Children's Books discussion
Banned Books: discussions, lists
>
Discussion of censorship, equity, and other concerns.
Mod
Gender Queer: A Memoir
Lawn Boy
[book:All Bo..."
You know, people should purchases copies of banned books and keep putting them in the libraries (school and public) where they have been banned over and over and over again.
Oh good gravy! Parents in Strasburg, Ohio are concerned about books students bought at book fair
The Breakaways
All Are Welcome
One of the parents said the "All Are Welcome" story was great but objected to the illustrations.
DISCUSSION: Superintendent Vince Lindsey said hundreds of books come into the book fair from book companies. He thanked the parents for being alert and knowing what their children are reading. Elementary Principal Shelia Doerschuk recently went through every book in the elementary library to make sure they were appropriate for students to read after the information about the books came to light.
https://www.timesreporter.com/story/n...
Once again, if you don't want your kids to read it, bring it up with them and not the school.
Mod
Parents in Strasburg, Ohio are concerned about books students bought at book fair
The Breakaways
All Are Welcome
One of the parents said the "All ..."
Wow, how anal! Honestly, parents need to cool down, and it is not up to the school or teachers to monitor what is being bought at book fairs. Honestly, if my parents had acted that way when I was a teenager or even when younger, I would simply not hav brought any of the books I bought at book fairs home with me (but would simply have left them in my locker at school to read on the sly).
I hope Scholastic doesn't cave and start censoring what they publish or get banned from more schools. Scholastic used to publish all the best books. Kids want to read diverse books. They need to read diverse books. They also don't have their minds in the gutter like most of these adults crying for book bans. Sometimes I'm left wondering whether we read the same book because I don't remember the so-called obscene content.
Mod
I have great memories of Scholastic and us as students being able to order all kinds of books at school and without any kind of parental interference, but I guess for much of the USA, those days are probably gone.
Manybooks wrote: "I have great memories of Scholastic and us as students being able to order all kinds of books at school and without any kind of parental interference,.."
Me too but those days are long gone. The flyers are now digital and parents get a copy to order from. At least most schools still have book fairs and hopefully the students will learn not to share what they buy with their parents. I hate to encourage that kind of behavior but censoring books like All Are Welcome for no good reason is ridiculous and kids need to read what they need to read however they need to read it.
Mod
I have great memories of Scholastic and us as students being able to order all kinds of books at school and without any kind of parental interference,.."
Me too but those days a..."
With regard to reading choices I would always tell both children and teenagers to totally rebel against ANY form of censorship (at school, at the library and at home).
Today's censorship news from Greenville, SC: All displays and promotional information should have the approval of library Executive Director Beverly James. All current displays would need to have the approval of James, or someone designated by James, by the end of April or be removed.
The policy guides staff on the “timing, duration, placement and theme of a materials display.”
The board revamped one of the factors it asks staff to consider when making a display to now evaluate the “purpose of the display and whether its themes and educational goals were approved by the executive director or their designee(s).”
The board also added that “the selection of items to be displayed must be appropriate for all audiences regardless of the locations of the display.”
James said the specifics of how the policy would be implemented are still being finalized. However, “some standardization guidelines” have been set to create more uniformity across the branches, not to stop display creativity but rather redirect it."
https://www.postandcourier.com/greenv...
This could be good or very bad, and given the library board in Greenville, probably bad.
Censorship news from Anchorage, AlaskaFormer Bronson chief of staff challenges book on teen sexuality at Anchorage library
"A former chief of staff to the mayor who was once his nominee to head the Anchorage library has asked to restrict a controversial book from children on the public library’s shelves.
Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human
Sami Graham formally requested that the library reconsider who is allowed to access the book. A committee of librarians reviewed the request and opted to keep the book where it was, a decision Graham has since appealed. Now the request is in the hands of the library’s director.
In the initial request for reconsideration, Graham pointed out specific sections that she found concerning in the book. Graham asked for the book to be removed from the youth collection at the library and to keep library patrons under age 16 from accessing it.
