Florida Freedom to Read Project

Cover of concrete rose

CONCRETE ROSE by Angie Thomas is a powerful, heartfelt novel that deserves a place on every shelf.

Banning this book erases critical conversations about responsibility, masculinity, and identity that matter deeply to today’s youth.

Report: Hillsborough 2nd in the U.S. for books pulled from school libraries The report found that Hillsborough County Public Schools removed 608 books from their shelves.

Hillsborough’s Comms team is working extra hard to make it sound like students weren’t impacted by the review.

It’s not done.

Also, it’s dishonest to say that the law requires these books to be pulled from students while under review. That’s a district decision.

www.axios.com/local/tampa-...

‘Tango’ Plaintiffs Plan an Appeal to the 11th Circuit And Tango Makes Three authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, whose First Amendment claim against Florida’s Escambia County School Board was dismissed in federal court last week, will appeal to t...

“The ruling confirms that these censorship efforts are about ensuring our publicly funded libraries are no longer guided by professional expertise or the interests of the people, but by the whims of politicians.”

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

‘Tango’ Plaintiffs Plan an Appeal to the 11th Circuit And Tango Makes Three authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, whose First Amendment claim against Florida’s Escambia County School Board was dismissed in federal court last week, will appeal to t...

“By concluding that students have no right to receive info in public school libraries and that the government decides who speaks through them, the court disregards decades of precedent that recognize school libraries as spaces for exploration and learning.”

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Yep, it's kind of like when Florida insisted on creating as many barriers for young people to use school libraries as possible, it was a teeny tiny fraction of parents who barred their kids from using those libraries.

It's all lies and story made up in bigots' brains.

bookriot.com/florida-scho...

Cover of Turning the Page: An advocate’s guide to the freedom to read

✨ Happy Banned Books Week! ✨

This year, make your advocacy count with “Turning the Page: An Advocate’s Guide to the Freedom to Read.”

Download it free today and turn your support for banned books into real-world action.
www.freedomtoreadproject.org/turning_the_...

The Quiet Creep of Censorship: How ‘Everyday Banning’ Is Reshaping American Schools - Bucks County Beacon PEN America’s new report “The Normalization of Book Banning” exposes how book censorship has become “rampant and common” in public schools across the United States.

“Advocacy must shift from isolated book battles to defending institutional autonomy and resisting the ideological nationalization of censorship.”

buckscountybeacon.com/2025/10/the-...

YouTube video by Kidzuko No Cats In The Library 🐱📚 | Reading Rainbow 📖 🌈 | Full Episode | @Kidzuko​

Reading Rainbow… is back! 🥹

This LeVar Burton/Reading Rainbow raised human is feeling all of the library joy. We hope your kids believe they belong in books, just like you ✨

Take a look, it’s in a book 📚🌈🦋🌌
youtu.be/gHAIjSkmnYI?...

Authors appeal ‘Tango Makes Three’ book ban ruling in federal court Attorneys for the book’s authors and a student Friday quickly appealed a federal judge’s ruling that rejected a First Amendment challenge to a 2023 decision by the Escambia County School Board to remo...

The attorneys filed a notice of appeal three days after Chief U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor ruled against authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and the student…

www.clickorlando.com/news/2025/10...

Attend an event. Read a banned book. Send an email. But more than anything, talk to your friends and neighbors about what’s at stake.

If they can remove a book you loathe, they can remove a book you love.

Make it a goal next week to inspire one new person a day into action!

NOTICE A US DISTRICT COURT HAS RULED THAT LIBRARY PATRONS AND AUTHORS DO NOT HAVE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS TO RECEIVE OR SHARE INFORMATION IN OUR PUBLICLY-FUNDED LIBRARIES. YOU ARE HEREBY INFORMED THAT THIS LIBRARY WILL BE CURATED AT THE DISCRETION AND PLEASURE OF POLITICIANS - NOT THE PEOPLE.

Thanks to a ruling this week, a dystopian notice like this could appear taped to a door of an ECPS library.

To be clear, this wasn’t actually posted, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is the current reality for the people of Escambia County.

We should all be very, very loud about this.

The state did away with categorical funding for school libraries a couple of budgets ago. They cannot say they support literacy improvements while failing to properly fund our school libraries (and our schools for that matter).

Trying to figure out how many ways we can flash the red lights here. This was NEVER EVER ABOUT BOOKS. Books were the tool.

THEY ARE STEALING YOUR RIGHTS.

THEY
ARE
STEALING
YOUR
RIGHTS.

Another Judge Chips Away at Library Patron First Amendment Rights A District Court judge rules that neither library patrons nor authors have First Amendment rights when it comes to library collections.

If you shouted about how unfair it was Jimmy Kimmel was taken off air, then you should sure as shit care that YOUR RIGHTS ARE BEING TAKEN FROM YOU.

bookriot.com/parnell-vs-e...

