By: Sebastian Baez
The Chamblin Bookmine has featured a banned books display since 2022, showcasing literature that Duval County did not approve for educational use in varying grades across k-12. Today, the display regularly rotates books that have been placed on the ban list.
Some of these books include A Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin and Looking for Alaska by John Green.
“Our goal is to A: educate the community as much as we can, but B: also get those books into people’s hands as much as we can,” said Abby Bell, manager at Chamblin. “It’s just education. There’s a lot of people who will walk by the display and they’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I had no idea that book was banned!’ or ‘Why was that book banned?’ and so they’ll be more likely to pick it up.”
Chamblin employees say that discovering books like “Puss n’ Boots” or “How to Eat Fried Worms” is both disheartening and difficult, as the Duval County review board is constantly adding books to the challenged or banned list.
This leads to not only contention with authors, but teachers as well. Educators often struggle with ensuring that the books in their classrooms are not only beneficial and entertaining for the students, but compliant with local laws.
“They try to say that the list is easy to find, and it’s accessible for everyone to look it up and know what books are banned, but it’s actually kind of difficult to keep track of,” said Carly Biesiada, general manager of Chamblin.
“Especially when they’re doing books weekly, it seems like. And I think with the customer base, the number one issue we run into is people being like ‘books aren’t banned!’ or ‘it’s fake!’”
Biesiada says that since the list changes so often, it’s become common practice for employees to check every one to two days.
At the banned book display, authors like Stephen King and John Green sit. Many of the books include topics like race, gender and fantasy, among others. The topic of discussing such themes in classrooms remains controversial even today.
Keeping these banned books affordable and accessible for children remains a top priority for Chamblin, providing an easy way for young readers to access books for a reasonable price. Bell said that the ones who come in the most are teens and children.
Even today, books are being challenged in Duval, with Chamblin standing with authors to ensure everyone’s story can be told.