Where does one start?
Part of a continuing series in the Des Moines Register’s Iowa’s Book Ban Battle project.
Last fall, Mari Butler Abry was one of hundreds of educators facing a daunting new task — vetting thousands of books to comply with a sweeping Iowa education law that bans books depicting sex acts from schools.
A teacher-librarian at Perry Community School District, Butler Abry and several school officials surveyed books by briefly reviewing lists from other schools, reading book summaries and even tried to use ChatGPT to narrow down which of the district’s more than 20,000 books needed to be pulled.
They didn’t calculate the time they spent on the process, but it included research before meetings, the meetings themselves and helping teachers who had questions about books.
“We decided it was not our job to physically flip through all the books in the library,” Butler Abry said. “No one has time for that. … We have so many other things that we should be doing than just flipping through books looking for ‘inappropriate content.'”
In the end, Perry removed only three books because of Senate File 496, Iowa’s new law requiring “age-appropriate” library programs and prohibiting most books depicting or describing sex acts from schools. The law also restricts instruction and curriculum about gender identity and sexual orientation through sixth grade.
But an exclusive Des Moines Register survey of Iowa’s 325 public school districts found that some schools pulled dozens — even hundreds — of books under the law before a federal judge issued an injunction last December after Butler Abry and other teachers, families and publishers sued.
The Register’s reporting also shows several schools returned their pulled books to the shelves after the injunction.
Other districts — more than half — didn’t remove books, including the Mount Vernon Community School District and Des Moines Public Schools. Several cited the injunction for their decision.
Even so, the Register’s exclusive data shows districts removed nearly 3,400 books and two DVDs to comply with the law, including nearly 1,000 unique titles.
The data also exposes the breadth of pulled books, including the American classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the Newbery Medal novel “The Giver” by Lois Lowry and “Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot,” a popular children’s book with an LGBTQ+ character by Dav Pilkey.
For Butler Abry, the frustrating experience illustrates what she and other opponents view as the overly broad nature of Senate File 496, which they say is so vague that it conflates literature with pornography and discriminates against LGBTQ+ Iowans.
“It was like we were having to solve a problem that we had already solved,” Butler Abry said of having to vet books when policies already existed for the public to challenge books. “But with very little guidance, and in a way that we were very scared that people were going to come in and yell at us metaphorically or in real life.”
Republican lawmakers who passed the law contend that school officials have gone far beyond the law’s intent, removing classic books and novels they say do not contain explicit sex.
George Orwell’s “1984” is one of the books Iowa Senate Education Committee Chair Ken Rozenboom, R-Oskaloosa, says was caught up in the overreach. The book was pulled by nine districts, the Register survey found.
Only one district has returned the book to the shelves, the Register found.
“The plain text of Senate File 496 does not ban a single book. All it does is put forth an age-appropriateness standard for the districts to apply for themselves,” Rep. Jeff Shipley, R-Birmingham, said. “Therefore, when these school districts are banning ‘1984,’ and when these school districts are banning Holocaust memoirs, that is 100% on them. Nothing in state law compelled them to do that.”
Rozenboom said he reread the classic novel during the 2023 legislative session as lawmakers crafted the bill’s language prohibiting books depicting or describing sexual acts as defined by law.
“‘1984’ never met that definition — never did,” he said of the dystopian book about an authoritarian state that censors information.
“1984” does contain sexual content: Main characters Julia and Winston talk about and later have sex. Within the first 20 pages of the book, Winston fantasizes about having sex with Julia and killing her.
Lawmakers were warned by library associations that books like Orwell’s best known novel could be caught up in the bans, Butler Abry said.
“I guess they should be more careful about the way they write laws because if this had unintended consequences, people tried to tell them what consequences this would have,” she said, “and the lawmakers didn’t listen.”
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Here are the 10 most banned authors in Iowa schools:
1. Ellen Hopkins
Ellen Hopkins is a novelist known for writing more than a dozen novels popular with teens and young adults. Her works often feature experimental poetic prose and tell stories of teenagers struggling with addiction, mental illness and abuse.
Number of times removed — 289
Books removed — “Crank,” “Identical,” “Tricks,” “Perfect,” “Tilt,” “Traffick,” “Fallout,” “Burned,” “Glass,” “Impulse,” “Smoke,” “People Kill People,” “Rumble,” “Collateral,” “Triangles,” “The You I’ve Never Known,” “Pulse,” “A Sin Such As This”
2. Sarah J. Maas
Sarah J. Maas is a fantasy writer known for series such as “Throne of Glass,” about a teenage assassin hoping to win her freedom, and “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” about a huntress who faces retribution after killing a wolf that turned out to be a fairy and develops feelings for a fairy ruler in his realm.
