Texas district backtracks on decision to ban Anne Frank adaptation

An illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl was among the books deemed too controversial for school libraries by Texan educators out to cleanse the curriculum of racy topics. 

Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation is a 2019 retelling of the famous diary in the form of a graphic novel by Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman and illustrator David Polonsky. 

The decision sparked widespread outcry, causing the Keller Independent School District's executive committee to backtrack; the body stated on Saturday that the adaptation of the most celebrated Holocaust witness account of all time will return to the shelves. 

Commentators on social media and elsewhere noted that other books deemed inappropriate included Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, more plausible targets of conservative outrage over so-called "critical race theory" than the diary of a teenage Holocaust victim.  

The ban followed objections raised by conservative activist parents and school board members regarding the content of the books, specifically any references to race and sex, the latter apparently including Anne Frank's disarming musings on puberty. 

Yet — in a surprising twist for a district in America's so-called Bible Belt — another book that fell foul of the culture wars over gender, race and education was the Bible. 

This came because of a counter complaint by a group of liberal parents, outraged by the conservative campaign. They pointed out that the Bible includes numerous references to sexual acts, and language considered racist by today's standards.