Banned Books Week's latest chapter: Who's celebrating it in Brevard? Who's not, and why?

Should a child be allowed access to all books? Or are titles like "The Bluest Eye" and "Slaughterhouse-Five" too explicit for curious students?

These questions are asked over and over, posed at nearly every school board meeting in Brevard County. They've led to numerous book bans in school libraries across the country, with Florida seeing the most book bans during the 2022-2023 school year, according to a report by PEN America. They've prompted authors like Judy Blume and James Patterson to raise money to help open a Miami office for the nonprofit to push back against restrictions on literature.

And this week, through Saturday, people around the country are celebrating Banned Books Week, a movement that was started in 1982 in response to challenges against books in libraries, bookstores and schools. The week is meant to highlight the values of freedom and open access to information, bringing community members together in support of the freedom of speech and expression of ideas.

In Brevard, the debate over books picked up steam in 2022. Those both in favor of keeping books on the shelves and those who want more restrictions speak at nearly every school board meeting, with some reading passages they feel are explicit. A review committee has banned three books.

Outside of schools, parents and teachers are working to keep books available to students. Others, like Moms for Liberty, are focused on increasing reading proficiency, but say this can happen without certain books on the shelves.

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In June, during the first book review committee meeting, three poetry books by Rupi Kaur were banned from BPS shelves and classrooms: "Milk and Honey," "The Sun and Her Flowers," and "Home Body." With this decision, the committee barred the books from BPS shelves for eight years, a decision that cannot be appealed during that time, according to policy.

The book review process was halted at the end of June due to concerns about harassment toward committee members and the need to incorporate new state law into the district's policy, before any other books could be reviewed.

But more books have come off the shelves as they await review. When someone submits a formal request for review, that triggers the book to be pulled from BPS shelves. There are 31 books awaiting review, according to the district.

There's also a clause in House Bill 1069 that says if a parent is reading from a challenged book and a school board member stops them because the passage is sexually explicit, that book must be pulled from all district shelves.

Parents used that clause in July, reading from "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews; "Empire of Storms" by Sarah J. Maas; "All Boys Aren’t Blue" by George M. Johnson; "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison; and "Sold" by Patricia McCormick. The graphic novel "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe was also removed last year by district staff without review by the committee.

Russell Bruhn, spokesperson for Brevard Public Schools, said those in charge of overseeing the removal of certain books have not received the titles of the books that must be pulled following the July meeting.

"Staff will review with the board a proposed policy around objections during the Oct. 10 work session," he said.

Last year, the previous review committee reviewed "Empire of Storms" and "House of Earth and Blood," both titles by Sarah J. Maas. The first title was moved behind media specialists' desks, with a stipulation that students under 18 must get parental consent before they can check out the book. The second title was kept in the library but made available to check out only to students in 10th grade or above, though an eBook is available for ninth-graders.

Moms for Liberty counters with 'Teach Kids to Read Week'

Moms for Liberty, a group that has been at the forefront of the push to keep books they deem inappropriate out of the hands of minors, won't be celebrating Banned Books Week. Instead, they're celebrating what they're calling "Teach Kids to Read Week."

Heather Peterson, vice chair of Brevard's chapter of Moms for Liberty, cited the county's reading proficiency rate as part of why the week is important to the group.

"By participating in Teach Kids to Read week, we hope to bring attention to the urgent need for improved literacy programs and resources in our schools," she said. "Together, we can work towards a brighter future where every child in Brevard County, and indeed throughout the nation, can read and thrive academically."

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Peterson said the group is hoping to shed light on the issue of reading proficiency and advocate for change.

"Our Moms for Liberty Brevard County Chapter is committed to the belief that for America to thrive, our children must be equipped with strong literacy skills," she said. "We are dedicated to raising awareness about the alarming failure of the education system to provide an adequate education that effectively teaches our nation's children how to read."

Peterson did not respond to a question posed about why the group is celebrating this week in place of Banned Books Week.

Activists push to make banned books available to all

While groups like Moms for Liberty, Moms for America and other conservative parental rights groups have pushed to restrict children's access to books with sexual content or explicit language, some in Brevard are working to keep these books accessible.

Adam Tritt, an advanced placement English teacher for Brevard Public Schools, started the nonprofit Foundation 451 in 2022. Named after "Fahrenheit 451," a dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury in which the main character is tasked with burning books, the nonprofit provides students and parents with books commonly challenged and banned around the country.

"I want students to be able to live a life of congruence instead of incongruence, a life of genuineness instead of disingenuousness," he said. "(They) can't do that if they don't have the literature available to them so they can learn who they are, and who other people are."

Since the nonprofit's foundation, Tritt has handed out books at numerous events, established a library at Melbourne's Ben and Jerry's location and is working on another in a shared building owned by the Unitarian Universalist Friendship Fellowship in Rockledge. It's set to open Friday, Oct. 13 at 5 p.m.

Tritt wants the library to be a place of open conversations and safety for students.

"It will provide them a space where they can be themselves and read the literature that is important to them with other people who have also been lacking that ability," Tritt said, adding that the library will give books away rather than loaning them. "It will give them a place they can hold discussions safely, a place where they can have writing groups, where they don't have to worry about what they are writing."

Others across the Space Coast are also working to find little ways to make books accessible. Kelly Kervin, mom to a high school and middle school student, said she and another friend often donate to little free library boxes around the county. They generally drop off a variety of titles, Kervin said, adding that she was able to collect more than 300 books over the summer through donations from her Instagram followers.

"With both of us, sometimes they might be banned books, or they could be books that if they were in the schools, definitely would be banned," Kervin said.

The two, as well as Kervin's husband, as working to put up more little free libraries in Palm Bay. They've been unsuccessful in getting the city of Palm Bay to agree to let them put any in local parks, so Kervin said the plan is to put the libraries in her family's yard.

"Access to books, and access to information is important for the health of our society," Kervin said. "Limiting ideas and limiting inspiration and limiting literature does nothing for our youth. It just makes them naive."

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Banned Books Week: Who's celebrating in Brevard, who's not — and why?