Literacy Matters Vol. 25 Winter 2025

out against the removal of books. In a news interview in March 2024, former DAYLO leader and Beaufort County student Millie Bennett reflected on the review process, saying“I think it’s a really good model but I’m not sure how well it will be followed outside of Beaufort County” (WHHI News, 2024). Bennett noted that she believed the community in Beaufort is particularly interested in supporting literacy, and she was proud of the community for coming together to read and review each book. Additional DAYLO chapters have since been started across South Carolina by students who are similarly interested in literacy-related community service and advocacy (The Island News, 2024). Teacher Responses The teacher response is often one focused on mitigating harm and preserving the ability to do their jobs within the framework of the new normal. As book challenges and bans have increased in South Carolina over the past several years, teachers find themselves with limited capacity to push back against these challenges, bans, and regulations without fear of retaliation (Bowers, 2023). Teachers often state time and fear of losing one’s position as two reasons they remain silent. Most teachers simply do not have the resources to resist, at least on a large scale. Teachers have always operated in a system that dismisses their concerns. Asking questions can be dangerous, and teachers can become targets. MaryWood, Chapin High School English teacher, was targeted in 2023 after assigning Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World andMe to her AP class. Citing a budget stipulation connected to teaching race and history, Wood was told to stop teaching the text (Marchant, 2023). Wood vocalized her concerns against the mandate by interviewing on The Mehdi Hasan Show and attending school board meetings; however, she noted in an interview with the ACLU that teachers are afraid to speak up, and her story making national news allowed her to publicly fight back (Bowers, 2023). Conclusion Material reviews are ubiquitous in education, but recent movements to restrict access to texts and the ensuing codification of book review processes were interesting for all of us as authors. Additionally, while our examples are all frommiddle and secondary texts, elementary and early childhood education are not immune to the movement to restrict access to texts. As one example, Greenville County Schools recently paused elementary and middle school book fairs entirely because of the lack of clarity around how texts can be shared with young people (Moss, 2024). Our hope with this paper is to move beyond the fear-based rhetoric around curricular challenges and discover what educators can learn fromwhat happens when schools and communities respond. One important lesson from the example of Beaufort County is the power of consistent follow-through by community members when asked to be a part of review committees. We know these processes take a lot of time and energy, but one of the strengths of the Beaufort County book review process was the active involvement of diverse committee members, particularly at the beginning of the process. Educators especially are in a position to begin to close the perceived gap between schools and their

communities with consistent involvement and advocacy, given they are community members themselves and can speak to the needs of students and the communities in which they live and work. Another lesson we learned from the book challenge process in Beaufort County was the importance of staying knowledgeable about what is happening in your school and community. Listening to and/or attending district board meetings is one way to follow policy decisions, including the intricacies of decision-making in your district. Teachers can also follow groups that are a part of advocacy in South Carolina and other states, which give insight into how other communities are handling challenges and the effects of different policies. Groups like PEN America, Book Riot, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the American Library Association have social media and newsletters you can follow for book challenge news as well as providing resources like book rationales to fight challenges. This is a difficult time for education as a whole and teachers and librarians individually. We bring our best efforts into the classroom when we choose curriculum, when we decide what books might be most meaningful to our students and our communities across pre-K- 12 contexts. However, we face not only individual parents operating from contagious fear but also organized lobbying machines interested in the consolidation of power. We only get through this as a community. Reach out to the parents at your school and find advocates, find the people who can fight in ways you cannot fight as a professional educator, and tell your stories.

Literacy Matters Literature Matters

Literature References Andrews, J. (2012). Me and Earl and the dying girl . FBAPowersetup.

Andrews, J. (2017). The haters . Amulet Paperbacks.

Atwood, M. (1985). The handmaid’s tale . Vintage.

Chbosky, S. (2012). The perks of being a wallflower . MTV Books.

Gottfred, B. T. (2016). Forever for a year . Square Fish.

Green, J. (2006). Looking for Alaska . Penguin Books.

Hoover, C. (2016). It ends with us . Atria Books.

McCormick, P. (2006). Sold . Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Picoult, J. (2008). Nineteen minutes . Atria/Emily Bestler Books.

Reed, A. (2010). Beautiful . Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Reynolds, J., & Kendi, I. X. (2020). Stamped: Racism, antiracism, and you . Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

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