Utah is on the front page of the BBC website with the story about how the Bible has been removed from elementary and junior high school libraries in the David School District. Read the full story here.
In the 2023 legislative session, Republican Ken Ivory introduced a bill to remove “sensitive material” from Utah schools. “Sensitive material” is “pornographic or indecent material.” Utah Code Annotated 53G-10-103. The Utah Attorney General issued guidance on what sort of stuff can be reported or removed. The standards are:
Material that, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in sex of minors; is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors; and taken as a whole, does not have serious value for minors. Serious value includes only serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.
Which books are actually banned varies by school district. Here’s the list of the 22 books that have been removed from Alpine School District library shelves. Alpine School District covers much of Utah County. Author Paisley Rekdal leads PEN America’s Utah Chapter and said she was not surprised by the specific books that were removed. “The type of books that they pulled tend to fit the national profile of other books that have been banned, which is that they are primarily written by LGBTQ authors or deal with issues of sexuality, gender, LGBTQ issues, as well as race and racial identity,” she said.
In a turn of events designed to introduce the word “irony” to conservatives, a parent challenged the Bible’s inclusion on school library shelves. After all, the Bible contains “Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide.” Who wants their children attending a school in which those activities are written about with actual words contained in a book sitting on the library’s shelf? I mean, children might absorb those values by osmosis and go on to live a life of committing onanism. (I’m wondering when the Utah legislature is going to ban onanism. After all, God immediately killed Onan for committing onanism (Genesis 38) and the Utah legislature doesn’t even care that consenting adults are probably committing onanism in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Who’s going to stop this degrading practice?? Where are the Republicans when you need them??)
Ken Ivory initially thought the parent’s challenge of the Bible was a “mockery” and a political stunt, but he now he agrees with a district’s decision to ban the religious text from elementary and middle schools. He wrote that the Bible is a “challenging read” for children, and that the Bible is “best taught, and best understood, in the home, and around the hearth, as a family.” [source]
And a parent has now complained about the Book of Mormon and asked that it be reviewed and pulled from school library shelves for all of its violence and sex. I didn’t know the Book of Mormon was even in school libraries, but hey, I remember getting thoroughly creeped out by Moroni’s description of the mass rape of civilian war prisoners by saying women were “deprived of their chastity and virtue.” See Moroni 9. What a disturbing way to describe a war crime. Also the cannibalism is problematic.
Questions:
- Do you think the Bible should be removed from school libraries? Why or why not?
- Do you think book bans have the effect that conservatives are hoping for?
Wheat & Tares 
1. The legislation was passed with the acquiesce of Church leaders. 85 percent of the Utah legislature and the governor are LDS members.
I propose that they not only remove the books, but also take them out to the parking lot and burn them. The Sutherland Institute could lead the cheering crowd in a prayer of thanksgiving and pass out MAGA hats. Since we are returning to medieval times, Utah could reinstitute witch burning.
Since most students have access to the Internet, book removal is meaningless.
2. No
Well, I followed your prompt and looked up “onanism.” It sure is a terrible scourge that needs controlling by elected officials.
Anyone else look it up? Who already knew the definition?
As a former educator employed by Davis School District, I was delighted to see the Bible taken off the shelves in elementary libraries. At the same time, based on my experience, I’d doubt if they were ever checked out.
I absolutely think that book bans have the effect that conservatives are hoping for. By distracting the masses from pressing issues like affordable housing, climate change (including the drought), access to health care, the increasing wage gap between CEOs and the average worker etc, conservatives can continue to take advantage of and decrease the working class while making millions of dollars.
Do people really believe that kids are exposed to sexual themes in classroom and library books BEFORE via their smart phones and friends? Really?
It’s the same mentality that suggests the watching of drinks getting made in a restaurant leads to drinking.
1. I don’t favour book banning at all. (Or indeed book burning).
2. I don’t know what effect the conservatives are hoping for, but I do know I don’t like it.
As a parent, I didn’t ban books. I encouraged reading. We had frequent trips to the library. I read the books my kids read, and we were able to talk about them. My kids were advanced readers and were frequently borrowing books the library had designated as being suitable for kids in the next age group along. Though that mainly seemed to be on grounds of complexity, rather than content.
