On Monday, the Iowa City Community School District released the “current list” of books it has removed from schools in its “ongoing efforts to ensure compliance with Iowa law Senate File 496.” Gov. Kim Reynolds signed SF 496 into law in May, after it was pushed through the Iowa Legislature with only Republican votes. Among the bill’s provisions is a requirement that school districts remove all books with “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act” except for approved science or health class texts. It also prohibits “any program, curriculum, test, survey, questionnaire, promotion or instruction” referencing sexual identity or gender orientation in primary schools.
“We have developed a team of administrators, curriculum coordinators, teachers, and teacher librarians who are all actively involved in reviewing library and instructional materials in regard to the new requirements,” ICCSD Superintendent Matt Degner said in an email to district families and staff. “We have full confidence in their ability to conduct this review process diligently and responsibly.”
The current ICCSD list has 68 books, including landmark works of literature (Ulysses by James Joyce), literature so embedded in contemporary culture that everyone knows its name (The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, as well as the graphic novel adaptation of the book by Renee Nault) and an essential work by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye.
Although most of the titles on the list of removed books are fiction, ICCSD also removed nonfiction works to comply with SF 496. Iris Chang’s, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, a detailed history of the atrocities — including massacres and mass rapes — conducted by the Japanese Imperial Army after its 1937 invasion of Nanjing, the city that was then China’s capital, is on the list. It was a widely praised bestseller when it was published in 1997. In his foreword to the paperback edition, William Kirby, a professor of modern Chinese history at Harvard, said it “shows more clearly than any previous account just what [the Japanese Imperial Army] did,” and makes “connections between the slaughter in Europe and in Asia of millions of innocents during World War II.” That book is no longer acceptable in Iowa schools under ICCSD’s interpretation of SF 496.
Likewise, Not that Bad: Dispatched from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay, one of America’s leading essayists, has been removed. As its publisher explains, the book is a collection of “original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are ‘routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied’ for speaking out.” That book is no longer consider acceptable in Iowa schools.
There’s a certain irony to Ulysses being on the list. In 1933, it was the subject of a famous court case — United States v. One Book Called Ulysses — in which the federal government attempted to ban distribution of the book on the grounds it was obscene because of “the recurrent emergence of the theme of sex in the minds of [the novel’s] characters,” as Judge James Woolsey wrote in his decision. Woolsey ruled Ulysses was not obscene and could be distributed, expressing disbelief that anyone would read such a complex work of literature for prurient reasons, because “nowhere does it tend to be an aphrodisiac.” Still, 90 years after Woolsey’s decision, Ulysses is bannable in Iowa schools because of SF 496.
There’s also a significant work of literature with strong connections to Iowa on the list, A Thousand Acres. Jane Smiley’s novel reimagines Shakespeare’s King Lear as the story of an Iowa farmer and his daughters. Smiley, who holds a Ph.D from the University of Iowa and taught at Iowa State University for 15 years, won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for the book. It has been made into a movie, and last year, an opera based on the book had its debut at the Des Moines Metro Opera. But A Thousand Acres is no longer available in Iowa City schools because of SF 496.
There are lots of familiar names on the list of books ICCSD has removed: It by Stephen King, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, Forever by Judy Blume, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Looking for Alaska by John Green and The Color Purple by Alice Walker. There are also less widely known titles, like All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson and This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson. Both are contemporary works of LGBTQ literature, and both are also frequent targets of book-banners around the country. Both were cited by Republicans as the sort of books that shouldn’t be allowed in Iowa schools.
It was obvious in discussions of SF 496 during this year’s legislative session that the bill was aimed at banning LGBTQ books, but it had to be crafted in a broader way to avoid legal challenges. Although Republicans did settle on a very large scope for their ban, they did include an exemption to make sure the Bible and other religious texts would not be removed from schools for any references to sex.
“Please note that this list is not in final form as the review process of all books is still in progress, and the list is subject to change,” Degner said in his email on Monday. “The State’s deadline for the District to publish a final list is January 1, 2024.”
The state, however, is not publishing guidance for school districts on how to select books to be removed.
During the State Board of Education’s meeting in August, Board President John Robbins said “there’s a lot of confusion” about what those bans cover, and which books need to be removed from school.
Iowa Capital Dispatch reported that Iowa Department of Education Legislative Liaison Eric St. Clair, who was representing the department at the meeting, said although the calls for clarity were “appreciated,” the department was not committed to providing guidelines.
Gov. Reynolds insists there is no book banning occurring in Iowa schools, but also boasts about the impact SF 496 is having. On Saturday, during her annual “Harvest” political fundraiser, Reynolds ran down a list of conservative accomplishments in Iowa this year. She ended the list with a reference to SF 496, claiming “we got porn out of the classroom and the libraries.”
The books removed classrooms and libraries as listed in Degner’s email are below.
101 Questions about Sex and Sexuality by Faith Brynie
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown
Blankets by Craig Thompson
Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Boy Toy by Barry Lyga
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
Brave Face by Shaun David Hutchinson
Breathless by Jennifer Niven
Can We Talk About Consent by Justin Hancock
Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
Color Purple by Alice Walker
Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah Maas
Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah Maas
Court of Silver Flames by Sarah Maas
Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas
Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah Maas
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Damsel by Elana Arnold
Doing It: Let’s Talk about Sex by Hannah Witton
Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas
Forever by Judy Blume
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Grown by Tiffany Jackson
Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Handmaid’s Tale (graphic novel) by Renée Nault
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Icebreaker Hannah Grace
Identical by Ellen Hopkins
Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
It by Stephen King
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas
Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw
Let’s Talk About It by Erika Moen
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Lucky by Alice Sebold
Making Sexual Decisions by L. Kris Gowen
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
No Ashes in the Fire by Darnell Moore
Not That Bad by Roxane Gay
Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir by Nikki Grimes
Out of Darkness by Ashley Pèrez
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky
Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas
Traffick by Ellen Hopkins
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
Ulysses by James Joyce
Vincent by Barbara Stok
Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan