"And Tango Makes Three" costs less than $8 on Amazon.
But it's costing a Florida school board more than $300,000 to keep that children's picture book off school library shelves.
The bill has fallen to Escambia County education officials, who also recently raised the local property tax, citing various budgetary pressures.
"That's a lot of money," said Stephana Ferrell of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, a book access advocacy group. "That's a lot of books. That's a lot of books that we could be investing in classroom libraries ... We could do a lot of good things with that money."
According to public records obtained by WUSF, the district had paid attorneys nearly $312,000 by the end of May in legal fees in response to federal litigation filed by the book's authors.
The book is based on a true story and follows two male penguins raising a chick together.
A federal judge ruled against the authors a couple of weeks ago, but they're appealing.
The board has also spent nearly $600,000 defending against a separate lawsuit filed by free speech group PEN America, book publisher Penguin Random House and others focused on a multitude of removals.
The school district has pulled hundreds of titles, including acclaimed classics like "Beloved" by Toni Morrison and "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood.
Board members did not respond to questions.
The Escambia lawsuits could be precedent-setting. They have prompted lengthy court arguments testing the boundaries of public school First Amendment rights and who can be deposed in legal proceedings.
The Nassau County school district opted to return removed books rather than face a similar lawsuit.
"Anytime we're spending money on lawsuits, we're wasting taxpayer money," said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union. "It could have been used for supporting students in the classroom ... When you're talking that kind of money, it could have been used for pay for teachers and staff."
Other school districts involved in book-banning-related litigation, Orange and Volusia counties, have spent tens of thousands of dollars.
The state government has also been named in a number of lawsuits related to book removal practices, including one in which Stephana Ferrell of the Florida Freedom to Read Project is a plaintiff.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
