District halts all new library books because of a “sexually suggestive” kids’ book about a kitten

A Texas school district halted access to new library books ahead of the 2023–2024 school year over concerns about “sexually explicit” materials. One newly-elected board member went so far as to cite a children’s book about a kitten who wants to be a unicorn as an example.

In late June, the Katy Independent School District’s board of trustees ordered superintendent Ken Gregorski to halt purchases of new books and to place new books that had already been purchased in storage until the board could develop new procedures for evaluating materials. According to the Houston Chronicle, the measure was an effort to comply with Texas’s recently passed H.B. 900, which bans “sexually explicit” materials from school libraries.

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At the board’s June 26 meeting, board member Morgan Calhoun, who was elected in May with the help of conservative PAC Texans for Educational Freedom, claimed she had seen books in elementary schools that “support sexually alternative lifestyles.”

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But over the weekend, one Katy ISD parent revealed the book that Calhoun was apparently primarily concerned with: Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn. The Caldecott and Newbury award-winning picture book, written by Shannon Hale with illustrations by Leuyen Pham, is aimed at four- to seven-year-olds, according to publisher Scholastic, and concerns a pink kitten who wishes she was a unicorn.

In a thread posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Katy ISD parent Anne Russey posted a screenshot allegedly of a social media message from Calhoun responding to a parent who had pressed her to specify which sexually explicit books she had seen in elementary school libraries. Calhoun named Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn, claiming that “the main character does want to transform into something they are obviously not.”

“The book does also use pronoun terminology in reference to ‘they’ instead of ‘he or she’ while talking about a single character,” Calhoun continued. She went on to claim that the book contained “multiple references through imagery in the book that some parents do feel as inappropriate and sexually suggestive for an elementary school student.”

Calhoun went on to admit that the book, which she said was brought to her attention by another parent, is, in fact, not sexually explicit, but wrote that “the context of the book is questionable, which is why I brought it up.”

Russey posted a screenshot of a message she sent to Calhoun, noting that she had checked out and read Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn. “The only time the author refers to any character as ‘they’ is when she is referring to multiple characters and she only refers to the Kitty who wants to become a unicorn as ‘she’ and ‘her,’” Russey wrote. “This complaint like so many you receive is fabricated.”

D.R. Medlen, a writer for The Mary Sue, confirmed that Calhoun’s characterization of the book was inaccurate. “If you actually read the book, the ‘they’ referred to are two characters (hence the plural) who had been naysaying the kitty,” Medlen wrote.

More recently, the Katy ISD board approved a policy allowing books to be removed from school libraries if any two board members take issue with them. Schools will also have to notify parents anytime a student checks out a book out of a library. And on Monday, the board voted 4–3 to approve a new policy requiring schools to notify parent if their child identifies as transgender or nonbinary.