An Asheville-based book store recently announced it received thousands of children’s books from the Duval County Public School system in Florida after they were banned from school libraries. Firestorm Books, a queer-and trans-owned bookstore, will be returning those books into the hands of children across Florida starting mid-January.
“When we were told that these books were at risk of being destroyed, we knew we had to act,” said Firestorm Books co-owner Esmé Joy.
The store will launch the “Banned Books Back!” campaign, with a goal of shipping books removed from Duval County schools directly to kids in states where book bans have been put in place. Firestorm Books plans to expand this initiative, but for now, it will start sending the books back to kids in Florida.
According to a press release, the organization also plans to distribute thousands of books in partnership with Floridian grassroots organizers, educators and librarians who can then distribute the books to kids and families Firestorm wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise.
Families, kids and allies in Florida can go onto the Firestorm Books website to request free books. Applicants can specify what kind of books they’d like to receive in their package, ranging from picture books for ages four to eight or chapter books for ages eight to 12. The press release also confirms requests will be fulfilled as funding becomes available.
“We’re expecting to spend around $17,500 on postage alone,” said Firestorm co-owner Glenda Ro. So far, To date, the bookstore has raised enough money to fulfill the first 700 requests.
The books that the store received from Duval County totalled over 22,000, with over half of those titles being LGBTQ+ related. Some of these books included the New York Times bestseller and Newbery Honor Book “Other Words for Home” by Jasmine Warga, and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book “Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968” by Alice Faye Duncan and R. Gregory Christie, among others.
“We’re working to return these books as an act of solidarity with the kids from whom they were taken,” explained Beck Nippes, a Firestorm co-owner. “We hope the campaign can connect with and contribute to a broader antifascist struggle, because book bans aren’t happening in isolation. They’re connected to attacks on reproductive and gender-affirming health care in a climate of escalating violence against queer and trans folks, especially youth.”