Growing up, books were an important part of Aidan Edwards’ life. They challenged him, helped him work through his personal struggles and enhanced his education, he said.
A graphic design major at the University of Florida, Edwards, 21, of San Antonio in Pasco County, is using a senior project to fight the 18-month-old state law that prohibits schools in the state from carrying media deemed “inappropriate” for certain grade levels and age groups.
Last month, the Florida Department of Education released a list of books removed or discontinued from curriculum or libraries in 24 of the state’s 73 school districts for the 2023-24 academic year. The list spans 35 pages and includes more than 700 books containing themes related to race, sexuality and gender identity – an increase of almost 400 from the prior school year. The removals were in response to challenges lodged by parents and/or students.
Alachua County removed 10 books for grades 9-12: “13 Reasons Why” by Jay Asher, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson, “Beyond Magenta” by Susan Kuklin, “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, “Haunted” by Chuck Palaniuk, “Milk and Honey” and “The Sun and Her Flowers” by Rupi Kaur, “The Almost Moon” by Alice Sebold, “The Duff” by Kody Keplinger, and “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins. The county did not remove any books for kindergarten through eighth grade.
Marion County removed 14 books from K-12 (including Johnson’s and Hopkins’), one from grades 6-12 (“Killing Mr. Griffin,” by Lois Duncan), and seven from grades 9-12 (including three by one author, Alex Sanchez: “Rainbow Boys,” “Rainbow High” and “Rainbow Road.”)
Edwards’ project for his visual system design class, offered in the UF College of the Arts, is titled “Protecting Florida Education: Why Book Bans Hurt.” According to his final presentation, it aims to bring attention to “the effects of book/educational censorship in Florida and celebrating the free dissemination of ideas through the publication of community-made zines.”
The state maintains that no Florida school has banned any books, while the national free speech group PEN America considers any book made unavailable to students as banned.
Edwards said his project is one “I have been wanting to do for a really long time,” and that he hopes his publication serves as “kind of a guide to navigating” the removal of any books someone feels could make a difference in their lives – just like they did when he was younger.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Q: Why are you interested in book bans?
A: It’s been something that has affected me, and been a huge interest to me, because I used to read a lot growing up, and one of the books that really impacted me was “Maus,” by Art Spiegelman. It was a shocking book to me when I read it as a kid, and it kind of shaped a lot of what I feel is important to me today. So I was sad to see that book was banned not too long ago in the last few years in Florida, and that started off my looking more into book bans in general.
Q: Can you explain the materials you used in your project?
A: So I basically wanted to get a bunch of empty zines and little booklets and hand them out to people, and have them make whatever zines they want, talking about whatever they want, and hand them back to me – so that I can put it in my publication as kind of an artistic-like discussion against censorship and for free dissemination of ideas. I felt it was important to get other people’s voices heard. That’s something that’s less and less available as more books get banned.
Q: What is a zine?
A: A zine is a kind of small, often handmade, booklet. They’re usually made to tell a story or explain a short concept, and are a really great way to share something with few upfront materials. I should mention, too, zines have a huge subculture attached to them across the world.
Q: How did you get the message out to the community?
A: The Lynx bookstore here in Gainesville and the Central Media Center let me set up a little booth for people to pick up my zines and return them. Then I also just made a bunch of little bookmarks and some little stickers. I have just been trying to make little promotional materials to kind of spread the idea of anti-book banning more, and get the word out there more, because I feel like it’s not really discussed, especially at a local level enough.
Q: How has the community response been so far?
A: It’s honestly been great so far. Everyone’s been really nice and really enthusiastic about it, which I have been kind of surprised by and excited about. I think the only backlash I have seen is … I put up a bunch of fliers for a research poll, like a survey for the project weeks ago, and one of them got torn down. But other than that, it’s been great.
Q: What emotions arise when you see more books being removed in Florida?
A: I think it’s sad because it’s a loss of challenging ideas for young students. Like for me, in high school, I felt like there were a lot of books that were hard to read or challenging to me as an individual, but I was also 14. There are definitely books that add a lot of value to kids’ lives, especially when you’re growing up and helping you tackle certain things. Especially if you’re gay or in the minority group or anything, it makes it a lot more difficult for you to work through these things when you don’t have the resources to. It’s just sad to me to see that kids don’t have as much access to resources that helped me when I was growing up and kind of shaped me as a person. It’s just sad to see important topics get swept to the wayside in that way.
This post was originally published on here