Remembering my own school library, there I found books by Judy Blume, Stephen King, Isaac Asimov amongst others. I don’t recall any protests at my borrowing them.
I took a look at the banned list. Most of those authors I am unfamiliar with. I would be surprised to find the Sarah J Maas books in a primary school library. Totally age inappropriate.
MDearest, I absolutely looked it up. I have never heard the word before in my life. Onanism. Huh. Again, I learned a lesson from the Bible. 😐
Reading the Greats—Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Faulkner, Melville, Twain, Camus, Dickens, Joyce, Steinbeck, Cervantes, Hugo, Chekhov, Marquez, Unamuno, etc., requires a strong biblical background. Great fiction writers converse with the Bible.
To eradicate the Bible from any library is a badge of ignorance.
When I glance at international news articles, it shows “Utah schools ban the Bible”
What that means to many readers is……Mormons ban the Bible.
My first real (secular) introduction to sex was the National Geographic and it’s explanation of evolutionary theory for non-human animals; and use of evolutionary theory, anthropology, and sociology to explain historical and present-day cultures.
My parents actually encouraged my reading of the national geographic and were proud of my higher-than-average reading comprehension. That might’ve changed as I got older and more ‘edgy’ in my beliefs.
Onanism. I admittedly didn’t know that word. Too funny.
Book banning is the conservative rallying cry for the next election.I always like to recognize that in a group of people with a common goal, there are often a variety of different reasons people work towards that goal and not everyone is on the same page. In the Book banning effort, there are two different reasons people are supporting it.
1- protect the children. This is the reason everyone will cite. What are they protecting children from? The main things that have changed in the last decade are attitudes about gay marriage and gender identity. The efforts to ban books are largely about keeping children from understanding the human experience of marginalized people: racial and sexual minorities.
2. The other reason that people are making efforts to ban books is because it is becoming an effective way to consolidate power. This mainly applies to politicians and conservative media personalities who have found that a lot of conservative plebeians are scared of what will happen as their children are exposed to woke ideas about equality and diversity of experience. Conservative politicians are trying to ride the anti-woke wave into the next election.
I recently enjoyed a middle-grade book on this topic that I bought for my child, called Ban This Book . Although 4th grade characters in the Book acted more like college age demonstrators, it was an enjoyable read, and timely.
Great comments all! And a couple of you made points that I, in my flippant approach to this topic, had not noticed but that are very insightful.
Laura’s point about conservatives’ goals really made me blink. She’s right. Some conservatives probably are obsessing about morals, but the economic shenanigans that conservatives conduct while distracting their voter base with these culture war issues are very damaging and that damage will hit the hardest in future generations. So you don’t have to scroll back up to read it, here’s what she said:
“I absolutely think that book bans have the effect that conservatives are hoping for. By distracting the masses from pressing issues like affordable housing, climate change (including the drought), access to health care, the increasing wage gap between CEOs and the average worker etc, conservatives can continue to take advantage of and decrease the working class while making millions of dollars.”
I want to put that on a billboard.
And Faith – I hadn’t put that together! Utah bans Bible means Mormons banned the Bible. Well, so much for President Nelson’s campaign to fit in better with other Christian denomination.
Excellent discussion everyone.
In case anyone thinks banning books is normal behaviour for conservative politicians; this is only in America. Our conservative political ideas have been rejected to the point there are no state or federal conservative politicians in power in mainline Australia. They have been rejected because of treatment of women 25% of conservative politicians are women v 52% of Labor. Lack of action on climate climate change. And backfiring of privatisation. We had a big consultancy firm PWC, paid $ billions to advise government entities like the tax office on how to get multinational companies to pay their fair share of tax, also advising those same companies how to avoid paying tax. They also advised the federal police who are now investigating them. And very limited culture wars, anti trans.
Hopefully Americans are aware enough to reject republicans who are so much more extreme.
We have a daughter fighting forest fires in Canada, and a grand daughter being admitted to the bar tomorrow.
