Books including And Tango Makes Three will be restored to public school libraries in Nassau County, FL, following the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the authors and local students and parents. In their May complaint, plaintiffs including authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson asserted that the school board and district officials “unconstitutionally targeted And Tango Makes Three, a widely acclaimed children’s book containing LGBTQIA+ characters and themes, for removal from the District’s public school library shelves…at the behest of an anti-LGBTQIA+ advocacy group,” Citizens Defending Freedom. CDF challenged 35 other books, including those by Toni Morrison, Khaled Hosseini, Jonathan […]
Book Bans
Six Publishers And Authors Guild Sue Florida Over Book Banning
The Authors Guild, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Harper Collins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks have filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida over HB 1069, a law that restricts books in school libraries. Two Florida students and two parents have also joined the suit, along with the authors Julia Alvarez, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Jodi Picoult, and Angie Thomas. The law demands removal of any titles containing “sexual conduct” from school libraries. Since it went into effect in July 2023, hundreds of books have been banned, including Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, A Tale […]
Iowa Book Ban Suit Sent Back to Lower Court
On Friday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s decision that halted enacting a book banning law in Iowa. The decision, written by Judge Ralph R. Erickson, says that the lower court’s decision was “based on a flawed analysis of the law” and remanded it back to the district court “for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.” The suit, brought by Penguin Random House and joined by Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Sourcebooks, and several authors, challenged an Iowa law that would remove from schools any book that describes or depicts sex, regardless of […]
Open Road Launches Banned Books Geo-Targeting Initiative
In advance of Banned Books Week in September, Open Road Media is launching a Free Voices Geo-Targeting initiative, a marketing service that aims to help communities impacted by book bans find and purchase challenged books. Previously, they launched a similar tool called Free Voices, highlighting challenged books, but without the geo-targeting element. The new initiative is aimed specifically at the ten states with the highest frequency of book bans: Texas, Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Utah, Iowa, Idaho and Nebraska. Enrolled titles will be featured in four weeks of promotions in these targeted areas. Additionally, “publishers will have the option […]
Coalition of Authors Launch “Authors Against Book Bans”
A coalition of 1,500 authors, illustrators, audiobook narrators, and translators have launched Authors Against Book Bans (AABB), an organization that will combat books bans and challenges all over the US. AABB is partnering with local organizations already at work on this issue, with aims of creating a framework for grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, support for teachers and librarians, and more. They write in a release, “Member authors attend school board meetings, meet with state, local and national legislators, and advocate for people fighting to access books and materials wherever challenges occur.” Members include Elizabeth Acevedo, Judy Blume, Alexander Chee, Dhonielle […]
TX Book Ban Overturned, Some Titles Returned to Library
On Thursday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas upheld part of preliminary injunction returning some banned books to a local library, ruling that “Government actors may not remove books from a public library with the intent to deprive patrons of access to ideas with which they disagree.” The suit was brought by seven patrons of the Llano County, TX library system, who asserted that the government’s 2021 removal of books based on their content “violated their First Amendment right to access information and ideas.” Seventeen books were removed from the library, including “‘butt and fart’ books,” “young adult […]