Number of times removed — 232
Books removed — “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” “A Court of Mist and Fury,” “Empire of Storms,” “A Court of Wings and Ruin,” “A Court of Frost and Starlight,” “Kingdom of Ash,” “A Court of Silver Flames,” “Tower of Dawn,” “Throne of Glass,” “Queen of Shadows,” “House of Earth and Blood,” “House of Sky and Breath,” “Heir of Fire,” “Crown of Midnight”
3. John Green
John Green is known for popular young adult novels that tell coming-of-age stories of teenage struggle. He’s also known for building a large online community that sprung from his work, his foray into YouTube with his brother Hank, educational videos and a podcast. He is one of the authors suing the state of Iowa over the book ban law.
Number of times removed — 107
Books removed — “Looking for Alaska,” “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Paper Towns,” “An Abundance of Katherines”
4. Colleen Hoover
Colleen Hoover is a romance author who has seen a surge in popularity in recent years on TikTok. Her books often feature complex love, shocking secrets and dark themes. One of her most well-known novels, “It Ends with Us,” has been adapted into a film planned for release in August.
Number of times removed — 104
Books removed — “Regretting You,” “It Ends With Us,” “It Starts With Us,” “Without Merit,” “Heart Bones,” “Slammed,” “Ugly Love,” “This Girl,” “Point of Retreat,” “November 9,” “Reminders of Him,” “Maybe Someday,” “Hopeless,” “Maybe Now,” “Maybe Not,” “Losing Hope,” “Never Never,” “Finding Cinderella,” “Confess,” “All Your Perfects,” “Verity,” “Two More Days,” “Layla,” “Finding Perfect”
5. Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult has written dozens of novels that often feature fractured relationships and controversial themes and issues like abortion, assisted suicide, sexual abuse and murder. Picoult’s novel “Nineteen Minutes,” about a school shooting, is the most banned book in Iowa under Senate File 496. She is one of the authors suing the state of Iowa over the book ban law.
Number of times removed — 101
Books removed — “Nineteen Minutes,” “My Sister’s Keeper,” “The Tenth Circle,” “The Pact,” “Mercy,” “House Rules,” “Vanishing Act,” “Second Glance,” “Salem Falls,” “Plain Truth,” “Picture Perfect,” “Perfect Match,” “Harvesting the Heart”
More: Author Jodi Picoult, who has challenged Iowa’s book ban, is coming to Des Moines
6. Toni Morrison
The late Toni Morrison was a Nobel Prize-winning novelist whose novel “Beloved” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Morrison’s novels tell complex stories of Black characters in America and detail the impact of racism and misogyny alongside exploring family, history and desire. President Barack Obama honored Morrison with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
Number of times removed — 77
Books removed — “The Bluest Eye,” “Beloved,” “Song of Solomon,” “Sula”
7. Patricia McCormick
Patricia McCormick is known for realistic fiction for young adults that leans heavily on real-world research, including a novel about sexual slavery that saw McCormick travel to India and Nepal to interview survivors of sex trafficking. She also collaborated on a memoir with Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Prize-winning advocate who fought for girls’ education under Taliban occupation.
Number of times removed — 63
Books removed — “Sold,” “Cut”
8. Jay Asher
While Jay Asher has written multiple young adult novels, he had just one in the Register’s data: “Thirteen Reasons Why.” The book follows the story of Hannah Baker, who leaves behind tapes detailing the traumatic events leading to her suicide. The novel was later adapted into a controversial Netflix series.
Number of times removed — 60
Books removed — “Thirteen Reasons Why”
9. Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is a Booker Prize-winning novelist, poet, essayist and literary critic who has written dozens of novels, stories, poems, graphic novels, nonfiction books and other works. Atwood is famous for the dystopian “Handmaid’s Tale,” about a radical theocracy that forces childbearing women into sexual slavery for the country’s rulers, which has been adapted into a Hulu television series starring Elisabeth Moss.
Number of times removed — 58
Books removed — “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Oryx and Crake,” “The Testaments”
10. Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini is a novelist who was born in Afghanistan as the son of a diplomat and a teacher. The family sought asylum in the United States after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Hosseini was a practicing doctor before becoming a novelist. He features Afghan characters and stories in his work. Hosseini also is a goodwill ambassador in the United Nations.
Number of times removed — 56
Books removed — “The Kite Runner,” “A Thousand Splendid Suns”
Chris Higgins covers the northern and eastern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at [email protected] or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_.
