Bay Area publisher and authorDave Eggersis offering high school seniors in the Rapid City, S.D., area free copies of the 400 books the school boardplans to destroy。
On Tuesday, May 3, in a meeting that drew national attention theboard votedto purge five titles it deemed inappropriate for its students from classrooms, including Eggers’ “The Circle。”
“The mass destruction of books by school boards is an unconscionable horror,” Eggers said in a statement posted to the website of his publishing company,McSweeney’s。”和自由思想的年轻人啊f South Dakota shouldn’t be subjected to it. For every copy the school board destroys, let’s add a new one to the local circulation.”
The books, which primarily deal with the struggles of underrepresented individuals and groups, include 30 copies of “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo, 75 copies of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, 35 copies of “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” by Alison Bechdel, 185 copies of “How Beautiful We Were” by Imbolo Mbue, and 30 copies “The Circle.”
The books were assigned to English classes for high school seniors, butCaitlin Pierson, the public information manager for Rapid City Area Schools, said the titles were pulled “based on the content.” They were placed on the school district’s surplus list as items “to be destroyed,” according to theRapid City Journal。
The school board of Rapid City, South Dakota, plans to destroy about 400 copies of books. In response, we're offering any Rapid City-area area high school seniors free copies of any of the books that are going to be destroyed. Please click for details.https://t.co/63161p7vLb
— Timothy McSweeney (@mcsweeneys)May 5, 2022
“The first question arose when one of the three high school principals sent me an image of a page in one of the books, an excerpt, and expressed concerns about not wanting it in their classrooms,” Valerie Brablec Seales, Rapid City Area Schools’ director of teaching, learning and innovation, told the board.
The Board of Education unanimously voted Tuesday to delay a decision to destroy the books in order to seek legal advice.
School officials did not specify what they found objectionable about the books.“The Circle” satirizes cultures and values that have emerged in the internet age. “How Beautiful We Were: A Novel” follows a young woman from a small African village who starts a revolution against an American oil company.
“Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” is a graphic memoir about author Alison Bechdel’s fraught relationship with her late father. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” includes references to drug and alcohol use and sexual content and has been banned by several other districts. And “Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel” follows the lives and struggles of 12 characters, many of whom are Black British women.
Eggers said Rapid City-area high school seniors can pick up free copies of any of the books at Mitzi’s Books, 510 Main St. in Rapid City. He added that he will also ship the books from independent bookstores to any of the students who email Amanda Uhle, publisher and executive director of McSweeny’s, directly atamanda@daveeggers.net。
A literary giant of the Bay Area, Eggers is beloved not only for his myriad works of fiction and Pulitzer Prize-nominated memoir but also as a founder of McSweeney’s as well as the nonprofit tutoring center826 Valenciain San Francisco. Eggers’ previous books include “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” and “What is the What.”
The author plans to attend a rally atMitzi’s Books5月16日提前一天预定destruction of the books.
Accounts of book bannings and attempted book bannings,along with threats against librarians, have soaredover the past year, according toAmerican Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. In its annual State of America’s Libraries Report, released last month, the association found 729 challenges — affecting nearly 1,600 books — at public schools and libraries in 2021, more than double 2020′s figures and the highest since the ALA began compiling challenges more than 20 years ago.
The library association defines a “challenge” as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.”
The actual total for last year is likely much higher — the ALA collects data through media accounts and through cases it learns about from librarians and educators and other community members. Books preemptively pulled by librarians — out of fear of community protest or concern for their jobs — and challenges never reported by libraries are not included.
The number could well grow again in 2022, asconservative-led school boards and legislatures enactmore restrictions. In April, the Georgia legislature passed a bill that would accelerate the process for removing books seen as “harmful to minors.”
And there have been more than 200 instances of public school districts in Florida banning books since last July, the third highest number of incidents of any state in the U.S., according to a report from PEN America, an advocacy group for writing professionals.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed into law a bill that makes it easier for parents to challenge books and instructional materials they don’t approve.
Books banned in Florida school districts, whether permanently or pending review, include Isabel Allende’s “The House of Spirits,” Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Iris Chang’s “The Rape of Nanking,” Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner,” Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.