JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval County School Board members voted to remove four books from school shelves during Tuesday night’s meeting. The removals come during Banned Book Week, an event the American Library Association launched in 1982.
On September 23, superintendents across Florida received a memo from the state’s education commissioner, Henry Mack, warning that schools risk losing state money if they don’t continuously audit reading materials and pull titles deemed inappropriate.
Current Florida law says a school district can review and remove a book after a complaint has been made that a book is pornographic, obscene, or isn’t age-appropriate. Now, the state’s department of education is directing districts to remove books before parents file a complaint.
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“Parents should not be required to place this material on the public record for district leadership to examine what is already in circulation...Delaying until a district becomes the subject of the next public controversy is not an acceptable approach,” Mack wrote.
Districts also remove books during regular selection processes, when trained media specialists remove them if they are outdated, rarely circulated, or no longer relevant to curriculum.
The four titles up for consideration on Tuesday night’s agenda were previously challenged by community members.
The books included 1984: The Graphic Novel, an adaptation by Fido Nesti, Misery by Stephen King, and Jodi Picoult’s Handle With Care and The Tenth Circle.
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1984: The Graphic Novel
by Fido Nesti (2021)
“In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called the Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be in a world where surveillance is total.”
Misery
by Stephen King (1987)
“Paul Sheldon is a bestselling novelist who has finally met his self-proclaimed number-one fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes, and she is more than a rabid reader—she is Paul’s nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also furious that the author has killed off her favorite character in his latest book. Annie becomes his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.”
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Handle With Care
by Jodi Picoult (2009)
“Every expectant parent will tell you that they don’t want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they’d been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of “luckier” parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it’s all worth it because Willow is, funny as it seems, perfect. She’s smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.
Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte had known earlier of Willow’s illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life?”
The Tenth Circle
by Jodi Picoult (2006)
“Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone is in love for the first time. She’s also a straight-A high school student, pretty and popular, and the light of her father’s life. Comic book artist Daniel Stone would do anything to protect his daughter. But when a single act of violence shatters her innocence, seemingly mild-mannered Daniel’s convictions are put to the test—while his own shockingly tumultuous past, hidden even from his family, comes to light. Now, everything Trixie’s ever believed about her hero, her father, seems to be a lie as Daniel ventures to hell and back, seeking revenge. Will the price be the bond they share?”
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