Internal review removes dozens of titles<\/p>\n
So far, formal challenges are not the primary way books are getting removed from the district\u2019s collection \u2014 mostly, that\u2019s happening as the result of Duval Schools\u2019 ongoing internal book review<\/a>.<\/p>\n Duval Schools made national news three years ago for covering and emptying library shelves<\/a> while it began reviewing its library materials for unlawful content to try to adhere to rapidly changing content guidance from the state Education Department. Duval\u2019s model of not staffing middle and high schools with certified media specialists<\/a> made the work of evaluating the entire catalog of books more difficult, because in 2023, state law required certified media specialists to conduct the reviews<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n District spokesperson Laureen Ricks tells Jacksonville Today that two district media specialists are still working on the internal review of the more than 1.6 million books in the district\u2019s collection. About three years ago, the district said it had completed 10,000 books<\/a>. Duval Schools didn\u2019t provide the current number before this story\u2019s publication.<\/p>\n Ricks says, \u201cThe process began with elementary school collections and has since moved into middle and high school library materials, which accounts for the increase in titles added to the non\u2011approved list over time.\u201d<\/p>\n A list of 50 titles called \u201cBooks Under Review 25-26,\u201d is \u201creflective of what has been reviewed thus far in secondary (schools),\u201d the district\u2019s chief academic officer, Paula Renfro said in an email received under a public records request by Jacksonville Today. Sixty percent of those \u2014 the 30 books recently added to the not-approved list \u2014 were not approved under Florida Statute 847.012<\/a>. One book, Ready Player One, was weeded from the collection because of low circulation. Nineteen of the books reviewed were approved.<\/p>\n At the rate that the document suggests, the review will take millennia to complete. <\/p>\n The current book challenges<\/p>\n In addition to the books the district removed on its own, it will soon reconsider Picoult\u2019s Vanishing Acts and The Pact in response to formal challenges. <\/p>\n They were two of three books that Jacksonville resident and political activist Blake Harper<\/a>, 67, presented to the School Board<\/a> this month. (The third book Harper targeted, Stephen King\u2019s historic thriller 11\/22\/63, \u201cis not currently held within our collections,\u201d Duval Schools spokesperson Laureen Ricks says.) <\/p>\n \u201cWe are submitting tonight the first three book challenges,\u201d Harper told the board. He\u2019d circulated a flier soliciting others to mount book challenges with him, and two others with no children enrolled in the district obliged. \u201cThese books violate state law, period, end of story,\u201d Harper said. <\/p>\n Both of the challenges to Picoult\u2019s novels mention profanity and sex. Where the complaint form asked whether the complainant had read the whole book, they indicated they had not and wrote that state statutes don\u2019t require challengers to do so.<\/p>\n The challenges are attracting the attention of Picoult herself, who posted April 6 on Facebook: \u201cDuval County FL is at it again. They\u2019re trying to ban Vanishing Acts and The Pact. If you live nearby and believe in the freedom to read, now is the time to raise your voice.\u201d<\/p>\n Her spokesperson told Jacksonville Today the author was \u201cunavailable to participate\u201d in an interview for this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n Florida law<\/a> requires residents to be able to challenge school books on the basis that they are \u201cinappropriate\u201d for the grade level or age group to which they are made available. Non-parent residents, like Harper, may challenge one book per month<\/a>. Parents may make unlimited challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to statistics released this week<\/a> by the American Library Association, only 3% of the book challenges nationwide in 2025 came from individual parents. Most were brought by \u201cpressure groups, government officials and decision makers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At the board meeting, Harper alluded to a group effort, using the word \u201cwe\u201d several times. He did not clarify who \u201cwe\u201d referred to specifically, and added, \u201cWe are not going to respond in the media in any way, shape or form about the work we\u2019re doing.\u201d <\/p>\n Jacksonville Today reviewed what appeared to be a recruiting email he sent prior to the meeting, which read, in part, \u201cWe need parents who have children in either public schools or home schools (stet) so that we start to catch up for lost time.\u201d<\/p>\n Duval\u2019s history of book challenges<\/p>\n The district\u2019s book reconsiderations list<\/a> shows book challenges going back to 1980. Most of the 77 documented book challenges resulted in books remaining on shelves. \u00a0<\/p>\n The earliest decision to remove a book came in the 1991-92 school year, when the district removed Onions in the Stew, a midcentury memoir by Betty MacDonald, who also wrote the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series of children\u2019s books. The reason given: \u201cAlcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n Parents can also limit their child\u2019s access to books and media materials by submitting a form to their school<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, the district received its first formal book challenge since Florida expanded book challenge laws<\/a>. It resulted in the School Board\u2019s 6-1 vote to remove the young-adult novel Identical<\/a> by New York Times-bestselling author Ellen Hopkins. A review committee had encouraged the board to retain the book.\u00a0<\/p>\n The board has since revised its policy regarding the makeup of the review committee<\/a> that advises the board, so it now consists of one representative appointed by each of the seven school board members and two nonvoting district staffers. <\/p>\n Amanda Kordeliski, president of the American Association of School Librarians<\/a> and a public school librarian in Oklahoma, tells Jacksonville Today that media specialists curate their collections in response to their schools\u2019 needs and interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n She says reviewers should consider the types of content that typically land books on challenged lists \u2014 profane language, drug usage and sexual situations \u2014\u00a0in the context of the surrounding plot.<\/p>\n And Supreme Court precedent \u2014\u00a0specifically something called the Miller Test \u2014 requires reviewers to consider the whole book<\/a> when determining whether it\u2019s obscene, Kordeliski says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you take out and just read a three-sentence excerpt or the most outrageous thing that you can find without the context of what the plot is, you do a huge disservice \u2014 not only to the creative work that you\u2019re evaluating, but also to your readers, because sometimes how they\u2019re experiencing the world is through a book,\u201d Kordeliski says. \u201cThey can experience things, or learn about stressful events in the pages of a book without having to personally live that trauma or that event for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/picoult-facebook-1-835x1024.png\")
Author Jodi Picoult posted on Facebook about the book challenges brought against two of her novels in Duval County. | Jodi Picoult via Facebook<\/p>\n