In their response to Graham, the library’s Request for Reconsideration Ad Hoc Review Committee wrote that they planned to keep “Let’s Talk About It,” in the library’s Young Adult/Teen section after the committee had completed its review of the book. To conduct the review, three librarians each read the book, as well as reviews and circulation statistics, before coming together for a group discussion.
“Upon reading and discussing the book, we agreed that, while not to everyone’s taste, the book is appropriate for ages 14-18, depending on a teen’s maturity,” they wrote in the letter. “We gave consideration to the cartoon style of the artwork, the high school setting and age of the characters depicted, and the use of relatable language for the target age group.”
“Materials are judged on overall effect rather than specific illustrations, words, passages, or scenes which in themselves may be considered offensive by some,” the committee wrote.
They noted the responsibility around what minors choose to read, view and listen to falls on parents and legal guardians.
“The library believes that individuals may reject for themselves and their children — and only their children — materials which they find unsuitable,” they wrote.
Anchorage Public Library director Virginia McClure said Graham appealed the review committee’s response, which means McClure must now make a decision about the request for reconsideration by Wednesday.
McClure said she’s researching similar decisions and scenarios about the book, ... She also said she’s consulting information from the American Library Association and other guidelines.
The book is termed a graphic novel, but shelved in the “Teen Health” section of the library, McClure said, far from the library’s collection of comic-book-style graphic novels. “Let’s Talk About It” wasn’t all that popular until recently, she said.
“It wasn’t a book that circulated very much until the controversy, it had only been checked out maybe five or six times,” McClure said. “It’s a book that probably, you know, nobody would have paid too much attention to, or even knew it existed,” McClure said.
But the book isn’t on the shelf currently — it is checked out and has several holds, traveling to different locations throughout the state’s library consortium. Even the review committee had trouble getting ahold of the book since there weren’t many copies readily available to ship to Alaska."
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/ancho...
In Louisiana, librarians fight back.The state’s top law enforcement officer, elected officials and right-wing activists have put libraries at the centre of their attacks against LGBT+ people and the first amendment. One librarian is fighting back.
Amanda Jones taught English for 14 years, and has been a school librarian in Livingston Parish for nearly 8 years. In 2020, she was named a Louisiana librarian of the year and the president of the Louisiana Association for School Librarians.
Two years later, in the same local library where she has been a member since 1983, she addressed a community meeting to speak out against a growing censorship campaign targeting books about LGBT+ people and race and racism.
One month later, she received a death threat via email. A wave of online abuse and coordinated harassment campaigns followed, smearing Ms Jones to the community where she has lived, worked and taught a generation of students and families.
“When you’re attacked so publicly, and so incessantly, it takes a huge toll on your mental health, and so I’m taking a step back from work,” she told The Independent.
"Ms Jones was among more than a dozen people that spoke out against such bans during a Livingston Parish community meeting on 19 July 2022.
“The citizens of our parish consist of taxpayers who are white, Black, brown, gay, straight, Christian, non-Christian – people from all backgrounds and walks of life, and no one portion of the community should dictate what the rest of the citizens have access to,” Ms Jones said at the meeting. “Just because you don’t want to read it or see it, it doesn’t give you the right to deny others or demand its relocation."
She condemned a “false narrative” that librarians are distributing p____in children’s sections of libraries.
“Censoring and relocating books and displays is harmful to our community, but will be extremely harmful to our most vulnerable: our children,” Ms Jones said at the meeting.
Two days later, Ryan Thames posted a meme of Ms Jones with a caption suggesting she said she was (view spoiler) The following day, a Facebook post from Citizens for a New Louisiana included her photograph on a target.
“Why is she fighting so hard to keep [obscene] materials in the kid’s section?” the post read.
The page’s owner Michael Lunsford also submitted records requests to Ms Jones’s workplace and demanded access to her personnel file and emails, according to her complaint against both men.
