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 school libraries across the district.

“We make no judgment on whether these books have any literary merit or whether some parents do not object to their children being exposed to lewd, vulgar, or sexually graphic content,” Ragsdale said.

The total number of books officially banned district-wide is now at 20.

The pulled books are:

• “It Starts 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 Experience with Sex in an Easy-Access Culture” 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
• “The Casual Vacancy” by J.K. Rowling
• “Push” by Sapphire

District records indicate that some of these titles, though recently acquisitioned, were already removed from some school libraries a year ago.

Read more here: ‘Divisive concepts’ law at work: LGBTQ books pulled from Cobb schools, Shakespeare flagged for review 

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

• “Flamer” by Mike Curato
• “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews
• “Blankets” by Craig Thompson
• “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chobsky
• “Lucky” by Alice Sebold
• “13 Reasons Why” by Josh Asher

“It has been repeatedly suggested that if a book is given any sort of award by any group, we must provide our children with access to that material. Frankly, a number of the books we removed for containing sexually explicit or graphic content were given awards. And generally by organizations promoting a specific agenda,” Ragsdale said in his remarks.

Rebecca Gaunt earned 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 spare time, she loves to read, binge Netflix and travel.