I was recently reminded this was not a new phenomenon after watching the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams” (again). You know the scene: “Who’s with Eva Braun, here? Who wants to BURN BOOKS?!”… Well, apparently the Utah state legislature agrees with a fictional rural Iowa school district. To be fair, I think exposure to good literature starts at home. Not to brag (ok, maybe a little), but my high school junior is reading Dostoevsky on his own, while his classmates are struggling with the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird. Which is all the reason why we need challenging and thought -provoking titles readily available in school libraries for curious kids to stumble across. Heaven forbid our kids are exposed to new, challenging and controversial ideas. And that includes the bible. You don’t have to be christian to acknowledge that the bible is a foundational text for both western civilization and the English language – even if it is mostly made up stories. Look out Willie Shakespeare! You’re next. The bottom line, as multiple commenters have pointed out, is this has nothing to do with protecting kids. It’s Neo-Con culture war nonsense designed to distract their constituents from the real, actual issues they should be trying to solve. Conservative churches (LDS included) use the same tactic. Just focus on sex and “worthiness,” and we won’t have to worry about that pesky little “justice” thing God is always talking about in that book we say we believe in – and which we just banned from schools… Wait, maybe that’s the real reason they banned it(?).
This is so funny. Hoisted by your own petard.(Hamlet). This certainly has blown up.
I looked it up Alpine School District and they listed 11 senior high schools. So I am guessing the books they banned weren’t being read by impressionable, innocent minds.
As for onanism, for school libraries everywhere, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation by Thomas W. Laqueur. Hopefully it will boost reading levels.
Regarding Bible Banning, What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.(not Hamlet) What effect religious conservatives hope for with book bannings, I don’t know. But I believe they stir up trouble to establish their theocracy. Which is not good for goose or gander.
mat: “Look out Willie Shakespeare! You’re next. ” Actually, in the high school I graduated from, there are some total wackadoos who have taken over at the local school board (they were literally involved in the Jan 6 insurrection) and their book banning included Romeo & Juliet, which I was required to read as a 9th grader when I attended that school. So, yep, Shakespeare is already under fire by these lunatics.
This is not funny at all.
The censors will gladly trade away the Bible and the Book of Mormon and any other sacred thing in exchange for a free hand to make the school curriculum fit their priorities. They won’t stop, because they are not working in good faith to improve education. They will always find another idea that needs to be censored. And then it won’t be just the schools that get censored. Their true objective is political, not educational. The target will be anything that threatens the censors’ political power.
This is how it happens.
Whenever there’s an effort to remove obscene material, Liberals attempt to included scripture, which many of them regard as obscene. I once worked in a public library that one of the employees believed the Bible should be re-classified as fiction.
Mark Gibson, I have spent a career working in libraries. I can assure you that everything offends someone.
Loursat
I take humor where I find it. If shooting at me, they shoot themselves in the foot–I’m going to enjoy that. Although I would very much prefer there be no hunting party.
You know what I find obscene– inquisitions, crusades, witchhunts and pogroms. And when they accidentally ban the book that inspired them( and I am not for book bans), I am amused.
I heard Chick-fil-A is now on the boycott list. Yum,Yum. Hope Hobby Lobby gets added.
Laura- completely agree about the foundational motive for book bans, along with the many other ideological-isms they create and promote. All are very effective distractions to their continually lowering taxes for the wealthiest individuals and corporations (also “persons”), and gutting the social safety net. They only need to get a few people to relate to the othering, fear, and marginalization of any ideology. Plus, feeling sorry for the “job creators” who already pay so much in taxes. By extension, some of those will then vote conservative, without recognizing they are voting against their own, their children’s, their parents’ and the nation’s best interests.
I have relatives who feel passionately about an ideology that suits them, even while mocking incredulously at what eccentric things other relatives believe and preach. And others who fall for every ideology and conspiracy theory touted by the well-compensated voices.
For me, policies that strengthen the middle class are most likely to benefit us all as a whole.
p.s. Proud moment: a friend who also reads Wheat and Tares asked me if I had started using Laura.
You are much more succinct than I.
Angela C: I guess I walked right into that one. 🤣 Should have known better. Fortunately, we live in blue state now, so no wackadoos taking over the school. Just mostly bland, safe, rather unchallenging assigned readings for my kids, sorry to say. They can still get their hands on a variety of
not banned yet titles in their school libraries, and out side of it, of course. I took was assigned to read Romeo and Juliet in I think 11th grade. Doent make Shakespeare’s top 5 imo, but I think for a long time educators felt this was the only Shakespearean play that would appeal to teenagers, which I’m not sure is true.
