The Most Popular Banned Books in Florida

Growing up, book banning and burning held a strange place in my consciousness. They were part of a distant reality: a relic of the past to learn about in textbooks and a horror of alternate realities depicted in novels.Yet I also felt a powerful aversion to harming books in even the most insignificant ways. No writing in the margins or dog earring pages for me. In retrospect, I believe some corner of my mind picked up on the fact that it’s dangerous and unwise to treat books, even the awful ones, carelessly. If I had articulated it, I might have said that treating a book like trash has ripple effects that can lead to treating ideas, or even people, the same way.. 

That personal taboo feels uncomfortably prescient today. In one of the darker twists of our century, book banning has come back with a vengeance. In Florida, which PEN America has described as the epicenter of book banning in the US, almost a thousand books have been challenged and banned. All the bannings in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Texas combined—the three “runner up” states—don’t come close to Florida numbers. County by Florida county, school boards and private citizens have been empowered to remove the stories they don’t like from public circulation. Predictably, this has an outsized impact on vulnerable populations with narratives about race, sex, and gender being pulled from the shelves. There are schools where The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Letter from Birmingham Jail have been removed from the shelves. But it doesn’t stop there. Efforts have been made to ban Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone in Palm Beach County; Seminole County has banned Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk; and Escambia County has pulled Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary for Students and The Guinness Book of World Records from the shelves. Clearly things are out of control.

Over the past year, Banned Books USA has stepped into this frenzied environment with a mission to make sure that no Florida resident is prevented from reading the books they want to read. Conceived and supported by Paul English and Joyce Linehan, in partnership with Bookshop.org and Electric Literature, Banned Books USA made over 900 banned and challenged titles available to all Florida residents. Anyone living in Florida could order a banned book for the cost of shipping via the Banned Books USA website, and as a result, nearly 1000 books were mailed to individuals from Pensacola to Key West.

Alongside this individual effort, Banned Books USA made targeted donations to sixteen Florida organizations that each chose up to 100 books from Banned Books USA’s list of titles. Gainesville’s Pride Community Center of North Central Florida received books for their LGBTQ+ community library; Read Aloud Florida received books to give away at their children’s storytelling series; and Leer para Crecer received books for their cross-cultural reading initiative, “Fiesta del Libro.” These are just a few of the groups that support Florida’s most vulnerable communities. Altogether, Banned Books USA donated 2,362 books, sponsored 14 events, and impacted the lives of thousands of Florida residents. Covering all of Banned Books USA’s giving, this is a list of the top 13 most requested titles.

Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders (Banned in the Palm Beach County School District)

The story of the Gay Pride Flag begins in 1978 when Harvey Milk, then an elected politician in San Francisco, asked his friend Gilbert Baker to create a flag to represent the gay community. This is a gorgeously illustrated celebration of the resulting creation, the rainbow flag, and the ongoing legacy of Milk and Baker’s vision of an inclusive, rainbow coalition. While Pride is the first book to make this story accessible to young readers, the beautiful, rainbow-infused palette will appeal to all readers.   

Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation by Ari Folman (Banned in the Palm Beach County School District)

A reimagining of Anne Frank’s diary in the form of a graphic novel (a-la Maus), Ari Folman quotes Frank’s diary entries and then dramatizes them into scenes of the life that Frank describes living. She’s skiing in the alps with her family. She’s celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas with the nonchalance that characterized non-practicing, integrated Jewish households of the time. And she’s walking down streets festooned with photorealistic black and red swastikas. This adaptation shows reverence for the original while making Anne Frank’s story accessible to a new generation of readers.

Beloved by Toni Morrison (Banned in the Escambia County School District)

Some book bannings are so ludicrous one almost wants to laugh. Almost. Beloved won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize, was a National Book Award Finalist, and topped the New York Times list of best American fiction published between 1981 and 2006…and Toni Morrison won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature. Set in 1873 Ohio, Beloved is the story of Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, laboring to build a life atop the traumas of her past. She has a home, a teenage daughter, work on a plantation, yet memories of the horror she escaped and the sacrifices she made to do so torment her. It’s a book about history and violence, love and cruelty, human nature, and the country we live in. Just imagine banning one of the undisputed great works of American literature. It’s already been done.  

