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Reposted by Frank Strong

Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 4h

We @txfreedomread.bsky.social had the opportunity to tell the Texas Senate’s Ed Committee, where book-banning bills SB12 & SB13 originated, what their laws have done to students in the state. Here’s what we told them: franklinstrong.substack.com/p/what-we-to...

franklinstrong.substack.com

What We Told the Senate Education Committee

Our big report on Texas school book bans in 2025-2026 just dropped. You need to read it.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 4h

franklinstrong.substack.com

What We Told the Senate Education Committee

Our big report on Texas school book bans in 2025-2026 just dropped. You need to read it.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 11h

This is definitely on my TBR list.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

From a former student. Never going to stop fighting.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My @txfreedomread.bsky.social colleagues & I spent months on a long research project full of footnotes & appendices. Today we presented it to a committee we expected to be hostile but was mostly disinterested. And we did it all for free. Who says grad school doesn’t prepare you for the real world?

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Reposted by Frank Strong

Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

you don't need to write an actual essay to get a 5 on any ap exam these days

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Texas is going blue. I’ve seen enough.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Christin's wrong about almost everything, but right about this: This committee hearing matters & real Texas parents need to let lawmakers know the effects of SB12 & SB13. @txfreedomread.bsky.social will be there with a TON of data about the damage these laws have done. Bring your stories!

Tweet from book burner Texas Republican official Christin Bentley that reads:

“The Texas Senate Committee on Education will convene on Wednesday, October 7, at 8:00 a.m. to address several interim charges, including monitoring the implementation of legislation passed last session. The hearing specifically includes SB 571, SB 12, and SB 13, all of which contain important protections for Texas children and parental rights.

I expect there will be significant testimony regarding SB 13, which strengthened Texas' mandatory school library standards, established local school library advisory councils, and expanded parental oversight of school library materials.

SB 13 was an important step forward in our efforts to stop the sexualization of children and keep inappropriate materials out of school libraries. But passing legislation is only part of the work. Implementation and enforcement matter.”

Second part of a tweet from book burning GOP official that reads:

“We have already seen inconsistencies in implementation across the state, including districts that appear unwilling to fully comply with the law.

If you have been involved in auditing school libraries, filing local book challenges, serving on a library advisory council, or documenting problems with your district's implementation of SB 13, I strongly encourage you to participate in this hearing and share what you have seen.

You can testify in person or provide written testimony to members of the Senate Education Committee. Public testimony at the hearing will be limited to two minutes per person, and those submitting written testimony at the hearing are instructed to bring 10 copies with their name on each copy.

This is an important opportunity for legislators to hear directly from parents and community members about what is actually happening in Texas school libraries and where implementation of SB 13 may need to be strengthened.

Wednesday, October 7, 2026
8:00 a.m.
Texas Capitol, E1.028
Senate Committee on Education”

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Reposted by Frank Strong

Leila Green Little @ifightforbooks.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Indeed, we need your help! If you’re a Texas librarian who has a bone to pick with the state lege over SB13, let @txfreedomread.bsky.social or me or @freadomfighters.bsky.social know so we can get that message to the legislators! Anonymity is fine.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Texans, we NEED your help. Before the 2025 legislative session, a mob of book banners swarmed the Texas Senate Education committee, telling them HB900 wasn't resulting in enough books being banned, so we needed a new law. That laid the groundwork for SB13. They're going to try it again next week.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I honestly don’t know what to say. This is … wow.

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Reposted by Frank Strong

kelly jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Florida officials demand that public schools and character schools throughout the state begin banning books proactively or face punishment. There's no Miller Test here. The state claims they have no list, but they point to several lists for schools to begin with. bookriot.com/florida-educ...

bookriot.com

"Weed On Purpose, Not Only After a Fight": Florida Official Demands More School Book Bans

Florida's Commissioner of Education is demanding all public and charter schools in the state proactively ban books–or face punishment.