No Romeo & Juliet for me, but I did get Wedekind’s Frühlings Erwachen in German, which the censors didn’t deem fit for performance until the late 60s… a sad tale of teenage angst, criticising the pressures of the education system at the time, including the lack of sex education: so suicide, pregnancy and botched abortion resulting in death, and running away to sea.. and a friendly neighbourhood prostitute. Onan also made an appearance as the verb onanieren.
Though I’m not sure I didn’t first encounter him in a reading of The Miracle of Forgiveness I took off the family bookshelf for sabbath reading material as a young teen.. that was quite eye-opening for sure…
I’m sure I’ve mentioned all this before however.
Mat: the state I grew up in a swing state, so pretty purple, but like a lot of states, it’s blue in the cities, red in the country, and I (unfortunately) grew up out in the sticks. It’s Trump country now, a thing I found extremely shocking when I went there in 2016, although I would have certainly said it was 50/50 party split when I lived there, including my high school. My ward was probably more 60/40, leaning blue.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the new Target ban which feels like it’s all part of this whole reactionary thing. I was with some previous ward friends on the weekend who were talking about the “Target ban” due to Target’s display of Price merch. Apparently store receipts at a local Target are down by $100K due to the conservative bans. One of these friends was sharing the most outlandish Matt Walsh claims uncritically, which I pointed out are total lies (this is typical for her). Another said she was just mad that companies got to be political which is f***king rich because where was the outrage when Hobby Lobby was trying to force its employees into pregnancy by refusing to cover birth control, and where was the the outrage when Chik-fil-A was discriminating against gay people? As I pointed out to them, if they wanted to unwind that, they have to turn back the clock on Citizens United (the reason Romney said “Corporations are people, my friend.”) And at that point, they were out of their depth, so the conversation moved on. I had also pointed out that as a trans mom they probably weren’t going to find like-mindedness from me, and they did in fact dial up the diplomacy and dial down the wild-eyed conspiracies, and the evening passed in friendly chat.
So, yep, the right’s defintely doing an effective job distracting its constituents from things that actually matter to all of us: what our government is actually up to, the economy, social programs, and legislative priorities. Instead, let’s get our knickers in a twist over lies told by Matt Walsh for ratings and advertising dollars.
I have sort of a mixed opinion here – I’m NEVER in favor of banning books from a societal perspective. I think the idea of banning books is far more dangerous than whatever is in the books. (Also, a lot of the books that are controversial right now are poorly written and lame AF…many only getting attention because they talk about something controversial).
However, when it comes to schools I’m not against there being some care taken when it comes to what ends up on the shelves. I think “banning” is the wrong word though, and “curating” is a better word. I’m not against kids reading challenging material appropriate for their age and maturity level, but let’s put some actual thought into it.
Also, I think school districts generally overstate the impact of their libraries…I think they can be valuable, but most kids just aren’t hunting down super controversial books at their school library. It’s mostly hysteria from parents. Public libraries are still a thing…so are the internet, physical bookstores, and Amazon Kindle. It’s just not that hard to find a particular book if a kid wants to read it with or without their parents knowing about it.
That said, I also don’t think the majority of kids would be happy picking up a book expecting an exciting retelling of a fairy tale and getting a mentally-scarring, blood-soaked horror show (as with some of the books on the list linked in the OP). There are surely better books that can take up that shelf space at school – it’s not that hard to find for those who know what it is and want to read it (usually for free at the public library).
Pirate Priest, fairy tales didn’t begin as sanitised as they are today. I was shocked to read that even the brothers Grimm did some sanitising..
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/04/contemporary-values-no-place-in-fairytales-you-must-be-living-in-a-fantasy-world
Apparently hanging onto the violence but cutting out the sex.
That said some authors are a lot better at it, and much better writers than others. Robin McKinley is excellent. Sarah J Maas, not so much, though I suspect that what probably upsets the conservatives most is the heroine’s outright rejection of being pampered and looked after, portrayed as also escaping being trapped, coerced and controlled by the patriarchal, male fairy fiancé. That said the portrayal of sex in the novels escalates from the first of the books throughout the series to the point where it feels gratuitous and that the author completely lost the plot, and we lost interest. There are far better rewrites of fairy stories and other national myths and legends out there.
