WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) —
In Palm Beach County, there is just one book that school administrators don’t want to see on their library shelves. And, that restriction applies to just one grade level.
Meanwhile, in Indian River County, the number of books that were pulled ran into the triple-digits across all grade levels.
The Florida Department of Education (FDOE) released its annual list of items that were removed or discontinued in the 2023-24 school year. The list includes the titles and authors of the included material, as well as which grade levels are affected.
For example, the lone book kept from Palm Beach County students only applies to seventh graders and is an entry in the popular Princess Diaries collection, a series that made it to the silver screen in a film starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews.
“The Princess Diaries, Volume VIII: Princess on the Brink,” by Meg Cabot, is described by its publishers as telling the story of Mia, who had just made it to her junior year of high school, finding out that her boyfriend is heading to Japan for a year and trying to get him to stay.
A Much Longer List
Martin County’s tally included 21 titles, mostly of the removals targeted at high school students.
However, the 18 books that were removed from that county’s high school libraries was nearly matched in Indian River County by just one author. Bestselling author Jodi Picoult has 16 books that are not allowed at Indian River County libraries, according to the FDOE list.
In all, the state agency found 131 books were pulled by Indian River County school administrators over the past academic year. Among those were classics including Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eyes.”
Like Palm Beach County’s lone entry, the county also had some pop culture titles that became household names thanks to hit series. High schoolers will not be allowed to check out “Gossip Girl: A Novel,” the book that inspired the long running teen drama. “The Handmaid’s Tale” was blocked for high schoolers as well as 6-8th grade students.
Okeechobee and St. Lucie County had no books listed on the FDOE list.
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