West Des Moines schools removes 64 books and short stories to comply with Iowa law

The West Des Moines Community School District has removed 64 books and short stories to comply with Iowa's new education law.

Districts face a Jan. 1, 2024, deadline when Iowa schools and teachers would face penalties for having books with descriptions or depictions of sex acts under Senate File 496.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the law in May. The Iowa Board of Education has until Dec. 28 to begin the rulemaking process for Senate File 496, but has not issued a timeline for when districts will receive guidance on what books should be removed from school shelves, the Iowa Department of Education has previously told the Des Moines Register.

More: Which banned books have been removed from Iowa schools? Our updated database lists them

More than half of the titles on West Des Moines' removal list are from six authors. The district has removed two or more of those authors' books.

• "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

• "Shout" by Laurie Halse Anderson

• "The Haters" by Jesse Andrews

• "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

• "Damsel" by Elana Arnold

• "Red Hood" by Elana Arnold

• "What Girls Are Made Of" by Elana Arnold

• "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

• "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood

• "Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler (a short story that's part of Butler's "Bloodchild and Other Stories")

• "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

• "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison

• "The Carnival at Bray" by Jessie Ann Foley

• "Life is Funny" by E. R. Frank

• "Not That Bad: An Anthology of Rape Culture" by Roxanne Gay

• "Looking for Alaska" by John Green

• "Two More Days: An Anthology" by Colleen Hoover and The Bookworm Box

• "A Sin Such As This" by Ellen Hopkins

• "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins

• "Identical" by Ellen Hopkins

• "People Kill People" by Ellen Hopkins

• "Tilt" by Ellen Hopkins

• "Triangles" by Ellen Hopkins

• "Tricks" by Ellen Hopkins

• "All Boys Aren't Blue" by George Johnson

• "Milk and Honey" by Rupi Kaur

• "It" by Stephen King

• "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe

• "Boy Toy" by Barry Lyga

• "A Court of Frost and Starlight" by Sarah J. Maas

• "A Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas

• "A Court of Silver Flames" by Sarah J. Maas

• "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas

• "A Court of Wings and Ruin" by Sarah J. Maas

• "Empire of Storms" by Sarah J. Maas

• "House of Earth and Blood" by Sarah J. Maas

• "Kingdom of Ash" by Sarah J. Maas

• "Tower of Dawn" by Sarah J. Maas

• "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire

• "Sold" by Patricia McCormick

• "I'm Glad My Mom Died" by Jennette McCurdy

• "The Luckiest MILF in Brooklyn" by Lynn Melnick (part of Roxanne Gay's "Not That Bad: An Anthology of Rape Culture")

• "Opposite Sex" by Sara Miles and Eric Rofes

• "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

• "The Infinite Moment of Us" by Lauren Myracle

• "l8r, g8r" by Lauren Myracle

• "Shine" by Lauren Myracle

• "Yolo" by Lauren Myracle

• "Breathless" by Jennifer Niven

• "Adjustment Day" by Chuck Palahniuk

• "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk

• "Doomed" by Chuck Palahniuk

• "Haunted" by Chuck Palahniuk

• "Invisible Monsters Remix" by Chuck Palahniuk

• "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk

• "Rant" by Chuck Palahniuk

• "Snuff" by Chuck Palahniuk

• "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult

• "The Nowhere Girls" by Amy Reed

• "Push" by Sapphire

• "Lucky" by Alice Sebold

• "Jesus Land: A Memoir" by Julia Sheeres

• "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

• "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker

More: 'I did not write it to titillate a reader': Authors of books banned in Iowa speak out

Senate File 496 is now the target of two lawsuits, one filed by bestselling authors — including Anderson, Green and Picoult, whose books are banned — and another on behalf of Iowa families.

Norwalk provided the Des Moines Register in August a list of 64 books flagged for removal. Urbandale had initially flagged 374 books for removal but later narrowed that list to 64 titles. In October, Waukee told the Register it had marked 22 books for removal. And Dallas Center-Grimes had removed 73 titles.

More than 540 book titles had been removed in school districts as of mid-November, according to the Register database — though as of mid-December, the number was closer to 500 after Nevada updated its list.

Titles include memoirs, young adult books, classic novels, works of nonfiction and children's books with LGBTQ themes.

In addition to banning all books that depict sex acts from K-12 schools, the law prevents teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through sixth grade and requires school districts to inform parents if a student asks to use different pronouns at school.

Phillip Sitter focuses for the Des Moines Register on reporting on suburban growth and development in the western metro areas. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com. He is on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @pslifeisabeauty.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: West Des Moines removes 64 books, short stories to comply with Iowa law