Mostly true, but I want to point out some quibbles I have with this.
To start with, librarians take their with very seriously. There have been a few podcasts I have heard discussing the Book bans and it is really fascinating and informative to hear the school librarians perspective.I wish I had links to put here. I think there have been good episodes on radio west and The Daily.
Librarians carefully choose the books in their library. No library has every book ever printed. They can’t. They have limited budgets and space. The average school library is probably smaller than the average book store. And I don’t think they pick their books randomly. They are curated. If you disagree with the librarian’s choice, you are challenging their curation, which if exactly how librarians generally define a banned book. Some books should be challenged and removed from school libraries, but changing the word from banned to curated is just window dressing.
I think the question is not what “most kids” are looking for in a library. A better question is what marginalized kids might need a book that speaks to their experiences. One commonly challenged book today is “All Boys aren’t Blue “. Okay, I haven’t read it; I don’t personally know what it contains. But I can imagine a bi-curious or queer teen finding this in the school library and reading portions from day to day. They might even get the guts to take it up to the counter and check it out. Which could actually be very intimidating because the librarian could be a homophobe, could be someone they know, a family friend. Same with the bookstore. But the teen needs a book that speaks to their experiences, that tells them that even though they are different they can lead a life worth living, that if their family and church reject them they will be able to find other people like them.
So I feel confident that librarians do put thought into the books in their libraries. And I’ don’t think we solve anything by calling it curating vs banning. If you like the librarians choices you’ll see they are well curated libraries. If you think the library is arbitrarily choosing to avoid books you think are important than they are banning books. It’s literally the same thing.
And if you link the school districts overstate the power of their libraries, then what are you worried about?
@Hedgehog – Fairy tales were just an example, and I have zero issues with retelling/updating them with modern themes…but there’s a difference between that, and dropping a gratuitously violent piece of shock fiction onto a school bookshelf. That’s not all of the books on the list, but it is a handful of them. There are better stories about empowered female leads that won’t scar half the kids that pick them up.
I do disagree with the notion that the monolithic “conservatives” are just against female heroines on principle…I’m sure there are some, but that statement is too broad. There have been plenty of left-leaning book-banning efforts too. Controlling books is an attempt to wield power over the thoughts of others…that’s not just a conservative phenomenon. I will concede that in Utah it’s usually the conservatives holding the stick since they dominate politically.
Re: Sarah J Maas – I’d guess that it’s the sexual content that got her on the list rather than the strong female lead…that or just the very mediocre writing haha. Tbh, I think a degree of sexual content is fine for upper grade levels…it’s right next to breathing and drinking water on the list of natural human activities. There is a line where it’s too graphic and gratuitous for school shelves…I have similar thoughts about violence. That line can be VERY hard to define though.
@Rockwell – There are many great librarians trying their best to correctly curate the libraries under their care. To clarify, I don’t just mean that we should just relabel “book banning” as “curating” – there’s a distinction in tone and in practice between the two words. IMO there’s no issue with parents raising a concern over a particular book being on the shelves of a school…that said, parental hysteria is a real problem (especially these days).
Most school librarians probably try very hard to provide books that will benefit students and get them to learn and think. Good librarians aside, societally there’s just as much of a political agenda about what SHOULD be included on school shelves as what shouldn’t…it’s the politics getting into school libraries that’s the real problem here.
Since it’s salient to this discussion, I’ll post the link to something I put up over a year ago when I found out that my daughter’s HS principal was fired over a book my daughter read that was on the optional summer reading list for juniors in AP English. This was ironic since the book was about being cancelled.
It seems to me that we’re getting into dicey territory with any of these reasons to ban a book:
1) ANY individual parent objects
2) we’re doing it to “protect the children” from mature ideas or themes
At the risk of sounding like an old person, I don’t see why it was so bad when I was growing up and any book the school board agreed was “controversial” came with a parental slip allowing a parent to opt out and their student to be given an alternate choice. Now obviously, a lot of parents just rubber stamped this stuff, and apparently boards were just coasting by without actually considering the content, but we definitely seem to be in a worse position now with this vigilante justice approach where any pearl-clutching parent can get something banned, and boards are too scared or radicalized to consider the weightier matters.
