Heidi Stevens: How an author found her children's book on a banned books list, and what it tells us about this moment

Chicago-based writer Veronica Arreola got a text in late May from a friend. It was a screenshot of her 2023 children's book, "J is for Justice: An Activism Alphabet" and a question: "Is this you?"

Her book was featured in People magazine. (Yay!)

Under the headline "Nonfiction book bans are on the rise, including these 29 banned books on art, insects, Amelia Earhart and more." (Not yay.)

"I was like, ‘Yes that's me,'" Arreola said. "‘But I don't think my book is banned?'"

She did a little internet sleuthing and, lo and behold, there's her book on PEN America's list of 3,743 unique titles removed from school libraries and classrooms between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025.

(I always wondered how banned authors find out they're banned. People magazine, I have to admit, never occurred to me.)

PEN reports a doubling of bans on nonfiction titles during that time period, with subjects ranging from history and health to general knowledge, including biographies and memoirs.

"Amelia Earhart: Legendary Aviator," by Jameson Anderson, Illustrated by Charles Barnett III and Rod Whigham.

"We Were There Too! Young People in US History," by Phillip M. Hoose.

"Brown Girl Dreaming," by Jacqueline Woodson.

"North American Art to 1900," by Arlene Pancza-Graham.

(North American Art to 1900?!)

And Arreola's "J is for Justice."

Among others.

"From what I can tell," Arreola told me, "somebody was putting in key words to decide what to ban. Which, honestly, feels like the most basic and boring way to be banned - the fact that my book has the word ‘justice' in it."

Arreola says her book was likely targeted for removal by the Department of Defense, which operates 161 schools across seven states and 11 foreign countries, plus Guam and Puerto Rico.

The Department of Defense has a history of banning books from classrooms and libraries, with special attention to books that deal with race or gender. The ACLU, the ACLU of Kentucky and the ACLU of Virginia filed a lawsuit in April 2025 on behalf of six military families with students enrolled in Department of Defense schools, arguing that the practice violates students' First Amendment rights. A judge agreed, ordering the banned books returned to shelves - but only in the five schools attended by the plaintiffs.

"The whole arc of my book is young people using their voices," Arreola said. "Young people see injustices every day in the world, and the book says, ‘If you see that, you have a voice and you can try to change things. You can talk to the adults to change things.'"

The People article includes a link to purchase "J is for Justice!" In a twist of irony, the book was sold out when I clicked.

I found a copy elsewhere, and it's a delight.

"A is for activists. Activists talk to others about the changes they want to see in the world."

"D is for dream. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired people to dream of a world where everyone is treated fairly and with respect."

"K is for kindness. Being kind is more than being polite. It is treating everyone with respect and being as nice to other people as you want them to be to you."

Illustrated by Maria Diaz Perera, "J is for Justice!" offers a bite-sized history lesson, featuring Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress, labor activist Jessica Govea, the AIDS quilt, and more.

"I understand why someone might read my book and say, ‘This is not for me. My kid shouldn't read this,'" Arreola said. "But to take this book and say, ‘No one in this library or this school district should read this book,' that's not right."

As she was writing, Arreola imagined what sort of picture book she wished she had for her daughter, who's now an adult, to help her understand why they sometimes went door-to-door gathering petitions for elected officials, why they sometimes attended protests, who fought for their ability to exercise those rights throughout history.

"We are absolutely in a crisis right now," Arreola said. "Young people need to understand how we got here so it's not just, ‘The world is in a crisis. Oh, well. Shrug.' It's, ‘This is how it happened and these are the things we need to do to fix it.'"

Pastor, author and activist John Pavlovitz has a children's book coming out in late June called "Here and Now and Small and Close." Beautifully illustrated by Stacey Chomiak, the book helps children understand how they can make the world a better place from their own little corner of it - now, not later.

"For years," Pavlovitz wrote in a note to readers, "I've told adults that no matter how difficult the circumstances are, we always have two things: proximity to pain, and agency to alleviate it."

The new book, he wrote, tailors that message for children.

Perfect. Timely. Hopeful.

And terrifying, probably, to people who believe power is a finite commodity, best hoarded by a few and held at a safe, unreachable distance from the people.

"If there's a concerted effort to ban books like mine," Arreola said, "nonfiction books, books that talk about insects and history, there's a concerted effort to gatekeep knowledge from young people about what kind of country they live in and how we got here."

But whitewashing the past doesn't change it. And longing for an ignorant, obedient populace doesn't grant you one. Because the human spirit is a remarkable, resilient, revolutionary thing. And like Martin Luther King Jr.'s arc of the moral universe, it also bends toward justice. History is filled with examples that prove as much. Arreola's book is filled with examples that prove as much.

Which, I suppose, is why some folks want it pulled from shelves. And why, I would argue, it's more relevant and essential than ever.

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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 8:57 AM.