purchase or shelf that book again….
Opponents to the bill have also raised concerns about the new potential criminal penalties. Under the bill, it would be a crime for someone to threaten force, intimidation or coercion in an attempt to block access to a book and pressure staff or a board member to violate the library access rules. Additionally, individuals will be prohibited from retaliating and doxxing library system employees.
Idaho School Board Elections
Good news, bad news: Tale of two library district elections in Idaho | Opinion from the Idaho Statesman
First the good news: Voters in the Meridian Library District got it overwhelmingly correct. They chose incumbent Jeff Kohler and newcomer Garrett Castle to terms on the district board over two candidates, Mike Hon and Phil Reynolds, who led an effort to disband the library district over unfounded right-wing fears of pornography in the libraries. …
The right-wing bogeyman of pornography in libraries and librarians as groomers is really code for a dislike of gay characters or books that talk about sexuality or center on minority or LGBTQ+ characters. Reynolds moved from California to Idaho sometime after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, from which he posted on social media, “The war has begun! Citizens take arms! FREEDOM SHALL PREVAIL!!! WE MUST DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION TO THE DEATH!” He no doubt feels his views are more welcome in Idaho than where he came from, but Meridian voters showed him otherwise in this case. …
Now the bad news: Voters in the Ada Community Library district, which includes unincorporated parts of Ada County, elected Suzette Moore, who was appointed to the board last month to fill a vacancy, and Rachel Moorhouse, who ran as a ticket with Moore. …
Moorhouse advocated for removing the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” from a supplemental reading list in the West Ada School District in 2014 …
She and Moore had current trustee Steven Ricks as their campaign manager. Ricks was on the board in 2023 when it violated Idaho’s open meetings law and removed several books from its shelves, including “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M Johnson, “Out Of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson.
It's encouraging to read that booksellers in Texas helped defeat a bill that could encourage frivolous lawsuits which would be especially harmful to small bookstore businesses. Thanks for pointing out that win.