Tuesday was the first day of classes in Edmonton, and many school libraries looked different, their shelves conspicuously missing hundreds of books. The absent titles had been plucked away to abide by an order from the Alberta government to remove books that described sex or other topics deemed inappropriate for young people.

But a few hours before the end of the school day, the provincial government backtracked, pausing the order following a public outcry from high profile authors, including Margaret Atwood, the Canadian novelist. Her novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” was among those removed by Edmonton Public Schools, the second largest board in Alberta.

The district’s list of more than 200 excluded books had seemed, in part, to be a tacit rebuke of Alberta’s order. Danielle Smith, the provincial premier, had complained that the school system seemed to be deliberately going too far, in order to protest the order.

“After becoming aware of a list of over 200 books that Edmonton Public Schools intended to remove off their shelves, I will be revising the order immediately to ensure that our classic literary works remain in school libraries,” Demetrios Nicolaides, the education minister, said in a statement.

Julie Kusiek, chair of the Edmonton board, said in a statement that it was “grateful” for the minister’s “responsiveness to concerns raised by parents, students, educators and the community.” School system staff members had worked over the summer to pull the titles from its libraries, the board said.

“This isn’t about banning books,” Ms. Smith had said on social media in May when her government announced it would require schools to remove certain books. “It’s about protecting kids from graphic, sexually explicit content that has no place in a classroom.”