Florida school district pulls dictionaries and encyclopedias as part of "inappropriate" content review
CBSN
One school district in Florida is looking to extend the state's book ban to an unexpected genre: dictionaries. According to a list obtained and published by the nonprofit PEN America, the Escambia County school district has included five dictionaries, eight encyclopedias and "The Guinness Book of World Records," in its list of more than 1,600 books that could soon be banned.
The list of books was initially obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project, a nonprofit that was started in 2021 when Florida started to initiate book bans in schools across the state. The district has a list of books that have been formally challenged on its website as well, which shows that several books have already been restricted and removed, including Alice Sebold's "Lucky," Sapphire's "Push," and Kyle Luckoff's "When Aidan Became a Brother," a picture book that tells the story of a young transgender boy and his new role as a big brother.
According to PEN America, the list consists of more than 1,600 books "banned pending investigation in December 2023." Among titles on the list are: John T. Alexander's "Catherine the Great: Life and Legend," "Speak: The Graphic Novel," Carl Hiaasen's "Hoot," and Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl."
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