American novelist Nora Roberts has found herself embroiled in the conservative effort to ban books from Florida public schools.
Eight of her novels were pulled from the shelves of the school library in Martin County, Florida, after a mother complained.
“This is all shocking,” Roberts told The Washington Post. “If you don’t want your teen to read this book, that’s your right as a parent, and good luck with that. But you have no right to say that someone else’s child cannot read this book.”
Books by a host of major authors have been pulled from various Floridian school shelves, including Judy Blume, James Patterson and the Nobel Prize for Literature, Toni Morrison.
Florida public schools withdraw book by Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize in Literature
Books were banned in at least 32 states last year, according to a PEN America tracker. Educators and librarians have said that it is restrictive state laws and potentially severe penalties that have caused the books to be banned.
Florida is one of the states that have passed laws restricting lessons about race and racism, and classroom discussions about gender identity and sexual orientation. The “Stop WOKE” Act, passed last year, prohibits teachers from teaching lessons or having class discussions that would cause students to feel “guilt or distress” over past actions committed because of their race.
Another law, officially known as the Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, restricts education about gender identity and sexual orientation for students.
“It is false to say that the state is not responsible when it has created laws and regulations that have created an environment of fear, loss of jobs, loss of teaching licenses if a line is crossed,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association.
Eleanor Marie Robertson (Nora Roberts, 1950) is the author of well-known best seller, including the novels Hideaway, Under Currents, Come Sundown, The Awakening, Legacy… She is also the author of the futuristic thriller series In Death, written under the pen name JD Robb.
She is considered one of the most relevant writers in the United States.
