The Texas Department of Criminal Justice — the agency that runs Texas state prisons — maintains a 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
Errors or corrections: corrections@lionwatchtx.org
