Joelle Charbonneau
@joellecharbonneau.bsky.social
1.4K followers 420 following 1.2K posts
NY Times Best selling author, mom & hobbyist chef. Lover of climbing. Fierce defender of the right to read. Determined to fight book bans. My dystopian novels VERIFY & DISCLOSE were supposed to be warnings not suggestions. And I'm a Cubs fan.
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joellecharbonneau.bsky.social
Book banning is about gaining power over what ideas & information are exchanged. Keeping power is easy then because your version of the truth is the only one people know. They forget how to question. The gov't I created in VERIFY & DISCLOSE removed words & books and most people weren't concerned.
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
heykellyjensen.bsky.social
Read that again.

.01% of parents deny their children access to school libraries because it is literally .01% of parents creating the moral panic and spreading lies about books in school libraries.

Yet there are schools COMPLETELY BANNING LIBRARIES FROM THEIR ENTIRE STUDENT BODY.
flfreedomread.bsky.social
Public school parents overwhelmingly trust the curation of library professionals.

When we enroll our children at a school, we assume the school will give them every opportunity to access the same resources available to other students without unnecessary barriers to entry.
We are still working on gathering data from across the state, but the trends that we saw the last three years don’t appear to have changed much regarding public school parents and their desire (or lack thereof) to restrict their children’s library access.

When the district assumes parents will want their children to access the library (most districts do), there’s usually less than 1% of parents choosing to set restrictions. While this data only reflects seven districts, six of seven (yes, we know what we did there) are “red” districts politically and the four with 100% access are very “red.”

Those that know that state well, also know that Sarasota and Hernando are also considered very “red” and they also have a lot of special interest activity and influence in their districts. These districts created a policy where they don’t want to assume to know what parents want, so the default denies students access to resources otherwise made available to the majority of students that have gained parent permission.

Sarasota’s form is part of the annual electronic paperwork that parents must complete, so they were able to retain 92.7% of returned forms. If parents completed the form in the past, the prior selection remains in the system until a parent makes a change. Hernando is a different story, and it’s why they only have 51.56% of forms turned in.

Denying library access until a form is turned in creates an unnecessary barrier to entry for students. 

The truth cannot be denied: public school parents overwhelmingly trust the curation of library professionals. When we enroll our children at a school, we assume the school will give them every opportunity to access the same resources available to other students.
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
flfreedomread.bsky.social
In addition to the roundup below, you can read @douglassoule.bsky.social article on Escambia’s nearly $1M spent arguing that students do not have First Amendment rights in the library.

www.wusf.org/politics-iss...
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
indivisible.org
“King Donald The First. F*ck that.”

Robert De Niro wants to see you in the streets on October 18 to show the world that America has no kings, and power still belongs to the people: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i... #NoKings
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
mikenellis.bsky.social
Being told ICE is being extra aggressive with protesters this morning in Chicago. Haven’t seen any video yet, but there have been some pretty dramatic escalations. If you’re out there protesting or protecting a school, be smart. Keep your head on a swivel.

Spread the word, please.
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
portersqbooks.bsky.social
Good evening #BookSky Well, #BannedBooksWeek may be wrapping up but the fight for the right to read continues. Here's a quick thread of things you can do all year to help...
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
djbyrnes1.bsky.social
One last time, seeing as I deleted my first, accurate post because I was given inaccurate info mistakenly saying that first post was mistaken.

It *does* appear cs tear gas was used here along with smoke, and the cs gas, at least, is definitely covered by judge Ellis' restraining order.
Text of a temporary restraining order, enjoining federal agents from a number of activities, including deploying "CS gas, CN gas, or other chemical irritants" on press, protestors or religious practitioners "who are not posing an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others." Text of a temporary restraining order, enjoining federal agents from a number of activities, including deploying "CS gas, CN gas, or other chemical irritants" on press, protestors or religious practitioners "who are not posing an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others." Text of a temporary restraining order, enjoining federal agents from a number of activities, including deploying "CS gas, CN gas, or other chemical irritants" on press, protestors or religious practitioners "who are not posing an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others."
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
govpritzker.illinois.gov
Congratulations to all the runners today at the Chicago Marathon!

