Part of a continuing series in the Des Moines Register’s Iowa’s Book Ban Battle project.
Last fall, Mari Butler Abry was one of hundreds of educators facing a daunting new task: vetting thousands of books to comply with a sweeping Iowa education law that bans books depicting sex acts from schools.
A teacher-librarian at Perry Community School District, Butler Abry and several school officials surveyed books by briefly reviewing lists from other schools, reading book summaries and even tried to use ChatGPT to narrow down which of the district's more than 20,000 books needed to be pulled.
They didn't calculate the time they spent on the process, but it included research before meetings, the meetings themselves and helping teachers who had questions about books.
More: John Green, Toni Morrison, Jodi Picoult, Colleen Hoover among most banned authors in Iowa
"We decided it was not our job to physically flip through all the books in the library," Butler Abry said. "No one has time for that."
In the end, Perry removed only three books because of Senate File 496, Iowa's new law requiring “age-appropriate” library programs and prohibiting most books depicting or describing sex acts from schools. The law also restricts instruction and curriculum about gender identity and sexual orientation through sixth grade.
But an exclusive Des Moines Register survey of Iowa's 325 public school districts found that some schools pulled dozens – even hundreds – of books under the law before a federal judge issued an injunction last December after Butler Abry and other teachers, families and publishers sued.
The Register's reporting also shows several schools returned their pulled books to the shelves after the injunction.
Other districts – more than half – didn't remove books, including the Mount Vernon Community School District and Des Moines Public Schools. Several cited the injunction for their decision.
Even so, the Register's exclusive data shows districts removed nearly 3,400 books and two DVDs to comply with the law, including nearly 1,000 unique titles.
Related: What is a sex act in Iowa? And how would it affect a likely school book ban? We found out:
The data also exposes the breadth of pulled books, including the American classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the Newbery Medal novel “The Giver” by Lois Lowry and “Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot,” a popular children's book with an LGBTQ+ character, by Dav Pilkey.
The removals in Iowa are emblematic of a national trend in which thousands of unique titles – many of them classics or modern children's favorites – are being targeted for removal from public schools and libraries. Data from the American Library Association shows a dramatic increase in book removals in recent years: In 2022, 2,571 titles were targeted, which was, at the time, a record high. Last year, the number soared to 4,240 unique books, the ALA found.
For Butler Abry, the frustrating experience illustrates what she and other opponents view as the overly broad nature of Senate File 496, which they say is so vague that it conflates literature with pornography and discriminates against LGBTQ+ Iowans.
“It was like we were having to solve a problem that we had already solved,” Butler Abry said of having to vet books when policies already existed for the public to challenge books. “But with very little guidance, and in a way that we were very scared that people were going to come in and yell at us metaphorically or in real life.”
Republican lawmakers who passed the law contend that school officials have gone far beyond the law’s intent, removing classic books and novels they say do not contain explicit sex.
Related: After federal judge's injunction on Iowa's book ban law, confusion and concerns linger
George Orwell’s “1984” is one of the books Iowa Senate Education Committee Chair Ken Rozenboom, a Republican, says was caught up in the overreach. The book was pulled by nine districts, the Register survey found.
Only one district has returned the book to the shelves, the Register found.
“The plain text of Senate File 496 does not ban a single book. All it does is put forth an age-appropriateness standard for the districts to apply for themselves,” Rep. Jeff Shipley, a Republican from Birmingham, said. “Therefore, when these school districts are banning ‘1984,’ and when these school districts are banning Holocaust memoirs, that is 100% on them. Nothing in state law compelled them to do that."
Rozenboom said he reread the classic novel during the 2023 legislative session as lawmakers crafted the bill’s language prohibiting books depicting or describing sexual acts as defined by law.
"'1984' never met that definition – never did,” he said of the dystopian book about an authoritarian state that censors information.