Reporters, here’s the assignment:

Next time an elected or appointed official responds with, “it’s not banned because you can still buy it,” the mandatory followup question is, “Do you believe Americans have a First Amendment right to access and share speech in our publicly-funded libraries?”

The Americans that have settled on, “it’s not banned because you can still buy it at the store” are conceding their rights and yours to receive or share information in our publicly funded libraries.

So much for being staunch defenders of “Liberty” and “Freedom” for “We The People.”

Judge: Escambia County did not violate First Amendment by removing same-sex penguin book • Florida Phoenix Escambia County did not violate students’ First Amendment rights in keeping from them a book about two male penguins raising a chick together, a federal judge found this week.  In a suit between the a...

In order for Judge Winsor to get to the conclusion that access elsewhere was an acceptable solution for a school to remove a book based on viewpoint, he had to deny patrons and authors their First Amendment rights in the library.

Let that sink in.

floridaphoenix.com/2025/10/02/s...

Library Advocacy Requires a Voice in the Legislative Process Having a say in legislation is a critical piece of advocacy right now. Hear from experts on how to help grassroots organizations, testify before boards and legislators, and make an impact.

Individuals & orgs are out there doing the work, talking about policy, creating briefs, testifying, speaking at board meetings, working w/coalitions, and building relationships with the proper stakeholders and decision-makers to have the biggest impact.

www.schoollibraryjournal.com/story/Librar...

First Texas schools banned my book. Now it's 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' The problem isn't just the new state law. It's how some school leaders are reacting to it.

Stop what you’re doing and read this op ed by @ashleyhopeperez.bsky.social right now.

Gift link:
www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outl...

Cover of A Clockwork Orange

According to PEN America’s latest report, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE was the most banned book of 2024—and that should trouble us all.

Books that make us uncomfortable are often the ones that make us think the most. Banning them makes our shelves, and our society, poorer.

#FreedomToRead #BookBans

Another Judge Chips Away at Library Patron First Amendment Rights A District Court judge rules that neither library patrons nor authors have First Amendment rights when it comes to library collections.

Another reason we can't "just get private bookmobiles to schools to get kids banned books" is that this isn't about the books. It's about the fundamental rights to democratic spaces that represent a whole community.

Right now, judges are chipping away at *our* rights.

bookriot.com/parnell-vs-e...

Everyday Bans, Everyday Resistance: What PEN America’s Latest Report Reveals About Book Censorship PEN America’s report shows that in 2024–2025, nearly 6,870 instances of book bans across 23 states and 87 districts targeted 3,752 titles, mostly driven by fear of backlash—not law—and heavily focused...

The latest PEN America report offers more than statistics—it uncovers a modern censorship crisis. Discover how bans affect thousands of books, why most removals are driven by fear, and how communities are pushing back.

www.freedomtoreadproject.org/everyday_ban...

Some important details are discussed in this article, including the fact that 13 of the 17 removals in the state’s report for Orange were the result of pressure from state leaders (6 of those removals were also in spite of local decisions to retain).

This is not about what local parents want.

Florida Court Rejects Free Speech Argument in Book Removal Case

More on that Florida book banning case — in the NYT it quotes the judge as saying, “The good news is I need not decide the difficult government-speech issue to resolve the case. Either way, the First Amendment offers Plaintiffs no protection.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/b...

YouTube video by Simon Kids AND TANGO MAKES THREE

And if you’re wondering what the “innuendo…sexualizing what was going on” was that the respected teacher removed from the story to make the book acceptable for the Board Member at the time, here’s the entire book read aloud…

youtu.be/4uOXUCiDE-s?...

“There is no view of the facts that could support plaintiffs’ claim that the board engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination…”

Really?

This is footage from the Escambia Board’s vote to remove And Tango Makes Three.

Escambia’s policy outlines the purpose of a school library and the duty of the District - something the judge seems to ignore.

Q from the article:

“If school and public libraries aren’t required to meet the diverse needs and interests of their communities, then what purpose do they even serve?”

Approximately 76% of the 950+ unique titles on the state’s lists over the last 3yrs have been removed in Clay.

When state officials tell districts that they should just remove whatever is on the state’s list, they are letting one guy in Clay set reading boundaries on the entire state.

Schools, parents removed fewer books last year, reports find • Florida Phoenix Both the Florida Department of Education and PEN America, a nonprofit advocating for freedom of expression, have released their annual lists of books removed from school classrooms and libraries, each...

An important stat missed in this story: Clay County accounted for a larger portion of the state’s removal list (63%) than prior years.

This means HB 1285 (2024) limiting non-parent objectors to one per month did not slow Clay’s main book objector.

floridaphoenix.com/2025/10/01/s...

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School districts banning books because of “disagreeable” ideas they contain is censorship. Courts are siding with districts, not parents. Not students. In America. In 2025.

In this case we are talking about a nonfiction children’s picture book about a penguin family with 2 daddy penguins. 😑