Julianne Moore has weighed in on the reported ban of her semi-autobiographical children’s book, Freckleface Strawberry.
The book — about a young girl who dislikes but comes to accept her freckles, acknowledging that they reflect the differences among people — is reportedly one of the titles that the Department of Defense Education Activity has identified for “further review,” causing it to be “relocated to the professional collection for evaluation with access limited to professional staff.”
A DODEA memo sent out last Monday explained that “DODEA-adopted instructional resources” and library books “potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics were examined.” The titles that are receiving further review have been relocated.
The investigation is designed to ensure that Department of Defense schools serving military families are in compliance with President Trump’s executive orders on gender ideology and “ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling.”
The Guardian reported that books being reviewed and under restricted access include Freckleface Strawberry and No Truth Without Ruth, a picture book about the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Pen America, the organization designed to protect free expression and the freedom to write in the U.S. and worldwide, highlighted The Guardian‘s report in an Instagram post, which seemed to alert Moore to the development.
Taking to her own Instagram account, Moore expressed “great shock” that the book was “banned by the Trump Administration from schools run by the Department of Defense.”
Moore said she was “particularly stunned” given her and her family’s ties to the U.S. military.
“I am a proud graduate of Frankfurt American High School a [Department of Defense] school that once operated in Frankfurt, Germany,” she wrote. “I grew up with a father who is a Vietnam veteran and spent his career in the [U.S. Army]. I could not be prouder of him and his service to our country. It is galling for me to realize that kids like me, growing up with a parent in the service and attending a [DODEA] school will not have access to a book written by someone whose life experience is so similar to their own.”
Moore said she wrote the book for kids “to remind them that we all struggle, but are united by our humanity and our community.”
She added, “I can’t help but wonder what is so controversial about this picture book that cause it to be banned by the US Government. I am truly saddened and never thought I would see this in a country where freedom of speech and expression is a constitutional right.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the DODEA to confirm that Freckleface Strawberry is indeed one of the books being set aside.