
Running the Road to ABC, by Denize Lauture.The Rough-Face Girl, by Rafe Martin and David Shannon.
One Green Apple, by Eve Bunting and Ted Lewin. On Mother’s Lap, by Ann Herbert Scott and Glo Coalson. Nya’s Long Walk: A Step at a Time, by Linda Sue Park and Brian Pinkney. Never Say a Mean Word Again: A Tale from Medieval Spain, by Jacqueline Jules and Durga Yael Bernhard. My Two Moms and Me, by Michael Joosten and Izak Zenou. My Two Dads and Me, by Michael Joosten and Izak Zenou.
Lubna and Pebble, by Wendy Meddour, Wendy and Daniel Egneus. Love to Mama: A Tribute To Mothers, by Pat Mora, Paula S. Lost and Found Cat : The True Story of Kunkush’s Incredible Journey by Doug Kuntz, Amy Shrodes and Sue Cornelison. “When you ban a book like Sam! and a collection like Essential Voices, you are not just taking away books, you are silencing communities. Little Night/Nochecita, by Yuyi Morales. Islandborn, by Junot Díaz and Leo Espinosa. Hush! A Thai Lullaby, by Minfong Ho and Holly Meade. Grandfather Tang’s Story, by Ann Tompert and Robert Andrew Parker. The Gift of Ramadan, by Rabiah York Lumbard and Laura K. Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, by Kevin Noble Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal. Dumpling Soup, by Jama Kim Rattigan, and Lillian Hsu-Flanders. Cow on the Town: Practicing the Ow Sound, by Isabella Garcia. Chik Chak Shabbat, by Mara Rockliff and Kyrsten Brooker. Before She Was Harriet, by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. At the Mountain’s Base, by Traci Sorell and Weshoyot Alvitre. These are the 176 books banned in Duval County:
PEN America reported the removal of the books in Duval County in its report released this past September, Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools. This collection “features characters representing a variety of ethnicities, religious affiliations, and gender identities,” and includes children’s picture books such as Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o, Dim Sum for Everyone! by Grace Lin, and Berenstain Bears and the Big Question by Stan and Jan Berenstain. The removed titles were part of the Essential Voices Classroom Libraries Collection, purchased by the district in 2021. PEN America on Tuesday presented a joint letter with We Need Diverse Books and authors and illustrators of 176 books removed from classrooms in Duval County, Florida, in January 2022 for “review.” They have been kept in storage for 10 months with little indication of when they might return to classrooms.
For an update on this case, please visit the Florida Freedom to Read Project. MaUpdate: Since PEN America published this list of book bans in Duval County, Florida, in December, we have received additional information on the precise nature of when, why, and for how long books from the Essential Voices Collection were kept off classroom shelves in 2022. These are some of the books banned in Duval County, Florida.
2023 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony.