Literacy Matters Vol. 25 Winter 2025

“appeals to standards of analyzing characters, settings, events, and ideas as well as craft and structure in finding meaning in text and author’s use of events” (Beaufort County School District, 2022a, p. 22). The committee was given a list of ELA standards and highlighted the standards that the book met, all indicating that there were many standards that the text lent itself to teaching. In regards to quality, all of the committee members indicated that The Handmaid’s Tale was high quality and of educational value. To justify their rating of the book as appropriate for grades 9-12, one member wrote “when referencing sex, not specific” and “some use of vulgarity but the theme of the text refers to why it is put to the text” (Beaufort County School District, 2022a, p. 17). Another committee member wrote “as a whole, the book is TOTALLY appropriate for a high school student. Middle school students would not understand the nuances of the writing and may be too literal. It is also a mature subject matter. This book is terrifying in many ways and shows the slippery slope of mixing religion and government. It is obviously science fiction but the lessons are valuable” (Beaufort County School District, 2022a, p. 20). Overall, the committee agreed that the book met the district’s standards for “appropriate” content, particularly for high school students. Ultimately, four committee members voted to return the book to circulation with no restrictions and two committee members voted to return the book to 9-12 schools only, leading the book to be returned to circulation with no restrictions (Beaufort County School District, 2022a). The decision was appealed by two community members and the school board voted to uphold the book committee’s decision (Beaufort County School District, n.d.), ending the book review process for The Handmaid’s Tale . With no restrictions on the use of the book across grade levels, teachers and librarians have the ability to use their professional judgment to determine whether to include the book in their contexts. ReturnedWith Restrictions Book review committees could also decide to return books to circulation with grade-level restrictions. For the most part, these restrictions aligned with the locations of the books prior to the challenges. For example, the book Sold by Patricia McCormick was available in middle and high schools in the county before the book review, and the review committee’s decision was to return the book only to grades 6-12 (Bruder-Brasseur, 2023), aligning with decisions previously made by school librarians and other faculty. This was not the case for all of the book decisions, as some were given grade-level restrictions that removed them from younger grade levels where they were already present. An example was Looking for Alaska by John Green, which was available in some middle schools before the challenge and then restricted to grades 9-12 by the committee (Bruder-Brasseur, 2023). A specific example of a book that was returned with restrictions was The Perks of Being aWallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Perks was available in some 6-8 schools and 9-12 schools in Beaufort County before it was challenged due to concerns about sexual material (Bruder-Brasseur, 2023). The Perks of Being aWallflower , marketed as Young Adult and taught in some high schools, is an epistolary coming-of-age novel

The new review process ratified by the Beaufort County school board in April 2023 established official channels for submitting concerns about instructional materials and a subsequent review process consisting of seven-member committees representing diverse stakeholders who read the materials and provided comments about the merits based on the county’s mission (Beaufort County Board of Education, 2023). The committees include:

1. At least one teacher with expertise in the content area and grade level; 2. At least one school librarian; 3. At least one school administrator; 4. At least one parent representing a school family other than the complainant; 5. At least one community member; 6. At least one district-level director or coordinator with expertise in the content area; and

7. At least one member of a School Improvement Council within the district/school (Beaufort County Board of Education, 2023).

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All committee members were volunteers and chosen randomly for specific book reviews. Committee members were tasked with picking up review packets and book copies, reading the book and completing the review packet, then reporting for a committee meeting to register final votes. Review committee members filled out a packet with a rubric for each book and submitted one of three decisions: (1) return the material with no grade-level restrictions, (2) return the material only to specific grade levels, or (3) remove the material entirely. Over the course of one and a half years, all 97 books were reviewed by committees through the full review process, including appeals to the school board. As time passed, fewer review committee volunteers reported when they were chosen to participate and rather than attempt to fill every position, the review process went forward with as few as three review committee members voting (Dimitrov, 2023b). In the following sections, we share one example of each possible book decision made by review committees to illustrate the book review process and reasoning provided by committee members about their decisions. ReturnedWith No Restrictions An example of a book that was voted to be returned to circulation with no restrictions was The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Originally, The Handmaid’s Tale was available at 9-12 schools in the county (Bruder-Brasseur, 2023) and was challenged for containing sexual material. The Handmaid’s Tale, marketed as adult fiction but taught in some high schools, is a dystopian feminist novel set in a fictitious totalitarian America ruled by the patriarchy. Fueled by religious conservatism, oppressed women forced to become handmaids to rich men and their infertile wives find their independence through subversive collaboration. The Handmaid’s Tale is an example of a text that is often housed in school libraries, classroom libraries, and used as curricular materials. When explaining their ratings of the quality of the book, one committee member wrote “I found the book readable, but challenging in parts. Some lines so profound, I had to reread them…I was totally engaged. My thoughts questioned, prodded” (Beaufort County School District, 2022a, p. 19). Another wrote

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