In another case of art imitating life, Jennifer Pippin, the chair of the local far-right, fascist organization Moms for Liberty chapter, Assholes with Casseroles, played a key role in banning a book in a Florida school district that focused on book bans.
Ban This Book, a children’s book written by Alan Gratz, will no longer be available in the Indian River county school district since the school board voted to remove the book last month.
The story focuses on a day when: "Amy Anne Ollinger tried to check out her favorite book in the whole world, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, from the school library. That’s when Mrs. Jones, the librarian, told her the bad news: her favorite book was banned! All because a classmate’s mom thought the book wasn’t appropriate for kids to read.
Amy Anne decides to fight back by starting a secret banned book library out of her locker. But soon things get out of hand, and Amy Anne finds herself on the front line of an unexpected battle over book banning, censorship, and who has the right to decide what she and her fellow students can read. In the end, her only recourse might be to try to beat the book banners at their own game. Because after all, once you ban one book, you can ban them all..."
Indian River County School Board members said they disliked how it referenced other books that had been removed from schools and accused it of “teaching rebellion of school board authority,” as described in the formal motion to oust it.
The school board voted to remove the book by a 3-2 vote.
Gratz, its author, called the Indian River County decision "incredibly ironic."
"They banned the book because it talks about the books that they have banned and because it talks about book banning," he said in an interview with the USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida. "It feels like they know exactly what they're doing and they're somewhat ashamed of what they're doing and they don't want a book on the shelves that calls them out."