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Reposted by Frank Strong

kelly jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Episode Two of my limited-run podcast Liberating Lit lands tomorrow. Catch up with episode one, featuring @tasslyn.bsky.social, today. Grab it on the podcast website or whever you tune into your pods: www.liberatinglit.com/episodes/epi...

liberatinglit.com

Episode One: Tasslyn Magnusson — Liberating Lit

Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson has been tracking book bans since 2021. But her work is much more than simply counting–it’s helping motivate other people nationwide to get to work protecting the right to read. ...

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Reposted by Frank Strong

TX FReadom Fighters @freadomfighters.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

This is why two of us from @thelibrariansfilm.bsky.social carried books about the Holocaust on the Emmy stage. Book banning has jumped the shark and it is time for us to stop it.

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Reposted by Frank Strong

Texas Freedom to Read Project @txfreedomread.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Texas Senate Bill 13 allows anyone (including Dan Patrick and Bonnie Wallace) to formally challenge books in the school district in which they live. Every district should respond to every request or demand to remove any library book, by following their EFB Local library materials policy.

Still screenshot of Bonnie Wallace and Dan Patrick from August press conference over library books they falsely claim are “illegal”. Dan Patrick is holding the book “Do Animals Fall in Love”

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This is such an important thread! We're seeing (some) districts removing every book from the ridiculous 2200-book list mentioned by Dan Patrick in his "We're coming for the books" press conference. Districts need to know that the law does NOT require that.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

You can support Bo French's opponent, Jon Rosenthal, here: secure.actblue.com/donate/rosen...

secure.actblue.com

Donate to Jon Rosenthal

Show your support with a contribution.

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Reposted by Frank Strong

That Librarian: Amanda Jones @librarianjones.com · 09/09/2026

“Thanks to the Emmy® awards for celebrating and honoring this documentary and librarians across the country who are fighting against censorship on the frontlines of democracy.” For the librarians. #Invictus ilovelibraries.org/article/the-...

ilovelibraries.org

'The Librarians' Documentary Wins an Emmy

Filmmaker Kim Snyder’s documentary about public and school librarians in Texas, Florida, and other states who unite to combat book banning in the United States was awarded a 2026 Emmy® for Exceptional...

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Really appreciate the opportunity my friend Michael Boyle gave me to write about something other than book bans and politics: College football! This was fun. soundofsheersilence.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-...

soundofsheersilence.blogspot.com

The 2026 Northwestern Bonus Essay, Featuring Frank Strong

Northwestern has a bye week this week, after their 34-18 victory over South Dakota State . Instead of an essay, I am going to include an int...

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Reposted by Frank Strong

Leah @leah.myatproto.social · 07/09/2026

This is how Matilda turns into Carrie.

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Martha Hickson @sassylibrarian.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

People call us librarians heroes. But who are our heroes? The students, parents, & community members who stood by our side, spoke up for us & continue the fight today. I wouldn’t have survived without support from my students, family & community. Thank you, all 👏🥰🙌 @thelibrariansfilm.bsky.social

Graphic celebrating the Emmy Award for The Librarians, a film by Kim A. Snyder. Thank you to our inspiring patriots:

Weston Briwn
Adrienne Quinn Martin
Courtney Gore
Reverend Dove
Laney Hawes
Chris Tackett
Kennedy Tackett
Lou Whiting

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Reposted by Frank Strong

Martha Hickson @sassylibrarian.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

“The women in The Librarians were willing to tell those stories publicly. They let people see what was happening inside schools, libraries, board meetings, and communities. They showed what this fight actually looked like for the people living through it … That took an incredible amount of courage.”

aischoollibrarian.substack.com

The Librarians Won an Emmy. And This One Means Something.

For those of us who lived through the attacks on librarians, watching these stories receive national recognition feels deeply personal.

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Reposted by Frank Strong

Texas Freedom to Read Project @txfreedomread.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Pull up a chair! 2 weeks ago TX Lt. Governor Dan Patrick held a “press conference”(campaign stunt) w/TX book banning activist Bonnie Wallace. They shared a list of 2,198 “filthy, dirty, pornographic,” books Dan falsely claimed “are in all of our schools.” and “violate SB 13.” /1

Still shot of serial TX book challenger, Bonnie Wallace, and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick at Patrick’s recent press conference

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Emmy winners! Congratulations to everyone involved!!