"1984" does contain sexual content: Main characters Julia and Winston talk about and later have sex. Within the first 20 pages of the book, Winston fantasizes about having sex with Julia and killing her.
Lawmakers were warned by library associations that books like Orwell's best-known novel could be caught up in the bans, Butler Abry said.
"I guess they should be more careful about the way they write laws because if this had unintended consequences, people tried to tell them what consequences this would have," she said, "and the lawmakers didn't listen."
On Jan. 30, the Register launched a statewide survey to determine how many books have been removed from Iowa’s 325 public schools under Senate File 496 and were returned to shelves after the injunction.
Register reporters undertook the task because no Iowa governmental body, including the Iowa Department of Education, is required to track materials removed because of the law.
Hundreds of open record requests showed that, after Senate File 496 passed in April 2023, banned books in Iowa schools led to a culling that included thousands of books.
A previous Register investigation documented just 100 challenges, encompassing 60 individual book titles and one movie in Iowa's public school districts between August 2020 and May 2023.
Related: In 3 years, 60 books have been challenged in Iowa schools. A new law could ban far more.
All 325 Iowa's public school districts responded to the Register's survey on Senate File 496, with 92% responding to a question about whether they;d removed books in response to the new law.
Of the 325 districts, 36% confirmed they had removed at least one book because of the law. In total, the Register identified 3,385 books – and two DVDs – removed. After the injunction, 1,295 of those books were returned to shelves.
That means more than 2,000 books remain inaccessible to students, including works by renowned authors such as Orwell, Toni Morrison and Stephen King.
"It's unacceptable that some schools are continuing to follow this blocked law,” said Thomas Story, ACLU of Iowa staff attorney. The ACLU is representing plaintiffs in one of two lawsuits against SF 496.
On average, school districts removed about 30 books. But some districts removed more than 100 titles, including Clear Lake, 126; West Burlington, 142; and Clear Creek-Amana, 230.
After the injunction, Clear Creek-Amana returned nearly all the removed books to the shelves. Clear Lake reshelved 25, and West Burlington reshelved none.
Districts that opted not to remove books listed several reasons. Some did not find any books they felt met the law's criteria. Others awaited official guidance from the Department of Education – which still hasn't come – or had not culled their collection before the injunction blocked enforcement.
Iowa is not alone in banning books. In the fall of the 2023-24 school year, Florida had banned 3,135 books and Wisconsin 481, according to a PEN America report.
A March Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll, showed half of Iowans felt the new law went too far.
Some Iowans such as Luke Newlan from New London have seen their opinions change as Iowa's schools began to ban classic books. Previously, Newlan, an Iowa Poll respondent, believed the new law was just right.
Now, the father of four says many of the books being banned are no worse than what kids see on TV. The book ban feels like a ploy by politicians that wasn't passed out of any real concern, he said.
"These same books that were there when I was growing up are being pulled," Newlan said. "I think I'm fine. Our society is fine."
For other parents, the ban could go further. Iowa Poll participant Michaela Caston of Bonaparte said the book ban does not go far enough and school materials should be appropriate for all students who might access them. Caston and her husband have homeschooled each of their four children.
She stressed banning a book or content does not equate to burning a book.
“If we’re going to err, I think it is healthy to err on the side of caution and protection,” Caston said. ”Parents are always allowed and free to find additional reading resources for their own children.”
The federal government has made no move to intervene in state book bans, and it has no plans to do so.
The U.S. Department of Education will not "influence, promote (or) dictate curriculum," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told the Register during the National Education Writers Association's conference in Las Vegas last month.
"Because we don't have a role in the curriculum, we are engaging through our Office for Civil Rights to provide supports for our districts … and inform districts of what their rights are," Cardona said.
Students need to feel seen and welcomed in schools, he said. They also need to see themselves reflected in teaching materials.
"We have the opposite happening," Cardona said. "We have books that have Black protagonists being banned at a higher rate. So, we're going backwards on that."
