The Texas Department of Criminal Justice — the agency that runs Texas state prisons — maintains a public list of books and other publications it has refused to allow inside its facilities. Each entry cites the specific page or pages and the specific content that triggered the denial: a photograph, a rape scene, a depiction of a minor, a sexually explicit image. TDCJ calls it the Denied Books List.

On June 2, 2026, LION cross-referenced the eight Anna ISD library catalogs released in the district’s records disclosure against the TDCJ list.

Thirty-nine books on Anna ISD library shelves appear on the TDCJ list. Twenty-six of those thirty-nine were denied for sexual content — sexually explicit images, depictions of rape, indecency with a child, and graphic depictions of sex involving minors. Twenty-three are stocked at Anna High School only; two are stocked at the high school and also at Slayter Creek Middle School; one is stocked at Clemons Creek Middle School and Slayter Creek but not at the high school. The twenty-six titles, alphabetical, with TDCJ’s stated reason for denial:

• After the Fire by Will Hill — indecency with a child
• Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope by Jenna Bush — indecency with a child — also at Slayter Creek Middle School
• Annie Leibovitz at Work by Annie Leibovitz — sexually explicit images
• Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison — rape of a minor
• Blankets by Craig Thompson — sexually explicit images
• The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel — depiction of rape
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker — indecency with a child
• Cross by James Patterson — depiction of rape
• Dali by Dawn Ades — sexually explicit images
• Dante’s Divine Comedy by Seymour Chwast — sexually explicit images
• DC Comics: The Art of Jim Lee, Volume 1 by Jim Lee — sexually explicit images
• Dime by E. R. Frank — graphic depiction of sex with a minor
• Drawing Basics and Video Game Art by Chris Solarski — photograph of a nude child
• I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali — sex with a minor — also at Slayter Creek Middle School
• I Have the Right To by Chessy Prout — graphic depiction of rape
• I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree by Laura Hillman — graphic depiction of rape
• The Last Juror by John Grisham — depiction of rape
• Lucky by Alice Sebold — depiction of rape
• Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts — depiction of rape
• The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley — incest between siblings
• Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett — graphic depiction of rape
• Roots by Alex Haley — graphic depiction of rape
• The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman — sexually explicit images
• Tatt Book: Visionaries of Tattoo by Joseph Ari Aloi — sexually explicit images
• A Time to Kill by John Grisham — rape of a minor and rape
• Vietnam: A History of a War by Russell Freedman — photograph of a nude child — at Clemons Creek and Slayter Creek Middle Schools only