It's finally ready! October's most anticipated release, w/ the possible exception of The Life of a Showgirl, is The Book-Loving Texan's Guide to the November School Board Elections. If you hate book bans, read this to know who to vote for and who to campaign against! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

As always, this is a working document, so reach out if you have edits, additions, leads, or questions!

It's finally ready! October's most anticipated release, w/ the possible exception of The Life of a Showgirl, is The Book-Loving Texan's Guide to the November School Board Elections. If you hate book bans, read this to know who to vote for and who to campaign against! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

This development in Leander, Texas, follows a letter to the ISD from @ncacensorship.bsky.social, NCTE, @txfreedomread.bsky.social, and more.

GREAT NEWS from Leander ISD. To Kill a Mockingbird, House on Mango St, and Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass will be returned to classrooms after a massive outcry. Thanks to everyone who spoke up!!!

From an email to teachers today:

GREAT NEWS from Leander ISD. To Kill a Mockingbird, House on Mango St, and Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass will be returned to classrooms after a massive outcry. Thanks to everyone who spoke up!!!

From an email to teachers today:

Come see me this afternoon, Austin! I’ll be there to teach about the books that are being forced off of shelves in Texas today, the threats to the freedom to read that Texans face next, and steps we can take to stop book banning in its tracks!

Come see me this afternoon, Austin! I’ll be there to teach about the books that are being forced off of shelves in Texas today, the threats to the freedom to read that Texans face next, and steps we can take to stop book banning in its tracks! library.austintexas.gov/event/celebrat…

So well deserved!!! Amanda is a hero 💛💛💛

Great write-up from Kelly Jensen on the disaster in Leander ISD, which "paused" the classroom use of To Kill a Mockingbird, The House on Mango Street, & The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass due to the climate of fear that exists around books in Texas right now: bookriot.com/leander-sb-13/

Removing To Kill a Mockingbird and The House on Mango Street from Texas classrooms does not protect Texas kids. The Texas GOP and Governor Abbott need to answer for this. Shameful.

www.fox7austin.com/news/leander...

The Escambia Board is arguing that our libraries are “government speech” that can be restricted as elected officials choose.

Also, they don’t believe they should be deposed to explain those decisions to the public and the court.

www.wuwf.org/text/local-n...

This is such a huge honor! I’m so grateful to NCTE for all they do, and so touched to have been nominated for this award.

Thank you so, so much!!

When they were banning my books, I found out who they were and disproved all their dishonesty and dunked on them so hard and so often both in their communities and to the world that they stopped trying.

Try it, everyone! It's super fun and effective! If we all do it, maybe we can save ALL the books

(Sorry to burst your bit of pleasant surprise, but the list went out to all middle and high school ELA teachers)

I will say--Leander ISD has a great board and really dedicated teachers and librarians. I think we can get this fixed! The bigger problem is the state.

Finally, we need to start putting pieces together. We’re not fighting one bill—we’re fighting a movement that wants to restrict ideas & is happy to do it bit by bit. When you email your reps, tell them to STOP listening to extremists like Moms for Liberty & START listening to librarians & teachers.

Every Republican in the Tx House and Senate voted for SB12. Its author was Brandon Creighton ([email protected]); its House sponsor was Jeff Leach ([email protected])

Next: We need to let the lawmakers behind SB12 know what they have wrought. In The Fire Next Time (a book removed from LISD under SB12), James Baldwin said, "It is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent." Texans: Email your Tx Rep & Senator.

Basically the call to action is threefold: First, we need to get these books back into LISD classrooms. LISD’s board is meeting 10/9, and has a chance to rectify this mistake. They need to know that the public does NOT support unconstitutional removal of books for the ideas they contain.

I wrote more about this here, including a call to action:
franklinstrong.substack.com/p/to-kill-a-...

(As an aside, the list also contains Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. How can that be considered a “DEI” book? That’s what happens when you use AI. People: Think for yourselves and stop using hallucinating robots to make decisions.)

Apparently, AI was used to measure instructional texts against a rubric that took into account “DEI content.”