I was against the challenge at first, but after the ban push in our county, the library had a waiting list of 30 kids for that one book, so does banning something just guarantee more people will seek it out or does it actually protect anyone?
Last month in a tiny town outside Columbus, some school board members decided to burn a copy of "The Hate U Give" during a public meeting. They said it was about protecting kids from violence and bad language. But really, they were mad it showed a Black girl standing up to police. Has anyone else noticed these bans are never about the actual content and always about silencing a specific voice?
Back when I first got into reading challenged books I used to get so mad at everyone who wanted to ban them. I would argue with anyone who said a book was inappropriate for kids. Then my aunt who has been a librarian for 30 years sat me down after a family dinner in Nashville last Thanksgiving. She said I was coming off like I was attacking people instead of inviting them to understand why books matter. She told me to try saying "tell me what worries you about this book" instead of jumping straight into a debate. At first I thought she was wrong but after I tried it at a school board meeting in March it changed everything. One mom told me she was scared her 8th grader would read about racism and feel guilty for no reason. We actually talked for 20 minutes about how The Hate U Give handles that subject instead of just yelling at each other. Has anyone else had to learn the hard way that being nice works better than being right about these books?
I grew up in a small town in Ohio where my mom was on the school board and she always pushed to remove books with 'mature themes.' Last month, I was sorting through my old high school library's discard pile and found a copy of 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' by Sherman Alexie. I read it in one night and realized we banned it because it talked about poverty and racism in a way that made us uncomfortable, not because of the 'bad language' we claimed. It totally flipped my view on why people push for bans. Has anyone else had a moment where they caught themselves gatekeeping a book for the wrong reason?
I remember being skeptical about the fuss over "The Chocolate War" getting pulled from our school library. Our librarian, Mrs. Patterson, stood up at a school board meeting and read the first chapter out loud. She said banning a book because you don't like the topic is like refusing to go to the dentist because you don't want to hear bad news. That moment made me realize banning wasn't about protecting kids, it was about controlling what ideas they got to see. Has anyone else had a librarian change their mind about a challenged book?
I asked why it was back there and the librarian whispered that someone complained about a kids book with a gay penguin family so now they keep the display out of sight even though it's not technically banned, has anyone else seen libraries self-censoring like this?
My 9-year-old went from barely touching books to smuggling a copy into his backpack every day for 3 weeks after his school pulled it from the library. Has anyone else seen banned books turn into the hottest item in the house?
Last Tuesday I walked into the public library in Dayton, Ohio ready for their Banned Books Week display. Turned out they canceled it after some parent complained about "Gender Queer" being on the table. I had brought my own copy of "The Hate U Give" and "Maus" and sat in the reading area for 3 hours just flipping through them. The librarian actually asked me to leave because I was making other patrons 'uncomfortable'. How is reading a book making anyone uncomfortable unless they already know it's challenged? Has anyone else had a library back down from a display like this?