Across the United States, children’s books that celebrate diversity and inclusion are being pulled from classrooms, libraries, and bookshelves. Books with Black and brown characters. Books that feature queer kids and families. Books that show the beauty of difference and the power of belonging. These stories are being challenged and silenced.

Some states have been leading this surge. For example, during the 2024 - 2025 school year, the state of Florida recorded around 2,300 book bans and Texas had about 1,700 book bans. During the 2023 - 2024 school year, there were over 10,000 instances of book bans in U.S public schools.

I've spent the past decade advocating for diverse and inclusive children’s books, it breaks my heart to see how far we’ve come only to be pushed backward. Authors who once inspired kids at school visits are being turned away. Independent bookstores and libraries are facing pressure not to carry inclusive titles. And the ones most impacted? The children. Black, brown, and queer kids are watching their stories vanish learning that who they are is somehow “too much.”

As a fellow author of children's books, the issue of book bans hits close to home. I know authors whose books have been banned or who've been turned away from schools and bookstores that once welcomed them. It's devastating to see stories meant to build empathy and connection treated as threats.

What’s at stake is bigger than a few banned books, it’s the right to read freely and to be represented. If we allow this to continue, we risk raising a generation that learns to fear difference instead of celebrating it. Stories teach empathy. They help kids see themselves, understand others, and imagine a better world. Every child deserves that freedom.

Now is the time to act. Stand with us against censorship. Sign this petition to protect diverse and inclusive children’s books and to defend every child’s right to see themselves in the stories they read. Stand with me to demand that schools, libraries and lawmakers defend the freedom to read. Because when we silence stories, we silence futures.