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Frank Strong

@frankstrong.bsky.social

Teacher. Publisher of the Book-Loving Texan’s Guides to School Board Elections. Co-founder of Texas Freedom to Read Project.

888 Posts7221 Follower610 Folgt
Jason Day@dreson00.bsky.social · last wk.

The Scarlet Letter, A Farewell to Arms, A Separate Peace...all required reading in my TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM in the 90s. I could live another 500 years and I would still fail to be bewildered by how it has come to this.

Frank Strong@frankstrong.bsky.social · 2w ago

While volunteers helped @txfreedomread.bsky.social track book removals from Tx schools after SB12 & SB13 were passed last year, I made a spreadsheet of the classic & acclaimed books that were banned from individual districts in 2025-2026. You won't believe it. open.substack.com/pub/franklin...

Samantha Harris@labellaharris.bsky.social · last wk.

Trevor Noah's book, Born A Crime, is on here from New Braunfels. Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park is on here from Brazosport. Pilot Point pulled The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This spreadsheet is insane.

Frank Strong@frankstrong.bsky.social · 2w ago

While volunteers helped @txfreedomread.bsky.social track book removals from Tx schools after SB12 & SB13 were passed last year, I made a spreadsheet of the classic & acclaimed books that were banned from individual districts in 2025-2026. You won't believe it. open.substack.com/pub/franklin...

Frank Strong@frankstrong.bsky.social · 2w ago

While volunteers helped @txfreedomread.bsky.social track book removals from Tx schools after SB12 & SB13 were passed last year, I made a spreadsheet of the classic & acclaimed books that were banned from individual districts in 2025-2026. You won't believe it. open.substack.com/pub/franklin...

More Than 100 Classic and Acclaimed Works of Literature Removed from Texas Schools Last Year

Was your favorite book banned from a Texas school district in 2025-2026?

open.substack.com

Frank Strong@frankstrong.bsky.social · 2w ago

While volunteers helped @txfreedomread.bsky.social track book removals from Tx schools after SB12 & SB13 were passed last year, I made a spreadsheet of the classic & acclaimed books that were banned from individual districts in 2025-2026. You won't believe it. open.substack.com/pub/franklin...

More Than 100 Classic and Acclaimed Works of Literature Removed from Texas Schools Last Year

Was your favorite book banned from a Texas school district in 2025-2026?

open.substack.com

kelly jensen@heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 2w ago

As Goes Texas: The Roadmap for Dismantling Public Education for All. Texas's Bible-infused required reading lists for public school students are just the start. Expect other states to follow, as this is coming from the federal government. buttondown.com/wellsourced/...

As Goes Texas: The Roadmap for Dismantling Public Education for All

Texas's Bible-infused required reading lists for public school students are just the start. Expect other states to follow.

buttondown.com

TX FReadom Fighters@freadomfighters.bsky.social · 2w ago

"Our reading curriculum specialist told me and the other middle school librarian that we needed to create a “Classics/AP literature” section in our libraries because our district wasn’t producing any National Merit Scholars, and it’s because they weren’t reading critically. So we did...." 1/2

Frank Strong@frankstrong.bsky.social · 2w ago

You won't want to miss my interview with librarian Amanda Hunt (@thenextgenlib.bsky.social), formerly of New Braunfels ISD, home to one of the biggest acts of censorship we've seen at @txfreedomread.bsky.social. Amanda had a lot to say! franklinstrong.substack.com/p/an-intervi...

Frank Strong@frankstrong.bsky.social · 2w ago

You won't want to miss my interview with librarian Amanda Hunt (@thenextgenlib.bsky.social), formerly of New Braunfels ISD, home to one of the biggest acts of censorship we've seen at @txfreedomread.bsky.social. Amanda had a lot to say! franklinstrong.substack.com/p/an-intervi...

An Interview with Librarian Amanda Hunt, Part 1: "This Has Been the Hardest Year of My Life."

