Banned Books: UNBELIEVABLE. Teacher Reacts | Banned Book Week 2024, Moms for Liberty & Florida

Natalie plays a game to find out why 5 popular children's books were banned in United States schools during the 2023-24 school year. So many children's books were banned, challenged, and censored this year year, Natalie made need a video just for that! This video is Pt 1 which explores Children's Books. Natalie realizes that Moms for Liberty was the voice behind the vast majority of books banned, particularly in Florida schools.

Banned Books Featured:
📚 No, David! by David Shannon: https://urlgeni.us/amzn/nodavid

📚 Ban This Book by Alan Gratz: https://urlgeni.us/amzn/banthisbook

📚 And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell & Justin Richardson: https://urlgeni.us/amzn/tangomakesthree

📚 Stella Brings the Family by Miriam Schiffer: https://urlgeni.us/amzn/stellabringst...

📚 Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney: https://urlgeni.us/amzn/diarywimpykid

*thank you for shopping with my affiliate links
References for this video: 

List of books banned in Florida schools: https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/more-than-350-books-banned-in-florida-schools-since-last-july-16817328 

No, David! Censored Pictures: https://popular.info/p/pressed-by-moms-for-liberty-florida 

Ban This Book Article: https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/florida-school-district-bans-book-called-ban-this-book/

And Tango Makes Three Lawsuit: https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/students-authors-sue-florida-school-district-book-ban-rcna90219 

Moms for Liberty AP article: https://apnews.com/article/moms-for-liberty-donors-revenue-gop-schools-70d733e024d81f7ad054b0f321e67647 

Moms for Liberty Image: https://chathamjournal.com/2023/08/02/are-moms-for-liberty-a-hate-group/ 

Stella Brings the Family Kansas: https://www.marshall.edu/library/bannedbooks/stella-brings-the-family/ 

Stella Brings the Family Banned Iowa: https://databases.desmoinesregister.com/books-flagged-for-removal-from-school-libraries/257/ 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid banned in Conroe, Texas schools: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/Houston-schools-book-ban-requests-surge-2022-17004900.php

Diary of a Wimpy Kid banned in Tanzania: https://www.theghanareport.com/tanzania-defends-diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-books-ban/  

Banned Book Week 2024: https://bannedbooksweek.org/about/

Transcript:

You can't ban a book about banning books so that kids don't find out about banning books. Come on now. Come on now, you guys.

hey, it's Natalie and welcome back to Primary Focus. I'm back today with another one of my banned book series. Today I'm taking a look at books that were banned or heavily challenged during the 2023 to 2024 school year.

Usually I save these videos until book ban week, which happens towards the end of September and early October, but I just couldn't help myself. It feels like people went to town with banning and challenging books in public schools this year.

States that have gone ham on banning books really get upset when you use the word ban, but as far as I'm concerned, I do see this as a ban. If you have a rule saying you absolutely cannot have a book in a public school, I mean, that's a ban.

I wanted to turn this book challenge into a little bit of a game, so I got the help of my husband to pick out our books. this so that What do you have for me? I brought you some books. Ooh, look at all these books. Thank you, Mike. Well, it's two books and an iPad because there's a bunch of, digital copies of the books on there.

Okay. We love the Libby app in this house. That's it. Perfect. And envelope? That has information for spoilers. Why they were banned. Okay, so what we'll do is I will look at the book, I'll take a guess, you and me the viewer, we can each take a guess, and you have the reason in this envelope.

All right, and we'll figure it out together why these books got banned. Okay. Thanks for the help. You're gonna love it. Oh boy. I'm not gonna like it. All right, good luck.

Marker

Okay, so right now I'm gravitating to this one in the pile, No David. So if you're not familiar with the series, these books are wonderful and they're written very simply.

It's a great book for early readers. It's about this little boy, David. David is the ultimate non example for behavior. He is always up to something, making some trouble.

My guess would be, is that David is just like, He's kind of a bad boy. Like look at him reaching for the china. He's always doing bad things So maybe they just don't like that.

Let me find his envelope here

No, David. Indian River County, Florida. Nude images being censored, led by efforts from Moms for Liberty.

No. Oh, that's why he put it in this page. Oh no! David!

So this is, I mean, I've read this book a million times in my class and like, it's always a little like, Oh, but they would ban it for that. It's not like. This is nudity for the sake of nudity.