Moves to ban controversial books from Iowa schools are not new.
But in 2021, divisive book challenges and bans took a high-profile turn in the Des Moines metro and nationwide, as conservative activists and politicians organized over what they called inappropriate material for children.
“We can see the way the book-banning movement continues to escalate and continues to speed up,” said Kasey Meehan, the Freedom to Read director at PEN America. “It is really affecting thousands of books.”
In April 2023, Iowa’s Republican legislators passed Senate File 496 in response to activists' concerns. The book ban took effect July 1, 2023.
In November 2023, LGBTQ+ advocacy group Iowa Safe Schools and publisher Penguin Random House filed lawsuits in federal court to challenge the law, resulting in an injunction in December 2023.
In response, Gov. Kim Reynolds said it should not be controversial to protect children from sexually explicit content and pornography.
"The real controversy is that it exists in elementary schools. Books with graphic depictions of sex acts have absolutely no place in our schools," Reynolds said. "If these books were movies, they’d be rated R."
Reynolds' office has not responded to the Register's repeated requests to specify which books and elementary schools she was referring to.
The state has appealed the injunction, and a hearing is scheduled for June 11 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Sara Hayden Parris, president of Annie’s Foundation, a Johnston-based group that opposes book bans, is anxious about what could happen if the law is upheld in court.
“It’s such a slippery slope. That’s what worries me," Hayden Parris said.
Experts say the law has created a chilling effect among people deciding what literature is used in the classroom.
The law has prompted some districts to exercise extra caution to make sure they're in compliance, including Urbandale, which said it needed to take a broad interpretation to protect educators from disciplinary action.
To make their choices, districts leaned on librarians, education organizations, book summaries, Area Education Agencies, the Register’s own reporting on banned books and, in at least two cases, artificial intelligence to try to determine which books they needed to cull.
Last August, Bridgette Exman Dunn, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Mason City Community School District, found herself at the center of the national debate over book bans when she used ChatGPT to try to identify whether books contained explicit sexual acts.
Once the school year was underway, Exman Dunn noticed staff were communicating more about the books being used because they want families to know “we're not hiding anything from you – that this is a process that we want you to be involved in and engaged in and that your voice matters,” she said.
The long-term effects of Senate File 496 continue to concern advocates as the case makes its way through federal court.
"I already feel that we're not fully sure what the long-term effects are, obviously, because we don't have a crystal ball," Butler Abry said. "But it has already made some titles taboo.
"I think it already has made (LGBTQ+) students feel ostracized … like their state doesn't care about them, or they've done something wrong if they want to read a book like that."
The Register's findings showed that districts were inconsistent about pulling books with LGBTQ+ content – some did, while others left them on the shelves.
Educators say LGBTQ+ children and teens need to know that they are supported, which includes being able to read about themselves.
Related: SEL teaches kids to deal with their emotions. It's under attack as 'woke' indoctrination.
In the meantime, the fight over Senate File 496 is taking a toll on some like Butler Abry.
At the end of the 2023-34 school year, she took a step back from her career as a school librarian, which she hopes is temporary. Butler Abry has, however, decided not to give up on the fight against banning books.
"I love that I get to help defend student rights and still also do what's right for me and take a break right now."
Contributing: Alia Wong
Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @svhernandez or Facebook at facebook.com/svhernandezreporter.
Chris Higgins covers the northern and eastern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at chiggins@registermedia.com or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_.
Tim Webber is a data visualization specialist for the Register. Reach him at twebber@registermedia.com, and on Twitter at @HelloTimWebber.
Phillip Sitter covers the western suburbs for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @pslifeisabeauty.
F. Amanda Tugade covers social justice issues for the Des Moines Register. Email her at ftugade@dmreg.com or follow her on Twitter @writefelissa.
Kyle Werner is a reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kwerner@dmreg.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: 3,400 banned books under Iowa law from 'Captain Underpants' to '1984'
