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West Des Moines Community Schools

65 titles banned · Iowa

Banned Books

A Court of Frost and Starlight A Court of Frost and Starlight A Court of Mist and Fury A Court of Mist and Fury A Court of Silver Flames A Court of Silver Flames A Court of Thorns and Roses A Court of Thorns and Roses A Court of Wings and Ruin A Court of Wings and Ruin A Sin Such as This A Sin Such as This Adjustment Day Adjustment Day All Boys Aren't Blue All Boys Aren't Blue Bloodchild and Other Stories Bloodchild and Other Stories Boy Toy Boy Toy Breathless Breathless Choke Choke Crank Crank Damsel Damsel Empire of Storms Empire of Storms Gender Queer: A Memoir Gender Queer: A Memoir Half of a Yellow Sun Half of a Yellow Sun Haunted Haunted House of Earth and Blood House of Earth and Blood I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Identical Identical It It Jesus Land Jesus Land Kingdom of Ash Kingdom of Ash l8r, g8r l8r, g8r Lawn Boy Lawn Boy Life Is Funny Life Is Funny Looking for Alaska Looking for Alaska Lucky Lucky Milk and Honey Milk and Honey Nineteen Minutes Nineteen Minutes Oryx and Crake Oryx and Crake People Kill People People Kill People Push Push Red Hood Red Hood Shine Shine SHOUT SHOUT Slaughterhouse-Five Slaughterhouse-Five Sold Sold The Bluest Eye The Bluest Eye The Carnival at Bray The Carnival at Bray The Color Purple The Color Purple The Handmaid's Tale The Handmaid's Tale The Haters The Haters The Infinite Moment of Us The Infinite Moment of Us The Nowhere Girls The Nowhere Girls The Perks of Being a Wallflower The Perks of Being a Wallflower Tilt Tilt

About West Des Moines Community Schools

West Des Moines Community Schools is a public school district serving the West Des Moines area of Polk and Dallas counties, in the Des Moines metropolitan region of Iowa. Like other districts across the state, it maintains school and classroom libraries subject to state law and local review policies governing the selection and retention of instructional and library materials.

Books in Schools

Tracking for West Des Moines Community Schools currently identifies 65 distinct titles that have been banned or challenged within the district. This places it among the more active Iowa districts in terms of recorded title counts, though the specific number of affected titles varies considerably from one Iowa district to another.

Much of the recent review activity in Iowa districts, including West Des Moines, follows from Iowa Senate File 496 (2023), which imposed new restrictions on the age-appropriateness and content of materials available in school libraries and led many districts to reassess existing collections. No verified news coverage of West Des Moines Community Schools' specific removals is available at this time.