This is pure kids, nudity, in the backyard with the sprinklers on it's hot at the beach. That's surprising. So it says here that Indian river County, Florida found copies of books with nude images in them and censored them

once these images were altered, the books were returned to shelves the second week of January 2024. Clearly starting off strong here with some nudity, hardcore nudity in our books that we need to ban,

hopping into the iPad for number two, Mike got some books on the Libby app.

And we are doing Ban This Book. it says on the front here, you're never too young to fight censorship. Just reading over the synopsis here, these kids find out their favorite book is being banned, and they're fighting against it? I mean it doesn't sound like there's like a romance component to this. It is a chapter book. I don't know why this would be banned.

Why would this be banned? Because it's about banning books? Let me get the envelope.

Oh, okay, a long one. Indian River, Indian River County, again, you guys, voted to remove, ban this book by Alan Gratz, three to two, going against the decision by the district's book review committee to keep it. This novel about a fourth grade girl. who creates a secret library in her locker filled with banned books after a book she loves is banned.

It was challenged by the chair of the Indian River Moms for Liberty. Two of the three board members who voted to remove it were supported by Moms for Liberties in their campaigns, While the third person who said yes was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis McDonald's said the title and theme quote, challenges our authority. The author, Alan Gratz, said, This book doesn't teach rebellion against the school board, but it teaches civic engagement. The Florida Freedom to Read Project slammed this decision and said, They banned a book because it mentions other banned books.

It's truly absurd. Wow! I mean, if that doesn't sum up how absurd it is to be removing these books from libraries, I don't know what is. This goes along with why they were afraid that slaves would learn to read, because once you read and you become aware and you become worldly, this is why you ban books, to erase history so people don't learn in time that things are wrong or where things can go.

You can't ban a book about banning books so that kids don't find out about banning books. Come on now. Come on now, you guys. Man, I was hoping that there was something more interesting than that, but that is just makes me want to read the book. So there you go.

We're gonna get the book Antango Makes Three. This is, I think, a best seller. I remember when this came out because it's based on a true story about penguins at the zoo, and it's two, I think, male penguins that raise a ba two male penguins that raise a baby together. Um, so, We're encouraging animals to be gay?

That's my guess? Let's see. Entango makes three. Banned in many school districts in Florida under the parental rights education law, which sometimes I believe known as don't say gay. Banned for third grade and under. That's interesting because these are animals so I thought maybe there would be a difference here between.

Human behavior and animal behavior, but I suppose this was published for humans, so oh! Authors and a group of students and parents are suing Lake County, Florida School District for banning it. Authors, let's see, are Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. The authors said in a joint statement that They sued to affirm the American principle that no child should be denied access to age appropriate information in school because of the beliefs and biases of some to defend students right to read a heartwarming story of difference acceptance and love and to protect authors from censorship rooted in intolerance.

Oh, I mean, that says it right there to defend students right to read a heartwarming story of difference, acceptance and love. That's what we want is kids to be seen. There are a lot of kids who grow up and they look a certain way or their life is a certain way and they don't get to see themselves reflected in other places.

As I go through these books, I'm noticing a trend, and that is Moms4Liberty. as I've kept up with book bans this past year, Moms4Liberty has been everywhere. Every single book that we've mentioned has had a local Moms4Liberty group behind it.

They went to town this year with banning books moms4Liberty may seem like a small grassroots organization, but they have actually received an enormous amount of funding this year.

Over two million dollars Most of which came from two donors.

And they've been having a really easy time with banning and challenging books because states all over the countries have enacted laws and rules that let parents have more control over books available in school libraries.

In fact, I actually had a school librarian from Michigan anonymously reach out to me to let us know about their experience this year. From what I understand in Michigan, parents can check a box in a form asking for library books to be pre approved by the parent before it's checked out by their child.

One parent misunderstood how to fill out this form and didn't opt into the program like they were supposed to. So, this librarian told me when their child brought home a book about the zombie apocalypse, the parent was upset and blasted them on a local parenting Facebook page, naming them and the school that they worked at.

There were nearly a hundred comments blasting this school librarian before the post was ultimately taken down. It was really scary to think that this school librarian became villainized for letting a child check out a best selling children's book, and ultimately is because of the parent's mistake that this happened.

Okay, let's get back into the books though.

The next one, it's called Stella brings the family. And I've got this on the Libby app here. It looks like a children's book. And I'm going to take one big guess because I'm looking here. Stella appears to have two dads. I'm assuming flipping through this book here. Stella, I think she's like in kindergarten. they're having a Mother's Day celebration. Mothers are invited to the school. Stella has two dads. She's feeling a little stressed about the party.

