By Rebecca Gaunt

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale informed the Cobb County Board of Education at Thursday’s work session that 13 more books have been removed from the district’s school libraries.

“We make no judgment as to whether these books have any literary merit or whether some parents may not mind exposing their children to offensive, vulgar or sexually explicit content,” Ragsdale said.

The total number of books officially banned in the entire district is now 20.

The books drawn are:

• “It Begins With Us” and “The Infinite Moment of Us” by Colleen Hoover
• “Crank”, “Tricks” and “Identical” by Ellen Hopkins
• City of Thieves by David Benioff
• “Laid: Young People’s Experiences of Sex in a Culture of Easy Access” by Shannon T. Boodram
• “Monday’s Not Coming” by Tiffany Jackson
• “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson
• “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur
• “Juliet Takes a Breath” by Gabby Rivera
• “A Sudden Death” by JK Rowling
• “Push” by Sapphire

District records show that some of these titles, although recently acquired, were removed from some school libraries a year ago.

Read more here: Law on ‘divisive concepts’ in practice: LGBTQ books removed from Cobb schools, Shakespeare marked for review

The district previously removed another book by Colleen Hoover: “It Ends With Us.” The other six are:

• “Flamer” by Mike Curato
• “Me and Earl and the Girl” by Jesse Andrews
• “Blankets” by Craig Thompson
• “Maybe Tomorrow” by Stephen Chobsky
• “Lucky” by Alice Sebold
• “Dead Girls Don’t Lie” by Josh Asher

“It has been suggested repeatedly that if a book wins an award from any group, we need to give our children access to that material. Frankly, some of the books we have removed from our shelves for sexually explicit or graphic content have won awards, generally from organizations that have a particular agenda,” Ragsdale said in his remarks.

Rebecca Gaunt holds a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in education from Oglethorpe University. After teaching elementary school for several years, she returned to writing. She lives in Marietta with her husband, son, two cats, and a dog. In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching Netflix, and traveling.