All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson (they/them) was published in 2020. It was selected for the YALSA’s 2021 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults.
BANNED in Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Citrus, Clay, Escambia, Flagler Hillsborough, Lake, Manatee, Marion, Osceola, Palm Beach, Polk, Santa Rosa, Union and Volusia County public schools
All Boys Aren’t Blue is George M. Johnson’s memoir about growing up Black and Queer in New Jersey and Virginia. The LGBTQIA+ activist recounts their journey to self-love, including their sexual identity and gender exploration.
Named the most challenged book in America in 2024 by the ALA, All Boys Aren’t Blue is at the center of many significant book banning debates in Florida.
In November 2021, Flagler County School Board member Jill Woolbright filed a criminal complaint with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department over the memoir’s appearance on Flagler Schools library shelves. She alleged it was a crime to have the “memoir manifesto” in media centers and demanded the librarian responsible be “held accountable.” The Sheriff’s Department found no violation of the law.
Despite the Flagler Schools Review Committee’s recommendation to retain All Boys Aren’t Blue on library shelves, Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt ordered its removal, claiming it was inappropriate for 9th grade students. Outside of one Flagler Schools board meeting, at least a dozen students and some parents protested the censorship of Johnson’s memoir.
Student protestor Jack Petocz said, “When I read that book, I identified a lot with Johnson’s struggles, (with) constantly having that conversation brought up as a young kid – are you gay? and the fear of that resonated with it.”
Students like Petocz are the reason Johnson wrote All Boys Aren’t Blue. Johnson said, “I was inspired to write All Boys Aren’t Blue because I once was a teenager who didn’t feel seen in the world who didn’t feel like I had any representation in the world … so I wrote it to prevent the next me from not having representation of themselves in the world.”
“In America people have an issue with books that tell the truth and my book tells the truth.”
– George M. Johnson