A national conversation about censorship is under way, triggered by school district bans on assigning certain books or keeping them in school libraries. Officials in Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri and elsewhere have reacted to objections from parents and politically conservative groups that see targeted reading materials as inappropriate because of language, artwork or topics such as racism, gender, sexual identity and the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. Sandy Garber, a school board member in Wentzville, Mo., says she voted with the majority two weeks ago to pull Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" from high school libraries to shield her children from obscenity. The 1970 book tells the story of a young Black girl growing up in the Great Depression and struggling with white standards of beauty. "By all means, go buy the book for your child," Garber tells the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper. "I would not want this book in the school for anyone else to see."

Another recent target is "Maus," a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, which a Tennessee county this month removed from the eighth-grade curriculum because "of its unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and its depiction of violence and suicide." The book recounts cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s parents' experience in Poland. He reacts to the board decision by saying he used "disturbing imagery . . . [because] it's disturbing history." (See video below.)

Other provocative books under review or recently prohibited from classrooms are "Beloved," also by Morrison, and "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. In Polk County, Fla., last week, 16 books were pulled from middle school and high school libraries for "quarantine" during a review after a conservative political group challenged them as containing material that's too explicit. Texas legislators last year passed a law shaping how teachers approach instruction touching on race and gender. In San Antonio last month, a school district withdrew 414 books from its libraries for review.

These developments concern the American Library Association, where one leader says: "In my 20 years with [the group], I can't recall a time when we had multiple challenges coming in on a daily basis." High school librarian Cicely Leiws of Norcross, Ga., writes in an Atlanta newspaper guest column this month: "Do legislators really think banning books will stop our young people who are searching and looking for information? ... As a mother and an educator, I know that the quickest way to get a kid to do something is to tell them they cannot do something."

School board says: "One of the most important roles of an elected board of education is to reflect the values of the community it serves." – McMinn County Board of Education in Tennessee

Journalist tweets: "We too often underestimate children and the power of respecting them enough to let them grapple honestly and openly with the horrors of the world that we inhabit." – Wesley Lowery, CBS News

School librarian says: "Too many people would rather focus their energy on banning library books than pass laws to help stop school shootings.." – Cicely Lewis, Norcross High in Georgia