Bestselling Australian author Mem Fox has become the latest victim of ultra-conservative Florida governor Ron DeSantis, with the writer’s 1988 children’s book Guess What? being removed from shelves in the Jacksonville county of Duval.
The book, about a witch called Daisy O’Grady, appears to have initially fallen foul of Florida’s parental rights in education bill, widely referred to as the “don’t say gay” law, championed by DeSantis, the Republican widely considered to be Donald Trump’s closest rival for the 2024 presidential race.
Guess What? was removed in Duval schools under a section of Florida law that prohibits adults from distributing on school property “any picture, photograph, drawing … of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity or sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, bestiality, or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to minors”.
A spokesperson for Duval County said that under a review process which started in January, it directs classroom teachers to restrict access to books yet to be approved, and where a certified media specialist is unsure or recommends a book be pulled, it is referred to a panel of specialists for a final decision. Duval County said Guess What? was approved by the panel on 3 March.
The book, illustrated by Vivienne Goodman, depicts the O’Grady character taking a bath.
The Guardian sought comment from Fox, the author of Australia’s highest-selling children’s book, Possum Magic.
Her agent said in a statement: “We have nothing to say on this issue. Duval County is a county of 997,000 people in Florida. It is not important.”
According to the freedom of expression in literature organisation PEN America, hundreds of books have been removed from school libraries following introduction of the bill, which was accompanied by advice to Florida school officials to “err on the side of caution”.
The organisation said it had documented 565 books banned in Florida since 2021, and with the introduction of new legislation earlier this year, some Florida schools had been directed to “empty libraries and cover classroom bookshelves”.
Teachers in Duval and Manatee counties were told they had to have each book in their classrooms reviewed before they could go back, PEN America said, with works by Booker prize winners Margaret Atwood and Arundhati Roy and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison among those removed permanently.
Guess What? is no stranger to bans in the US. It is listed on the American Library Association’s register of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-2000 because of its alleged positive representation of the occult, the supernatural and its references to punk rock. The Florida ban appears to be the first time the book has been classified as pornographic.
Earlier this month, the Guardian ran reports of Florida teachers being forced to remove one-third of the books on classroom shelves, including collections of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
• This article was amended on 31 May 2023 to include a response from Duval County which stated that Mem Fox’s book was approved on 3 March. An earlier version referred in the headline and text to the book having been “banned” by Duval; this was changed to “removed” to reflect the restriction placed on books of concern.