We’ve also got a larger issue with religions sticking their noses into government way way way too much. The only way for a pluralistic society to survive is if no religion is given preference and political power to exert their will.
Politics on the school shelves(that’s a weird plural. Where’d it come from?) Yep. people existing is political. Humanity is diverse, which is now a synonym for divisive, Oh the horror that we aren’t clones of each other. (male and female clones that is)
You know, I don’t like Orson Scott Card. But I’m not demanding “Enders Game” be removed from school or public libraries. It did win a Neblua and Hugo, even if the only good book he wrote is “Folk of the Fringe” I’m not going to stop other people from checking it out.
Other than Sarah J. Maas(who I had never heard of. Not the sort of thing I read) I don’t understand the objections people have. I look at the various banned lists and I’ve never heard of practically all the books listed. I have read “Gender Queer” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue” is on my pile. I clearly need to expand my horizons.
I find it kinda funny, that the groups orchestrating these “protect children” bans, have no problem with forcing girls to give birth. It’s rich, them objecting to books with sexual content, when they have no legal objection to under 18’s getting married. Since they’re also gutting child labor laws, I guess the plan is to keep children so busy they won’t have time to read.
What is it saying as a society when we won’t let children learn about others. What message are kids internalizing when books helping them understand themselves are placed in the perverse category?
Pirate Priest, I wouldn’t disagree, and with reference to Rockwell’s comment on librarians, I can see that a middle school librarian looking at the first book of the series (Maas) might consider it appropriate only to find themselves horribly wrong footed as the series progressed. Naomi Novik is a much better writer. And more reliably consistent.
On violence I am reminded of my school reading book (age 6), which contained the English folk story of the Hobyahs, about a couple whose dog barks at night because of intrusion by the Hobyahs. Unaware the barking has saved them from a horrible end, the couple punish the dog by dismembering it, bit by bit, each day, until, surprise surprise, it’s no longer able to bark, and the Hobyahs destroy them. Disney it was not! I reread the story later as it is included in Jacobs’ collection of English fairytales, which I now have. As a small child I was raised on fairytales and scripture. I have a particularly gruesome story I wrote age six, published in the annual infant school magazine, a kind of amalgamation of elements of Sleeping Beauty and Hansel and Gretel.. in which the witch steals and bakes the baby in her oven.. and worse finishes with her eating the King & Queen too…
Janey’s OP is apropos, witty, and moderated in tone (to me at least) and I’ve been following the comments which make an apt discussion. But I’m not feeling the outrage. What I feel is dread for the coming election, in the face of clear evidence of the success of the extremist GOP efforts, after losing the presidential election, to focus on state and local elections, for the purpose of having actors in place in 2024 to wreak havoc on the systems and processes and influence those outcomes. The book bans are a nationwide trend that serve to rally the nutcake base while stirring up distracting battles on which voters on all sides can expend their energy, and especially to give the media a topic people are focused on, that will generate clicks and revenue.
The whole firestorm lends credibility to a quiet report of well-funded and organized efforts by the same shadowy group that provided money and planning to the Jan 6 “rally.” That effort failed to achieve its goal, and actually created undesirable outcomes that harmed their power-grab campaign due to the violent brutality, naked treason, and stupid incompetence of the enterprise.
The people who generated that stunt haven’t disbanded and gone away. And they’ve learned the lessons of failure, and apparently have a deep pool of money that, thanks to Citizens United, can be deployed on our electoral process without much pesky attention.
So yes, the book bans are an unconstitutional outrage, and they should be vigorously opposed, but there’s more afoot than that, and outrage fatigue is a real hazard. I believe there is a forest to be seen amongst the trees.
Is it too late to be adding to this thread?
This YouTube video was just emailed to parents in Davis County school district, where the KJV was removed from elementary and junior high school library circulation. Probably in response to protests that are happening.
https://youtu.be/UF7ijFDb9_k
The school superintendent describes the process for reviewing sensitive materials and how the Bible ended up on the list. You can also find the list of books challenged and the process for challenging on the website for the Davis county school district library website.
Each book is reviewed by a committee of three educators and four parent volunteers. The committee is different for each book. As a parent in the district I have seen calls online from both conservative and liberal groups encouraging people of that line of thought to volunteer for the parent role on the committees. So it is possible to get widely varying results from the different committees.