On social media harassment, library shutdowns, and book censorship in New Braunfels ISD.

franklinstrong.substack.com

Florida Freedom to Read Project@flfreedomread.bsky.social · 3w ago

After removing hundreds of books, a Florida school district is debating the purpose of high school libraries. School officials called it modernization. Critics see it as the next phase of the book debate targeting fiction books. www.wusf.org/politics-iss...

What comes after book bans? Some Florida school officials are questioning traditional libraries

After removing hundreds of books, a Florida school district is debating the purpose of high school libraries. School officials called it modernization. Critics see it as the next phase of the book deb...

wusf.org

kelly jensen@heykellyjensen.bsky.social · last mo.

Over the last three weeks at Book Riot, I've put together what I think is one of the most important series of posts for those working in and using public libraries (& those who love them, period). It's an exploration of youth privacy and the policies regarding youth card registration & access.

Frank Strong@frankstrong.bsky.social · last mo.

In the SBOE meeting room, Thomas Jefferson was an abolitionist. Ayn Rand essays are classical literature. Forcing students to read Bible passages is religious freedom, and the separation of church and state is a long-exploded myth, like the flat earth… franklinstrong.substack.com/p/can-the-te...

Can the Testifiers Please Take This Outside?

A crazy week at the State Board of Education leads to the adoption of a scaled down, but still bad, required statewide reading list.

franklinstrong.substack.com

Frank Strong@frankstrong.bsky.social · last mo.

Without minimizing the awful reading list the Tx SBOE passed this week, I do want to celebrate this one Eater egg: this letter by Kurt Vonnegut is now required reading for all 11th graders. At least Texas kids will learn about the damage book banners friends have caused this state.

I Am Very Real By Kurt Vonnegut Dear Mr. McCarthy: I am writing to you in your capacity as chairman of the Drake School Board. I am among those American writers whose books have been destroyed in the now famous furnace of your school. Certain members of your community have suggested that my work is evil. This is extraordinarily insulting to me. The news from Drake indicates to me that books and writers are very unreal to you people. I am writing this letter to let you know how real 1 am. "Burning Books Page?" by Jason Verwey is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. I want you to know, too, that my publisher and I have done absolutely nothing to exploit the disgusting news from Drake. We are not clapping each other on the back, crowing about all the books we will sell because of the news. We have declined to go on television, have written no fiery letters to editorial pages, have granted no lengthy interviews. We are angered and sickened and saddened. And no copies of this letter have been sent to anybody else. You now hold the only copy in your hands. It is a strictly private letter from me to the people of Drake, who have done so much to damage my reputation in the eyes of their children and then in the eyes of the world. Do you have the courage and ordinary decency to show this letter to the people, or will it, too, be consigned' to the fires of your furnace? I gather from what I read in the papers and hear on television that you imagine me, and some other writers, too, as being sort of rat-like people who enjoy making money from poisoning the minds of young people. I am in fact a large, strong person, fifty-one years old, who did a lot of farm work as a boy, who is good with tools. I have raised six children, three my own and three adopted. They have all turned out well. Two of them are farmers. I am a combat infantry veteran from World War II, and hold a Purple Heart. I have earned whatever I own by hard work. I have never been arrested or sued for anything. If you were to bother to read my books, to behave as educated persons would, you would learn that they are not sexy, and do not argue in favor of wildness of any kind. They beg that people be kinder and more responsible than they often are. It is true that some of the characters speak coarsely? That is because people speak coarsely in real life. Especially soldiers and hardworking men speak coarsely, and even our most sheltered children know that. And we all know, too, that those words really don't damage children much. They didn't damage us when we were young. It was evil deeds and lying that hurt us. After I have said all this, 1 am sure you are still ready to respond, in effect, "Yes, yes - but it still remains our right and our responsibility to decide what books our children are going to be made to read in our community." This is surely so. But it is also true that if you exercise that right and fulfill that responsibility in an ignorant, harsh, un-American manner, then people are entitled to call you bad citizens and fools. Even your own children are entitled to call you that. I read in the newspaper that your community is mystified by the outcry from all over the country about what you have done. Well, you have discovered that Drake is a part of American civilization, and your fellow Americans can't stand it that you have behaved in such an uncivilized way. Perhaps you will learn from this that books are sacred to free men for very good reasons, and that wars have been fought against nations which hate books and burn them. If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own. If you and your board are now determined to show that you in fact have wisdom and maturity when you exercise your powers over the education of your young, then you should acknowledge that it was a rotten lesson you taught young people in a free society when you denounced and then burned books -books you hadn't even read. You should …
Frank Strong@frankstrong.bsky.social · last mo.

