Interesting article from NPR.
The parent who’s with them. If you’re worried about what your kid’s reading then just check their books before they check out.
The funny thing about “Parents Against Bad Books” is that not a single member is young enough to have a minor child.
While librarians do usually determine what is age appropriate, parents can over ride that. When I was 5yo my Dad and I would go to the library on Saturdays. One day I could not find any book I had not read in the children’s section and went to the older kids area but the librarian said I was too young. Went to my Dad to complain. He took me back to the librarian and said that I had his permission to read any book I wanted and he would monitor what I was reading - and put that in writing! Bless you Dad!
Harrison says this doesn’t solve the problem, since kids can read any books while they’re inside the library. But Wright counters that if parents want stricter controls on what their children see at the library, that’s on them to enforce.
That’s how it should be, methinks.
So long as you’re equal about the logic behind declaring certain things not “age appropriate”.
If it’s not okay for a kid to read a book where two men are married cause “They have sex” even when it’s never so much as implied? Then it’s not okay for them to read a book where it’s much more blatant that a heterosexual couple had sex.
Then it’s not okay for them to read a book where it’s much more blatant that a heterosexual couple had sex.
Ban all books where a married couple has children, because those children are produced by SEX, and that’s inappropriate!!!
It’s actually very simple
If you don’t like it
Don’t rent it
The point of all of this is to continue stigmatizing non-heterosexuality and transgender. If it is a banned topic, then something must be wrong with it, right? Something must be wrong with me for feeling how I feel, right?
The point of all of this is to continue stigmatizing non-heterosexuality and transgender
Don’t forget non-white people. Let’s not forget that multiple books on banned lists have seemingly been banned solely for including characters who aren’t white and speak something other than English.
The question that never seems to get asked in any of this “censorship/ban” conversation: Why are authors of YA and child books writing books with such controversial content? Should they? And why are the publishers encouraging them?
This never used to be a problem because both authors and publishers just knew better than to “go there.” Now, it’s like a race to go there. Whatever restraint existed has been blown up, and it has left parents scrambling to hold back the flood when the authors and publishers used be the gatekeepers.
By “controversial content”, do you mean the existence of queer and trans people in the world and an inclusive narrative?
Why are authors of YA and child books writing books with such controversial content?
A better question would be to ask what makes them controversial according to some in the first place. YA means a young adult, so a teenager to someone in their early twenties. As such, YA books will naturally have content in them which said demographic finds relatable, including, you guessed it, sex (which in turn makes them "controversial)! This is only controversial because a loud group of people wish to be a moral police.
Should they?
Yes.
Why are the publishers encouraging them?
Publishers encourage authors to write books which make them money.
This never used to be a problem because both authors and publishers just knew better than to “go there
This part is just not true. In the US there have been moral outcries over literature targeted for kids or teenagers since mass publishing came into relevancy.
Why are authors of YA and child books writing books with such controversial content?
In large part because something being controversial says very little about whether or not it is suitable for children. For example, books about gay or transgender people are often considered to be controversial and plenty of people argue that such books are not suitable for children. But why? Gay and transgender people exist. Reading a book about it isn’t going to turn someone gay or transgender. Similarly, books that involve romance and and even cut to black sex scenes are common enough in the YA space and rarely controversial until the people involved are queer. In effect, this controversy is controversial because the people who don’t think this kind of thing is a problem don’t understand why someone else thinks that it is.
And on the other side of the controversy is people who recognize things such as gay and transgender people actually exist and that they, like literally everyone else on the planet, like to read stuff featuring characters who are similar to them! A transgender kid worried that they’ll never find a romantic partner is going to want a bit of escapist YA reading for exactly the same reason that countless other kids who have no idea how to go about the whole romance thing. A gay kid will want to read stories set in a word where things work out for a gay kid. For that matter, more than a few queer kids might unexpectedly find themselves in reading a book, potentially skipping over a great deal of very dangerous, heartbreaking work that is so often required. And these people generally recognize that, sure, some parent might have a reason to disagree and begrudgingly admit that said parent has a right to do so, but why would that right extend to anyone else’s kids? After all, if such a book were banned, you’re right back at the same problem only now the roles are reversed.
Who is really helped by this? Certainly not the queer kids, or the other children who might read such a book and realize that queer people are just people.
Right? Back in Mark Twain’s day authors and publishers knew their place.
(Hint: This isn’t new. You just hear about it more easily these days.)
There wasn’t this much attention over age appropriate video games decades ago.
What fascist movement is behind this?
I remember hitting puberty and looking for books about topless tribes in Africa and for some ocean explorer dude Jacques Cousteau had topless chicks in his books.
Where are the petitions to get librarians to ignore the anti-book petitions? I just want my kid to be able to read as much as possible. And, myself.
The issue with letting the community have a free for all to come decide what a 13 year old should be reading is that these are the people who show up to such meetings of the mind. Pic from the article, which some of you haven’t read. I don’t think busybody boomers on a (usually faith based) moral purity mission should be the ones curating the selection in a public library, period.
Ah yes,
“We’re not asking for anything unreasonable,” says Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope, who proposed the plan. “This is a tool to provide parents to be able to tell whether this is appropriate book for your child. I mean, that innocence, once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
This dude can get bent. I think it’s unreasonable that children were shot down the street from my kid’s school. What about that innocence? I had to explain to my daughter that people could come and hurt her in her school.
Meanwhile this same goon says:
Now, first-term commissioner Sean Swope has re-ignited the push, at the request of Sheriff Rob Snaza. While Commissioner Lindsey Pollock has thrown support behind a resolution acknowledging the importance of the whole constitution, Swope this week insisted that the first and second amendments need to be the focus.
So which is it Sean Swope? Tthe right to free speech (and information) or not? They’d prefer our kids get shot in schools than come across a book that might cause a difficult conversation later.
Librarians and other library professionals.
Have to agree. While parents choosing sounds nice this parent is freaking out over a book about boys kissing in 2023 so that parent probably shouldn’t be choosing…
Lovely to see the only books these parents have problems with largely are focused on LGBTQ+ and non-white stories… /s
If you don’t want your child reading a particular book…don’t let them…why is this so hard?
