Ban This Book, by Alan Gratz, from its shelves, overriding its own Florida district book-review committee’s decision rejecting a challenge to the book.The children’s novel follows a fictional fourth-grade student who creates a secret library of banned books in her locker after her local school board bans those titles.Indian River School Board members said they disliked how it referenced other books that have been removed from schools and accused it of “teaching rebellion of school board authority.”Ban This Book, which had been housed in two elementary school libraries and a middle school, was challenged by Jennifer Pippin, president of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national right-wing group that routinely rails against books that they claim contain “age-inappropriate content” and address LGBTQ rights, among other fabricated grievances.The school board voted 3-2 to remove the book from shelves, with two candidates backed by Moms for Liberty voting to remove it, along with a third member , Kevin McDonald, who was recently appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill a vacant seat following the ill-timed resignation of Brian Barefoot.McDonald tried to justify banning the book by claiming the board was acting on behalf of parents who wanted to keep their children from being “indoctrinated” or exposed to allegedly “woke” ideas.“The title itself and the theme challenges our authority,” McDonald said of Ban This Book.