Without minimizing the awful reading list the Tx SBOE passed this week, I do want to celebrate this one Eater egg: this letter by Kurt Vonnegut is now required reading for all 11th graders. At least Texas kids will learn about the damage book banners friends have caused this state.

I Am Very Real By Kurt Vonnegut Dear Mr. McCarthy: I am writing to you in your capacity as chairman of the Drake School Board. I am among those American writers whose books have been destroyed in the now famous furnace of your school. Certain members of your community have suggested that my work is evil. This is extraordinarily insulting to me. The news from Drake indicates to me that books and writers are very unreal to you people. I am writing this letter to let you know how real 1 am. "Burning Books Page?" by Jason Verwey is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. I want you to know, too, that my publisher and I have done absolutely nothing to exploit the disgusting news from Drake. We are not clapping each other on the back, crowing about all the books we will sell because of the news. We have declined to go on television, have written no fiery letters to editorial pages, have granted no lengthy interviews. We are angered and sickened and saddened. And no copies of this letter have been sent to anybody else. You now hold the only copy in your hands. It is a strictly private letter from me to the people of Drake, who have done so much to damage my reputation in the eyes of their children and then in the eyes of the world. Do you have the courage and ordinary decency to show this letter to the people, or will it, too, be consigned' to the fires of your furnace? I gather from what I read in the papers and hear on television that you imagine me, and some other writers, too, as being sort of rat-like people who enjoy making money from poisoning the minds of young people. I am in fact a large, strong person, fifty-one years old, who did a lot of farm work as a boy, who is good with tools. I have raised six children, three my own and three adopted. They have all turned out well. Two of them are farmers. I am a combat infantry veteran from World War II, and hold a Purple Heart. I have earned whatever I own by hard work. I have never been arrested or sued for anything. If you were to bother to read my books, to behave as educated persons would, you would learn that they are not sexy, and do not argue in favor of wildness of any kind. They beg that people be kinder and more responsible than they often are. It is true that some of the characters speak coarsely? That is because people speak coarsely in real life. Especially soldiers and hardworking men speak coarsely, and even our most sheltered children know that. And we all know, too, that those words really don't damage children much. They didn't damage us when we were young. It was evil deeds and lying that hurt us. After I have said all this, 1 am sure you are still ready to respond, in effect, "Yes, yes - but it still remains our right and our responsibility to decide what books our children are going to be made to read in our community." This is surely so. But it is also true that if you exercise that right and fulfill that responsibility in an ignorant, harsh, un-American manner, then people are entitled to call you bad citizens and fools. Even your own children are entitled to call you that. I read in the newspaper that your community is mystified by the outcry from all over the country about what you have done. Well, you have discovered that Drake is a part of American civilization, and your fellow Americans can't stand it that you have behaved in such an uncivilized way. Perhaps you will learn from this that books are sacred to free men for very good reasons, and that wars have been fought against nations which hate books and burn them. If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own. If you and your board are now determined to show that you in fact have wisdom and maturity when you exercise your powers over the education of your young, then you should acknowledge that it was a rotten lesson you taught young people in a free society when you denounced and then burned books -books you hadn't even read. You should …