Okay, I mean, this feels, I'm guessing, is just promoting the gay agenda.

but let's see what Mike said. Banned in several Florida school districts, also banned from the Independence Kansas Public Library, wow. And the Urbandale Community School District has flagged it for possible removal under a new Iowa law that bans books that depict or describe sex acts.

Depicts or describes sex acts, hold on.

This is a definitely a children's book about a little girl in school.

This is not a book with sexual content. This is a book about family about being a child. Wow Urbandale also believes that this law Senate file 496 applies to books that deal with sexual orientation and gender identity for younger grades Wow, That really scares me that we are confusing things that depict or describe sex acts with sexual orientation or gender.

That feels, incorrect, first of all, but also just like scary broad, you know? Like where does just a textbook about puberty fall into that, you know what I mean? what, what is the line there, With a, with a law like that?

, representation is just so important. Kids need to be seen. this is a real issue. And I, I don't just mean if you have two dads, but like, there's a lot of children growing up in single family households that do have to deal with a parent themed event and perhaps bringing a different guests.

That's not their parent or not being able to participate, choosing not to participate. I just, it's hard to think that something so sweet and innocent like this could be flagged as. As, um, perverted. Wow. Okay. I don't know why these still surprise me. I've made several of these videos over the years, but I, I still just often have my breath taken away as to why a book would be banned.

That's really sad. Closing out here with one I'm really curious about, which is Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is I believe, still a best selling children's book. Mean, this is the book.

It's like his first year of middle school, he feels like he's a wimpy kid and he's dealing with big kids and bullying and puberty Dealing with those awkward middle school years. I mean, I will say I didn't love it when my kindergartners checked this out Just because one I felt like they couldn't access a book like this and book with a weeks long waiting list Like I would much rather have just seen a child that could actually read it get the book But some of it are just like older kid topics. Some of the nuances in this book, but it wasn't inappropriate

My guesses for this are maybe the bullying. I don't think that this is as egregious as some books, but there is some sort of potty talk in this. That's my guess. Got my envelope. So this book has been challenged. He did not come across as being challenged this year, but in 2018 Dyer for Wimpy Kid was formally challenged, in Conroe Independent School District. I don't know what state that's in because the complaint believed that the main character had a pessimistic worldview and the story was contrary to everything Christian and those of any faith who are seeking morality, a review committee found that this was appropriate and they banned it. Whoa! I just,

I just don't think it's that serious. I don't. This is great. It's a great book. If you have a child that's a reluctant reader, Get them hooked on this series because it's so cute. There's so many pictures It's written in like kid kid talk and I think it's very relatable for children. He actually is kind of a soft side They actually have like a lot of very empathetic and sort of like interpersonal conversations and things Here's the real thing.

I, I didn't read the rest. It got banned this year in Tanzania. Mike, you tricked me. The entire country of Tanzania has banned it and it seems, oh wow, okay. The quote is basically, it doesn't fit with the morals of people of Tanzania. Some parents are just destroying the book. Schools are doing checks to see if kids have snuck it into their backpack. Okay, well, I guess that's how you handle that.

Marker

Well, I mean, that's enough of reading these unsavory, nasty, nasty children's books.

I think I need to go take a shower now because I feel disgusting after reading all of these. As a parent, you definitely have the right to decide what's going on in your own home.

Just because you don't want your child to read it doesn't mean that it's inappropriate for all children to read it. We live in a place where we have freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the freedom to parent how you want to parent.

What I would encourage you to do, now that we've kind of seen these and walked through these, one, of course, comment your opinion, but keep an eye on your local school board. book bans, especially those being led by local Moms for Liberty groups, are happening all over the nation, I would really encourage you to keep an eye on this, speak out against these, show up and write letters to your local board of education, and just keep an eye on it.

If there's anything that Moms of Liberty has taught us, it's that if you are persistent, you can make a difference. If you want me to do a video on Moms for Liberty and some of their impact in local schools around the country, I would be happy to research and let you know about, because one thing that I've really understood is that this group has really figured out how to make a difference in their community.

It just might not always be the difference that I was thinking of. Anyway, thanks for watching Primary Focus. My name's Natalie. I'll see you next time. I've got plenty of videos on banned books, so I hope you go and check them out. I also made a video for the 2023 to 2024 school year on novels, specifically young adult novels that are being banned in schools. I hope you go and check that out.