The ABCs of Black History by Rio Cortez (Banned in the Miami-Dade School District School)

The ABCs of Black History is a poet’s introduction to Black history for children. More than its educational value (kids are going to learn about W.E.B Du Bois and Aretha Franklin) the book is an embracing call to young readers that they’re part of a community that cares about that. After all, the book begins, “A is for Anthem, a banner of song/that wraps us in hope, lets us know we belong.”

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story created by Nikole Hannah-Jones (Banned in the Escambia County School District)

Before it was a book, The 1619 Project was a new way of viewing American history spearheaded by Hannah-Jones that evolved into a series of journalistic essays in the New York Times. Its radical proposition is to reconsider when the United States as we know it was founded. What if it wasn’t the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitutional Conventions but rather a long overlooked event that happened a century and a half earlier when the first African slaves were brought to North America. As such, The 1619 Project asks us to consider that the United States was not founded on laws but on the slavery that preceded those laws. 

The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman (Banned in the Miami-Dade School District)

The Hill We Climb has a special, distinguished place in American literary history. It was written by America’s first Youth Poet Laureate on the express invitation of First Lady Jill Biden and recited at President Joe Biden’s 2020 inauguration. It’s a work of unity, resilience, and bravery. Gorman uplifts, preaches, and declares. She writes “The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” She quotes the Bible and the runaway Broadway hit Hamilton. Gorman speaks of a “we” that, if the poem’s banning is anything to go on, is still waiting to be born.

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (Banned in the Manatee County School District)

A graphic memoir (as in, Gender Queer takes the graphic novel form and adapts it to the genre of memoir), this is a coming-of-age story that follows Kobabe on their journey through the perplexities of sex and gender towards the realization of being nonbinary. It has also been America’s most challenged book for three years running according to the American Library Association. 

And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson (Banned in the Escambia County School District)

The story of a penguin family that is made up of two male adults and their child, And Tango Makes Three is also the extraordinary story of how a book that introduces children to the modern reality of mixed and diverse families became a flash-point in national debates about civil rights, education, and inclusivity. Like Gender Queer, And Tango Makes Three has the dubious distinction of being one of the top 5 or 10 most challenged books of the past two decades. Challenges are nothing new for this book.

A Court of Thorns and Roses (Banned in the Clay County School District)

A hugely popular (think thirteen-million-copies-sold popular) fantasy series about a nineteen year old girl named Feyre who enters a magical faerie realm rife with conflict, these books have been banned across the country with at least one school district, ominously, using an AI-software to determine the fate of A Court of Thorns and Roses. 

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Banned in the Palm Beach County School District)

There aren’t many books that are more famous or celebrated than To Kill a Mockingbird. Generations of students have been raised on the Pulitzer Prize winning story of Atticus Finch defending the wrongfully accused Tom Robinson in a corrupt Alabama court. Even more have watched the Academy Award winning film with Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Atticus Finch being declared the greatest movie hero of the twentieth century. What do all these plaudits mean? Well, besides being on the money in my humble opinion, they show how deeply engrained this novel is in the cultural history of our country. It’s a touchstone. Yet, since its publication, To Kill a Mockingbird has been challenged on the basis of the harsh light it casts on everything from a discriminatory judicial system to a racist public. But its those facts that make To Kill a Mockingbird a necessary pill to swallow. 

All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold (Banned in the Florida School for the Deaf & the Blind)

This is a poetic children’s book about a school without bullying or prejudice, where everyone is welcome and included regardless of what they wear, where they come from, or who they are. Different cultures are celebrated, respected, and give rise to friendships rather than animosity. Personally, the warmth of its colors and the over-layed, collage-y feel of the illustrations make me think of Ezra Jack Keats’ and Snowy Day!

A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities by Mady G (Banned in the Clay County School District)

Comic book illustrations meet the ins and outs of gender identity in this guide to the language, the experiences, and the obstacles that accompany being queer, gender nonconforming, and trans. In essence, A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities is exactly what it says it is: it’s an educational book that uses form, style, and graphic design to make learning fun.  

The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V. E. Schwab (Banned in the Clay County School District)

A fantasy about love, the meaning of life, and, above all, remembering and forgetting, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue follows an immortal French woman who’s been blessed and cursed by a deal with the devil. Addie will live forever, but no one will ever remember so much as her name. And that’s how life goes for the first 300-odd years until she meets someone who remembers her. Why is it banned? The book’s characters are diverse, there are queer relationships, and it features the devil. Apparently that’s enough for Clay County.