Collier County Public Schools in Florida is enraging parents for banning more than 300 books from its school libraries. The long list of titles includes a range of literary classics, books adapted into films and TV shows, young adult books, and in some cases, numerous titles by a single author.
According to local reporting, the books were removed out of an effort to comply with Florida’s HB 1069, a law which broadened school board oversight of library collections, expanded mechanisms for challenging books, provided that content that “depicts or describes sexual conduct” is a valid reason for a challenge, and barred instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity through 8th grade.
Among the many authors with banned books in Collier County are Judy Blume, Orson Scott Card, Stephen Chbosky, Mary Higgins Clark, Arthur C. Clarke, Pat Conroy, Janet Evanovich, Neil Gaiman, John Green, John Grisham, Ellen Hopkins, Khaled Hosseini, Sue Monk Kidd, Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, Dean Koontz, David Levithan, Patricia McCormick, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, James Patterson, Ashley Hope Pérez, Jodi Picoult, Anna Quindlen, Nora Roberts, Tom Robbins, Anne Rice, John Updike, and Ibi Zoboi.
LIST OF BOOKS BANNED IN COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, INCLUDES:
- 16 books by Stephen King, including Carrie, It, The Gunslinger, The Running Man,and The Long Walk
- 14 books by Ellen Hopkins, including Crank and Tricks
- 10 books by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, including Marked
- 7 books by Anne Rice, including The Vampire Lestat
- 7 books by John Updike, including Rabbit Angstrom: A Tetralogy: Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, and Rabbit at Rest
- 4 books by Laurie Halse Anderson, including Speak
- 4 books by Toni Morrison, including Beloved, Song of Solomon, Sula, and The Bluest Eye
- 4 books by Amy Reed, including The Nowhere Girls
- 4 books by Chris Crutcher, including Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
- 3 books by Pat Conroy, including The Prince of Tides
- 3 books by Edwidge Danticat, including Breath, Eyes, Memory
- 3 books by Ernest Hemingway, including For Whom the Bell Tolls, In Our Time, and The Sun Also Rises
- 3 books by Larry McMurtry, including Lonesome Dove
- 3 books by James Patterson, including Along Came a Spider
- 3 books by Jodi Picoult, including My Sister’s Keeper
- 3 books by Coe Booth, including Tyrell
- 3 books by Gayle Forman, including If I Stay
Well-known books turned into films and TV shows:
- Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
- A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin
- Shopgirl, by Steve Martin
- How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting to Exhale, by Terry McMillan
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
- Forrest Gump, by Winston Groom
- Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
- A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
- 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
- Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
- Girl with A Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier
- Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, by Becky Albertalli
- The Magicians Trilogy: The Magicians; The Magician King; The Magician’s Land, by Lev Grossman
- Many Waters (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet #3), by Madeleine L’Engle
- Whispers, by Dean Koontz
- Atonement, by Ian McEwan
- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, by Erika L. Sánchez
- The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
Literary classics:
- The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
- The Man in the Iron Mask, by Alexandre Dumas
- Shōgun, by James Clavell
- Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko
- Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
- Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
- Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
- On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
- Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
- Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
- The Executioner’s Song, by Norman Mailer
- A Good Man is Hard to Find And Other Stories, by Flannery O’Connor
- Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
- Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
- Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
- The Color Purple and The Temple of My Familiar, by Alice Walker
- The Once and Future King, by T.H. White
Young adult books:
- Clap When You Land and The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
- The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold, by Francesca Lia Block
- A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope, edited by Patrice Caldwell
- The Belles, by Dhonielle Clayton
- Alex & Eliza: A Love Story, by Melissa de la Cruz
- Life Is Funny, by E. R. Frank
- Grown and Monday’s Not Coming, by Tiffany D. Jackson
- We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart
- The Firekeeper’s Daughter, by Angeline Boulley
- Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Chaos, Beautiful Darkness and Beautiful Redemption, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
- History is All You Left Me, by Adam Silvera
- Graceling, by Kristin Cashore
- Mexican Whiteboy, by Matt de la Peña
- Girl Made of Stars, by Ashley Herring Blake
- What Girls are Made Of, by Elana K. Arnold
- Heroine and Not a Drop to Drink, by Mindy McGinnis
- This One Summer, by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
- American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Public records received by Florida Freedom to Read Project include directions from a district administrator in August 2023 to “carefully look over this list and ensure that if you have any titles that need to be removed, or moved to parent permission, you do as by Wednesday of this week.” The Florida Freedom to Read Project obtained an updated list of books as of October 25, 2023.
Collier County Public Schools previously responded to growing restrictions from the state by requiring parents to grant permission for their students to access school libraries. District administration also requires parental permission slips to use nicknames for students.