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Of course, there’s also Sandra Cisneros. I’ve stood in front of the Texas State Board of Education three times this year to tell them she should be considered a canonical writer in Texas. But the SBOE decided our students are better off reading Margaret Thatcher & Ayn Rand. (You know, “classics”)

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Don’t get me wrong: There are great authors telling those stories, or similar ones, right now. Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Junot Diaz, Cristina Garcia, Elizabeth Acevedo, Sonido Reyes. But what do those authors have in common? All of their books have been banned from Tx schools in recent years.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The 20 copies of the novel mentioned at the start of the Texas Tribune story actually were a gift from the Texas Teen Book Festival. In 2019 our school had the opportunity to take a group of students to meet Sanchez.

Three students read Erika L. Sánchez’s I am not your Perfect Mexican Daughter at the Texas Teen Book Festival in 2019.

A group of students and teachers pose with author Erika L. Sánchez.

Two students pose with author Erika L. Sánchez, holding the book I am not your Perfect Mexican Daughter.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The book has been a perennial favorite in my classroom library. One of my former students even started a podcast with friends she met in a book club reading the IANYPMD. I interviewed her here: franklinstrong.substack.com/p/banned-boo...

franklinstrong.substack.com

Banned Books that Matter: An Interview with Lenny Gómez of Hijas que hablan

On the community-building power of "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter"

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I teach in a school where most of my students come from immigrant families, and it is so hard to get stories that reflect my students’ lives onto school shelves. IANYPMD isn’t just a coming-of-age story; it’s also about specific cultural tensions that mirror many of my students’ lives uncannily.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I’m so grateful to the Texas Tribune and Colleen DeGuzman for their attention to this story. I’m especially pleased she chose to zoom in on one particular book: Erika L. Sanchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, which has been so valuable for my students. www.texastribune.org/2026/09/04/t...

texastribune.org

Texas librarians hesitant to discuss books, order more, they say

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s latest push to restrict what students can access adds to Texas school librarians’ angst, the educators said.

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Reposted by Frank Strong

Leila Green Little @ifightforbooks.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

“This proposal…advances a political agenda unrelated to our educational mission. It implies that understanding race, gender, sexuality, multiculturalism, and contemporary society is somehow less fundamental to education. In what world is that the case?” Thank you Dr. Bright. 💪

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Wendell Berry died. “That is a life I know the country by.”

The Old Elm Tree by the River
Shrugging in the flight of its leaves, it is dying. Death is slowly standing up in its trunk and branches like a camouflaged hunter. In the night I am wakened by one of its branches crashing down, heavy as a wall, and then lie sleepless, the world changed.
That is a life I know the country by.
Mine is a life I know the country by.
Willing to live and die, we stand here, timely and at home, neighborly as two men.
Our place is changing in us as we stand, and we hold up the weight that will bring us down.
In us the land enacts its history.
When we stood it was beneath us, and was the strength by which we held to it and stood, the daylight over it
a mighty blessing we cannot bear for long.

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

"Stuff like this seems and is unserious, and it's also poised to affect a lot of kids." Man, if that doesn't capture the moment I don't know what does.

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Martha Hickson @sassylibrarian.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

We’re back! To celebrate our Emmy nomination, THE LIBRARIANS documentary has returned to YouTube until mid-September. Watch it with friends, and then plan to vote for library-friendly candidates at every level of your ballot in November. The film will release to the major streamers later this fall.

youtu.be

Banned Books and the Librarians Caught in the Political Battle | Full Documentary | Independent Lens

YouTube video by PBS

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TX FReadom Fighters @freadomfighters.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

We are proud to be a part of this day and thankful to the Austin City Council and Austin Public Library, designating Austin as a Book Safe Harbor.

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Martha Hickson @sassylibrarian.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

“Freedom to Read/Anti-Book Ban Laws are a reminder that libraries represent the whole of a community and that library workers are professionals who deserve to be respected as such.”

bookriot.com

Massachusetts Passes Freedom to Read Law

After years of work by the state legislature and literary advocates, Massachusetts became the 13th state to pass a freedom to read law.

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