I hope you’re taking a moment after crossing the finish line and enjoying all that the best big city in the nation has to offer.
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
acyn.bsky.social
Baldwin: Our farmers are facing incredible headwinds. A lot of the fertilizer inputs come from Canada. Those have shot up because of tariffs. About a quarter of all farmers use the ACA for their health care coverage. This president is just contributing to the headwinds that our farmers are facing.
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
clairezagorski.bsky.social
A student on TikTok has been documenting her journey with a professor who “wrote” the anatomy textbook and it’s all a bunch of AI hallucinations.

She’s saying that, understandably, the students are doing super poorly!

Behold what we’re teaching the healthcare professionals of tomorrow:
A diagram of the bones and (some) deep muscles of the hand and forearm. AI says that we only have four digits. It’s also identified a tendon as the median nerve, another tendon as the ulnar nerve, among other issues. An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the neck. It hallucinated the “ennocleidomasid” muscle, and the “anterior scalpalin muscle”. An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the lateral thigh. It says that the gluteus Maximus (the big juicy butt muscle) is on the anterior side. It also points to the quadriceps muscle and says “attattment”. It also says that the same structure is the tibia AND the deep fascia of the leg. An AI generated diagram of the bones of the hand and forearm. This time AI says we have 6 digits. It also says that the radius is the ulnar artery. Among other many issues.
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
reverendjesus.com
Blessed are the frogs, for they keep making authoritarians look incredibly stupid
Three persons in inflatable frog costumes. One of them is holding a nicely painted sign with two little cartoon frogs holding hands, below the text "FROGS TOGETHER STRONG"
joellecharbonneau.bsky.social
Congrats to the Mariners. That was a game for the ages. Detroit Tigers were fantastic tonight. Both teams really fought hard.
joellecharbonneau.bsky.social
I was on the edge of my seat and they aren't the team I'm invested in. (The Cubs will make me anxious tomorrow!)
joellecharbonneau.bsky.social
I hate that either team has to lose this game. It's been such an intense battle.
joellecharbonneau.bsky.social
This feels like the baseball version of survivor!
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
heartlandsignal.bsky.social
BREAKING: Masked Border Patrol agents aggressively arrested WGN video producer Debbie Brockman in Lincoln Square Friday morning, supposedly for "obstructing justice." (Video via Josh Thomas on Facebook)

Follow @heartlandsignal for more.
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
angrystaffer.bsky.social
“The Founders would never believe that it would ever come to pass that one state militia could be sent to another state for the purposes of political retribution”

THAT PART!

Thank you, Judge Perry.
Reposted by Joelle Charbonneau
penamerica.bsky.social
Book censorship in schools has reached a new apex, becoming a routine and expected part of school operations, particularly in states like Texas, which recorded 1,781 total bans in the 2024-25 school year.

Read more at: pen.org/report/the-n... #bannedbooksweek @txfreedomread.bsky.social
Promotional poster for Banned Books Week 2025, featuring a map of Texas filled with book covers, titled 'State of School Book Bans - Texas '25'. Includes logos for PEN America and Texas Freedom to Read. Graphic showing book bans in the 2024-2025 school year, with 26% of U.S. bans occurring in Texas school districts. Includes an image of stacked books with various titles, some showing signs of wear. Logo of PEN America displayed in the top right corner. An informational graphic about Texas House Bill 900, detailing its introduction, focus on restrictive content around sex-related standards in schools, and the vague definition of "sexually-explicit" leading to many books being removed from school libraries. The background features an image of the Texas State Capitol building. Logos for PEN America and Texas Freedom to Read are present in the upper right corner. Infographic titled 'Most banned books in Texas by district' listing various books including 'Homegoing' by Yaa Gyasi, 'More Happy Than Not' by Adam Silvera, 'Nineteen Minutes' by Jodi Picoult, 'Sold' by Patricia McCormick, 'The Diary of Erin McVicker' by Erin McVicker, and 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess. Each book cover is displayed with a note that these are banned in 5 districts. Logo of PEN America and Texas Freedom to Read included at the top.
joellecharbonneau.bsky.social
I've been doing a video series on the history of book banning because too many people don't seem to understand the urgency of the issue. This week's: youtu.be/u3XUZU77XII?...
BANNED! CRT: Completely Ridiculous Theater
YouTube video by Joelle Charbonneau
youtu.be