ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A number of banned books from schools in other states are getting a second chance because of a bookshop in the mountains of North Carolina.

What You Need To Know

  • Firestorm, a bookstore in Asheville, accepted 22,500 books pulled from schools in Duval County, Florida
  • The collective is hosting a series of book-packaging events, to send every book back to the county they came from
  • This is the first phase of the campaign, and the bookshop plans to open it up to additional states in the future

Book challenges and bannings have been a major topic of discussion in school districts across the country with some parents and community members calling into question books that mention sexuality and racial issues. 

“I'm snagging two paperbacks and three hardcover books of my choosing,” Firestorm Co-Owner Esmé Joy said as they searched through boxes of books. “Looking through these books and seeing titles that sort of represent communities that I'm a part of, I'm a queer person seeing books that are celebrating queer families existing, and knowing that is very explicitly being portrayed as child unfriendly.”

Around 22,500 children’s books are in the process of being repackaged, after arriving from Duval County, Florida in 2022.

“Hearing that there were thousands of books that otherwise wouldn't have a place to go, we were like, we're going to have to figure out what to do with this,” Joy said. “It quickly became clear to us that the thing that would feel best to do would be to send them back to the exact kids, or at least in the area from which they were taken.” 

The books won’t be staying in Asheville much longer, as the bookshop began a series of events inviting the community to join them in building the packages. 

“They had reached out to some other bookstores that didn't have capacity to take the books, and we were kind of at the end of the line as far as if you can't take them, we don't have anywhere to put them, so they'd be destroyed,” Joy said. 

Community support has held a large role in making it possible to send these books to Florida free of charge.

“I think that's what feels so powerful about this is, OK, you're telling these kids that they can't read about queer kids in school,” Joy said. “Fine. We will send books about queer kids or civil rights history or all of these important topics that people should be able to learn about directly to their homes.”

Each package contains a note with a handwritten name from the individual it was packaged by.

“We want to reinforce this connection that there's a real person in another state who's sending this book out to you,” Joy said. “So, I'm going to write my name here so they know who packed this book!”

They want to send a message to the community that there are creative ways to spread your voice.

“I think it feels incredibly empowering to me, to know that you can just take action yourself and not wait for the book bans to be challenged in the legislative sphere,” Joy said. 

This is the first phase of the campaign, and the bookshop plans to open it up to additional states in the future.