A Johnston book organization hosts a reading event at the Johnston Farmer’s Market in September.
A group of Johnston parents, who said they noticed an “alarming” trend from 2021 of parents urging school boards to remove books they deemed “offensive,” set up Annie’s Foundation, according to the organization’s website.
Founder and President Sara Hayden Parris says the new nonprofit’s mission is to ensure members of the community have access to books that reflect the diversity and complexity of the world around them.
“Basically, we think it’s very important that children reflect themselves in the books they read and that are made available to them,” says Hayden Parris. “They also see books written by authors who look like them and have a similar background.”
For its launch event – a Read-In on Banned Books – the Foundation invites community members to bring a chair or blanket and their favorite banned book to enjoy September 20 from 4-6pm at the Johnston Farmers Market at 6245 Merle Hay road to read.
More:As Iowa school districts face new book challenges, students and librarians speak out against bans
Attacked, Banned Books in Central Iowa
In central Iowa, politicians and parents in Ankeny, Johnston, Urbandale, Waukee and West Des Moines school districts have questioned whether children should have access to certain books.
The books often feature stories of LGBTQ people and people of color, and parents who have challenged them have often condemned them as obscene or even pornographic and unsuitable material for children to read. Politicians have called for criminal penalties for educators who provide students with the materials.
Students and librarians say students can be trusted to make decisions for themselves and, in some cases, the material has proven crucial to students’ understanding of who they are in the world.
Last December, the West Des Moines, Waukee, and Ankeny school districts initiated reviews of George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue, a collection of essays about growing up queer and black, and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir “. ,” a comic book-style coming-of-age story about the author’s journey with gender and sexuality.
West Des Moines kept Gender Queer in the library while Ankeny and Waukee took it off the shelf. According to Waukee Community School District communications director Amy Varcoe, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” is staying on school shelves. The title also remains in Ankeny schools.
Other titles such as Lawn Boy, a semi-autobiographical novel by Jonathan Evison about a young Mexican man’s self-discovery, and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, a novel by Jesse Andrews about three teenagers, one of whom has cancer, were also published surveyed by parents in surrounding school districts.
Some parents and politicians, like state senator Jake Chapman, R-Adel, labeled some of the controversial books as “obscene.” Chapman called for changes in state law and for educators to be prosecuted.
More:Would the Proposed Definition of “Sexually Explicit” Mean More Library Books Being Removed from Iowa Schools?
A “need” for the community
Hayden Parris said she and a group of mothers began attending Johnston Community school district board meetings last school year to speak out against some parents’ challenge to two books.
One title, Angie Thomas’s “The Hate U Give,” follows an African American teenage girl who witnesses a police shootout when her unarmed black boyfriend is shot dead. The second, Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, tells the story of a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation.
“I started paying attention to the news and seeing that this was happening in a lot of suburbs right here in central Iowa … and certainly across the country,” said Hayden Parris, who has an 11- and 13-year-old in the school district.
Ultimately, both titles have been retained as part of the curriculum and remain available as optional choices in certain classes, she added.
Hayden Parris says it’s important to acknowledge other people’s experiences, such as police violence, even when others may not personally relate or have not been exposed to them.
More:Iowans largely reject criminal penalties, lawsuits over “obscene” books in schools, and poll results
“I don’t know people who have been affected by police violence … but I think it’s important to acknowledge that this happens and to read stories that the author has put a lot of thought, effort and research into,” she said. “It’s really important to read these books so I can get that perspective.”
Annie’s Foundation is inspired and named after Ankeny’s parent, Ann Lohry-Smith, who passed away in June. It consists of four members, all of whom are mothers of children in the school district.
“[Lohry-Smith]was so funny and she would love it all,” said Hayden Parris. “She had been very vocal against book bans at school board meetings and was just a big advocate for public education.”
Although there was some resistance to the organization, Hayden Parris said the response has been overwhelmingly positive: Parents have donated money and asked how they can support. The organization’s social media has seen a surge in followers and engagement, she said.
“It seems that people in our community have recognized this as a need and are really excited that we can offer it,” she said.
For the upcoming event at the farmers market, members of the organization plan to give away free copies of banned and contested books to readers of all ages, according to Hayden Parris.
So far they have identified two books for distribution. For Younger Children: Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s And Tango Makes Three, a true story of two male penguins who were given an egg to raise as their own. And for kids aged 14+, The Hate U Give.
Des Monies Register reporters Chris Higgins and Sarah LeBlanc contributed to this story.
Virginia Barreda is a trends and general assignments reporter for the Des Moines Register. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2.
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