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@librarianbyday.bsky.social Sep 21, 2026, 1:27 PM

sent my letter to the IA Dept of Ed this morning regarding SF 496 rulemaking. You can read the full text here.
You have until Sept 22 to send yours #iowa #iowalibraries #iowareads #intellectualfreedom
www.instagram.com/p/DdjMqh8FmN...

My Letter to the IA Dept of Ed on SF 496 Rulemaking

Dear Thomas Mayes, Iowa Department of Education.

I am writing as an Iowa resident about how SF 496 is applied to school libraries. A book is not a passage. It is everything around it, and one of my favorite books, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God shows why.

The novel follows Janie Crawford through three marriages and a lifetime of searching for her own voice. It is best known for the image of Janie beneath a blossoming pear tree, which is a metaphor for a young woman's awakening, not a depiction of a sex act. Its darker material is there for a reason: Janie's grandmother is the product of rape by an enslaver, and that history drives her fear for Janie. Janie herself endures a controlling husband and, later, jealousy and violence. Readers learn how exploitation echoes across generations, and how control gets excused as love. Then they watch Janie name what was done to her and claim her own story.

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