Utah Schools Say Goodbye to Popular Author Books and Ban 13 Titles.

Utah recently took a crucial step., ordering the removal of 13 books from school libraries and classrooms. Among the banned titles are works by popular authors like Margaret Atwood and Judy Blume. The state’s new law, effective since July 1, is driving this change. Its objective is to prevent children from information rated harmful or dangerous.

According to the new rule, any book that talks about sex or masturbation is now considered off-limits. If a book gets banned for this reason, the school has to report it to the state board of education. And if the same book is banned by three school districts or by two districts and five charter schools, it has to be pulled from all schools in Utah.

The Utah State Board of Education mentioned that they were required to make this list by law and are committed to sticking to the new regulations.

PEN America, a group that defends free speech, pointed out that this is the first time a state has imposed a blanket ban on specific books in schools. Jonathan Friedman from PEN America stressed the seriousness of the situation, saying, “This is essentially the government saying that Margaret Atwood’s ‘Oryx and Crake’ can’t be in public school libraries.”

This law is just one of several new regulations about book access that have come up this summer. Some people think these rules are important to shield kids from dealing with these sensitive topics on their own in libraries or classrooms.

The banned list includes books like Sarah J. Maas’s works, Judy Blume’s “Forever,” Craig Thompson’s “Blankets,” Ellen Hopkins’s “Tilt,” and “A Court of Thorns and Roses” and “A Court of Mist and Fury,” which deal with complex themes like romantic relationships and HIV.