Children’s book author Derrick Barnes has canceled a planned Feb. 7 visit to the Hoover Public Library, according to a Facebook post from the library.

The cancellation comes after Hoover City Schools scrubbed Barnes’ visits to three elementary schools Feb. 7, 8 and 9. School officials said a parent complained about Barnes, but did not provide information about the content of the complaint.

“We are of course disappointed that Mr. Barnes can’t come to our event, but we are working to reschedule with him for a later date, and plan to still host an event highlighting his books the same day and time as before. And yes there will still be pizza,” Jeremy Davis, Children’s Coordinator at Hoover Library told AL.com.

Barnes said his Feb. 10 visit to Alabaster’s Meadow View Elementary was also canceled.

Alabaster spokesperson Jason Gaston said the school district reached out to Barnes to clarify that Meadow View is still hoping to secure a date for a visit next week but has not yet received a response.

A spokesperson for Barnes was not able to respond to AL.com’s questions prior to publication of this article.

Barnes’ trip to Alabama fell apart after Hoover City Schools canceled three days of visits to Bluff Park, Deer Valley and Gwin Elementary schools. Barnes’ representative Patrick Oliver told AL.com the email canceling the visit was a surprise because all of the arrangements, which began in April, had gone smoothly.

Hoover City School officials contend Barnes’ visit was canceled because Barnes did not provide a contract, which Hoover claims district officials requested three times.

AL.com has verified two times Barnes was asked for a contract, April 25 and Aug. 15, through a public records request. Hoover officials have been unable to provide evidence of the third request.

In November, Barnes’ representative Patrick Oliver told Northrup they didn’t write up contracts when the fee for a visit was less than $5,000.

Oliver sent three invoices for $3,300 each – one invoice for each school, which covered the speaker fee and travel expenses – first to each librarian and then all three to Northrup. Oliver said he was not asked for further information by anyone from Hoover schools.

In an email sent Jan. 23 cancelling the visit, Gwin Elementary School librarian Jennifer Northrup did not tell Oliver the visit was being canceled because no contract was in place. Northrup provided no reason for the cancellation. In an Instagram post, Barnes questioned whether the visit was canceled for political reasons.

Later, Hoover Superintendent Dee Fowler acknowledged that Barnes had, in fact, provided invoices but not contracts.

The lack of a contract surfaced after a parent complained to one of the three principals about social media posts the author made. Hoover officials did not see the social media posts, they said. The principal told Chief Academic Officer Terry Lamar about the parent’s concerns and Lamar called a meeting of the executive staff to discuss what to do next.

The group decided to look at the contract, Lamar told AL.com, and discovered there wasn’t one. Hoover Superintendent Dee Fowler said all speakers must have a contract in place before visiting a Hoover school. At that point, Fowler said, Hoover officials decided to cancel the visit.

Asked why Hoover did not ask Barnes for a contract before canceling, Fowler said they believed asking three times was enough. Hoover officials have not provided evidence of a third request.