Banned Books
Books are under profound attack in the United States. They are disappearing from library shelves, being challenged in droves, being decreed off limits by school boards, legislators, and prison authorities. And everywhere, it is the books that have long fought for a place on the shelf that are being targeted.
My publishers in the US and Canada, Charlesbridge, joins PEN America, Unite Against Book Bans (UABB), the American Library Association (ALA), American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE), We Need Diverse Books (WNDB), Authors Against Book Bans (AABB), fellow publishers, and so many more to combat the rising threat against the freedom to read and write.
Charlesbridge believes that restricting access to books and other reading material in schools and libraries violates those freedoms and inhibits a child's education and their future success. RIF said it best: "Reading is Fundamental."
Charlesbridge have contributed book resumes with statements from me and their other authors who have books banned to Unite Against Book Bans - you can check out more here. UABB say,
My publishers in the US and Canada, Charlesbridge, joins PEN America, Unite Against Book Bans (UABB), the American Library Association (ALA), American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE), We Need Diverse Books (WNDB), Authors Against Book Bans (AABB), fellow publishers, and so many more to combat the rising threat against the freedom to read and write.
Charlesbridge believes that restricting access to books and other reading material in schools and libraries violates those freedoms and inhibits a child's education and their future success. RIF said it best: "Reading is Fundamental."
Charlesbridge have contributed book resumes with statements from me and their other authors who have books banned to Unite Against Book Bans - you can check out more here. UABB say,
Many of the people seeking to censor library materials mischaracterize books with cherry-picked excerpts intended to provoke outrage and create a false impression of what they’re about.
Book résumés provide necessary context from those who have read the books in their entirety.
They demonstrate the educational value and significance these titles have.
Book résumés can be shared at board meetings as a counterpoint to the toxic messaging that books with certain viewpoints and ideas are dangerous or that librarians and teachers are trying to harm youth by providing access to books. Book résumés can also aid book review committees tasked with determining whether a book meets the school or library’s selection criteria
Lola at the Library is banned in a number of states. (Some of the other books in the series are also, but this is the most common). The full book resume on UABB is here or you can read my statement below.
To find out what more you can do to fight book bans, clcik on UABB's home page here.
And they have a fantastic toolkit here.
To find out what more you can do to fight book bans, clcik on UABB's home page here.
And they have a fantastic toolkit here.
Banned Books - Lola at the Library - my statement
Many conversations around banned books focus on parents’ rights to choose what their child reads, while counter arguments say one parent shouldn’t dictate what every child in a school or a district reads or doesn’t read…
Other conversations discuss censorship versus freedom of speech, and argue that book bans keep children in ignorance…
Still more talk about parents wanting to avoid having difficult discussions about complicated issues with their children, while others counter that the real world is full of these difficult issues and argue that we adults have a responsibility to prepare children for this world…
Many conversations around banned books focus on parents’ rights to choose what their child reads, while counter arguments say one parent shouldn’t dictate what every child in a school or a district reads or doesn’t read…
Other conversations discuss censorship versus freedom of speech, and argue that book bans keep children in ignorance…
Still more talk about parents wanting to avoid having difficult discussions about complicated issues with their children, while others counter that the real world is full of these difficult issues and argue that we adults have a responsibility to prepare children for this world…
But then I look at my little picture book,
Lola at the Library. It’s about a little girl, aged about 3, going to the library with her Mommy, choosing new books, singing along at rhyme time and reading her chosen book at bedtime. There are no issues (inappropriate or otherwise), no inappropriate language, the subject is not inappropriate for the age group (or for any age group – you could read it to a baby - in fact there’s a board book version for babies). Yet this little book is banned in a number of states. When I tell people this, they ask me why on earth… what could people possibly object to? |
Lola at the Library has nothing in common with other banned books except for the fact that Lola is an African American child. Could it simply be that?
There really is nothing else in common with other banned books except that.
And Lola is not alone in being a simple picture book with a completely unremarkable story
about a little African American child that is banned – there are lots.
So please, don’t be taken in by the complex discussions around high-profile ‘controversial’ books, or think that buying a controversial book from the Banned Books table is the only radical act you need to take…
Because while these discussions rage on, attracting and distracting our attention, lots of perfectly lovely, ordinary story books are being banned simply for featuring an African American child.
Librarians, educators, parents, editors and authors who have children’s best interests at heart have been fighting since the 70s* to include under-represented children in books – African American children, Asian children, children with disabilities, gay children, strong female characters and more… After almost 50 years of hard work, we were just beginning to get there.
So, for me it’s very simple: we have to ignore the distracting conversations and fight these bans so that all children can see themselves in books and all children can see the reality of the world we live in, in all its richness and diversity, reflected in their reading and educational materials.
Don’t be distracted.
Anna McQuinn
*See Reading into Racism – Bias in Children’s Literature and learning Materials
by Gillian Klein, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1985 – Chapter 2
There really is nothing else in common with other banned books except that.
And Lola is not alone in being a simple picture book with a completely unremarkable story
about a little African American child that is banned – there are lots.
So please, don’t be taken in by the complex discussions around high-profile ‘controversial’ books, or think that buying a controversial book from the Banned Books table is the only radical act you need to take…
Because while these discussions rage on, attracting and distracting our attention, lots of perfectly lovely, ordinary story books are being banned simply for featuring an African American child.
Librarians, educators, parents, editors and authors who have children’s best interests at heart have been fighting since the 70s* to include under-represented children in books – African American children, Asian children, children with disabilities, gay children, strong female characters and more… After almost 50 years of hard work, we were just beginning to get there.
So, for me it’s very simple: we have to ignore the distracting conversations and fight these bans so that all children can see themselves in books and all children can see the reality of the world we live in, in all its richness and diversity, reflected in their reading and educational materials.
Don’t be distracted.
Anna McQuinn
*See Reading into Racism – Bias in Children’s Literature and learning Materials
by Gillian Klein, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1985 – Chapter 2