Craig Thompson’s “Blankets” is one of 13 titles banned from Utah public schools — but in at least two districts that played key roles in the book’s statewide prohibition, no student had checked out the graphic novel in the 2021 and 2022 school years, prior to the new law taking effect.
Another banned book, “What Girls are Made of,” by Elana K. Arnold, saw just four checkouts among key school districts during that same period, according to records obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
The statewide bans were driven by just six of the state’s 41 school districts under a new law, which requires a book’s removal from all public schools in the state if at least three school districts (or at least two school districts and five charter schools) deem it “objective sensitive material” — pornographic or otherwise indecent content, as defined by Utah code.
While the law took effect July 1, it applied retroactively to titles previously banned by individual districts. Over the summer, districts and charter schools were instructed to reevaluate the books they had already banned under the former 2022 sensitive materials law, using the state’s new “objective sensitive material” criteria, which had not been in place before.
The Tribune obtained student checkout records for all 13 titles now banned statewide, focusing on the six districts whose local bans triggered the statewide prohibitions. Collectively, the titles were checked out at least 399 times during the 2021 and 2022 school years.
Student checkouts of now-banned books
On Aug. 2, The Utah State Board of Education released the list of 13 titles that met the statewide removal threshold, along with the districts that classified them as containing “objective sensitive material.”
Those districts were: Alpine, Jordan, Nebo, Davis, Tooele County and Washington County.
Together, they account for about half of Utah’s over 600,000 K-12 public school students, though all titles were only accessible to grades seven or above, according to the state board.
The student checkout data obtained by The Tribune raised some questions. Alpine and Nebo districts, for instance, said they deleted records after banning certain titles. While Alpine had no data for its banned books, Nebo said it kept only digital, not physical book, checkout records.
Officials from the Washington County School District, which banned all 13 titles, noted that a “changeover in media systems to improve parental notification of student library usage” rendered most checkout data for the 2021 and 2022 school years unavailable.
While the data offers a fractured view of student engagement with the now-banned books, here’s what we do know.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
“Blankets” was banned in the Davis, Nebo and Washington County districts, yet it was never checked out in Davis or Nebo. Washington County did not have any responsive data.
Alpine and Jordan school districts did not have “Blankets” in their library collections, and students in the Tooele County district also never checked out the book, records show.
Nearly half of the banned titles were written by popular fantasy romance author Sarah J. Maas, including the entire “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series.
Together, those five books were checked out 207 times by students across all six districts, with the second book in the series, “A Court of Mist and Fury,” borrowed the most, at 66 times.
Among all 13 titles, Maas’ “Empire of Storms” was the most frequently read book with 157 checkouts. The majority of those (103) were digital checkouts by high school students in the Alpine School District.
The Davis School District spent over $27,000 between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years to review about 100 challenged books. While not all of those titles ended up banned locally, the district, like Washington County, pulled all 13 titles.
Collectively, the books were checked out 94 times in the Davis School District, with no data available for two of the titles: “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur and “Oryx & Crake” by Margaret Atwood.
Utah has ‘most extreme’ statewide book ban law
Utah is one of just three states with laws permitting the statewide removal of books containing “sexual content” from public schools, according to PEN America. South Carolina and Tennessee have also recently enacted laws authorizing state agencies to ban books considered to have sex-related content across their public schools.
But PEN America called Utah’s law the “most extreme,” because it resulted in the “first instance” of a state releasing a list of books illegal to keep in public schools.
“Libraries are unique places in a school,” said Peter Bromberg, associate director of EveryLibrary, a nonprofit focused on combating censorship and advocating for library funding. “The library is a place of voluntary inquiry, and so there’s value of having materials on the shelf where kids can pick them up and put them down.”
Schools across the country are increasingly banning books. PEN America reported that over 10,000 books were banned in public schools during the 2023-2024 school year, which was more than double the previous year.
Bromberg argued that limiting the selection of books available to students doesn’t promote literacy.
“Having a robust collection of books on the shelf that reflects the breadth of human thought and experience has a value,” Bromberg said. “There’s research around the fact that when kids are able to choose their own reading materials, that helps engage them and turn them into lifelong readers.”
Supporters of the statewide book ban law have argued it’s meant to protect children from accessing porn.
“These are criminally indecent and pornographic materials,” Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, said during a celebration of the book bans held at the Capitol last month. Ivory was a driving force behind the statewide ban law.
“Public school is a place to instill virtue and teach children self-governance and help them grow,” Ivory said.
Moving forward, districts and charters must report any “objective sensitive material” that they decide to remove to USBE.
If the statewide removal threshold is met, the state school board will notify all districts and charters within 10 school days to remove the title from student access. USBE will also add the title to a public list posted on its website.
USBE members have 30 days from the moment a book’s statewide ban is instituted to potentially overturn it.
To do so, three or more USBE leaders within that time frame must request that the material be placed on a board meeting agenda, so leaders can vote on the matter.
If no hearing is held, the statewide removal stands.
Board members did not exercise this option for the first batch of books removed statewide.
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