Book Featuring Lynn Nottage and More Banned in Military Schools by Trump Administration

Several books have been banned by The Department of Defense at schools for children of service members, including actor Julianne Moore's Freckleface Strawberry, a book that includes an interview from playwright Lynn Nottage, and more. The books are being banned from the Department of Defense Educational Activity, which serves 67,000 children of U.S. service members around the world, pen.org reports.

Nottage, who is interviewed in the anthology Well-Read Black Girl, responded to the ban in a post on Instagram. 

"Apparently the Trump administration and the military are threatened by Black women sharing their truth," she writes. "I am super proud to be part of this anthology, which is a wonderful collection of diverse, resilient, literary and celebratory Black voices."

Moore also responded, stating, " Freckleface Strawberry is a semi-autobiographical story about a seven year old girl who dislikes her freckles but eventually learns to live with them when she realizes that she is different 'just like everybody else.' It is a book I wrote for my children and for other kids to remind them that we all struggle, but are united by our humanity and our community."

Other books under review include The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, No Truth Without Ruth by Kathleen Krull (a picture book about Ruth Bader Ginsburg), Hillbilly Elegy by Vice President JD Vance, Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt (a book about transgender actor and activist Nicole Maines), as well as a biography of Albert Cashier, a transgender man who served in the Civil War.

This comes as an additional executive order has barred the Department of Defense and its schools from promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, “gender ideology,” and anything that would suggest “that America’s founding documents are racist or sexist."

The department also banned cultural observances, prompting schools to cancel Black History Month events as well as references to Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. 

Read more on pen.org.