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On September 27, the ACLU of Texas released Free People Read Freely, its annual report on banned and challenged books in Texas public schools. This was the ACLU of Texas' eighth consecutive annual report on censorship in Texas public schools. Again this year, the Texas Library Association joined the ACLU in sponsoring the report, which was based on information furnished by Texas' nearly 1260 Independent School districts (ISDs) and charter schools.
According to the report, in 2003-2004, 88 independent school districts (including the Texas Youth Commission) and charter schools banned or faced challenges to 151 different books and one video used in their libraries and/or curricula. This was slightly more than 2002-2003's statistics: 134 challenges reported in 71 school districts.
No book stood out as the "most-challenged." In recent years, J.K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series has surpassed other books in generating challenges and bans. In the 2001-2002 school year, Harry Potter books were the most often challenged books, with seventy-one challenges reported by twenty-one different districts; in most cases, the challenges were made to "all Harry Potter books." Last year, four ISDs faced challenges to Harry Potter books. Once again, four ISDs faced Potter challenges this year.
However, 2003-2004...