Mr Thames’ Bayou State of Mind page – which routinely posts anti-trans memes to his more than 6,500 followers – repeatedly targeted Ms Jones in the weeks that followed. Comments on some of the posts endorsed physical attacks against her.
In August, Ms Jones filed a defamation lawsuit against them.
Her complaint argues that both men falsely “portrayed, and continue to portray, Amanda Jones as a criminal and a pedophile, one who supports dissemination of ‘p_____ materials’ to elementary school children,” smears that have put Ms Jones and her colleagues in “immediate danger of irreparable harm”.
A month later, Judge Erika Sledge of the 21st Judicial District Court dismissed her case.
In a statement to The Independent, Mr Lunsford called Ms Jones a “paid government bureaucrat” who sought to “censor a nonprofit news organisation.”
“The fact is, our message is getting out there,” he added. “These kinds of books simply do not belong in the library children’s section. Ms Jones wanted us silenced by the court because her position is untenable nationwide.”
In a statement to The Independent, Joseph Long, an attorney for Mr Thames, accused Ms Jones of joining “radical leftists who seek to redefine common sense and burn our culture on the altar of wokeism”.
Ms Jones filed an appeal in March. Days later, she was awarded the Intellectual Freedom Award from the American Association of School Librarians.
“Amanda is an example that we must all stand together and stand strong,” the organisation’s president Kathy Lester said in a statement. “When a public library is challenged, all libraries are challenged. When a school or district in a state is challenged it is only a matter of time before other schools and districts are challenged. To unite and protect the rights of all learners is inspirational.”
Mr Lunsford’s challenge in Livingston Parish was not his first. he challenged the Lafayette Public Library system’s inclusion of This Book Is Gay more than 70 miles from Denham Springs, after he received a list from anti-LGBT+ hate group MassResistance.
Mr Lunsford’s appeal prompted the parish library director to move the book from teen nonfiction sections to adult nonfiction sections without banning the book from shelves altogether. But the library’s forced act of self-censorship fuelled Mr Lunsford and his Citizens for a New Louisiana group to mount similar challenges to books and library officials across the state.
“Every kid in the library deserves to see themselves,” Ms Jones told The Independent.
“I do have students that are members of the LGBTQ community, or their parents are,” she said. “You look at the titles of the books that these people are complaining about, and almost every single one of them is about or by an author of the LGBTQ community, or a Black, indigenous, person of colour. And it’s no secret that they’re trying to marginalise, ignore and shut down a complete portion of our community, and that’s going to affect our students.”
The office of Louisiana’s Republican attorney general Jeff Landry, the state’s top law enforcement official and a candidate for governor in 2024, performed a statewide audit of library titles and created model legislation that would strip funding from libraries if they don’t comply with a set of rules for reviewing materials he deems inappropriate.
“He’s using libraries and librarians as political pawns,” Ms Jones told The Independent. “And all of the parishes are picking that up. And they’re picking it up in the public library, and it’s going to trickle down to the schools and to the school boards. And eventually we’re going to have this giant dystopian nightmare of suppressed knowledge, and we’re going to eliminate and marginalize and kill our LGBTQ and our BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] communities.”
....
“Each parish is on their own,” Ms Jones told The Independent. “And I’m afraid that weaker parishes – and by weaker I mean parishes not ruled by strong administration and superintendents – are going to back down, and they’re going to ban and censor these books that, in my opinion, can be vital to kids.”
...
Ms Jones is on leave through the spring semester, and she is committed to taking her defamation suit to the Supreme Court.
“I’m gonna have to,” she told The Independent. “I’m in it for the long haul.”
Or until my money runs out, she said. She expects legal costs to reach $100,000. She also will be liable for the legal costs of the men who suggested she is a pedophile and a groomer if she loses.
“Libraries are for everyone,” Ms Jones said. “A public library, especially, covers ages from birth to death, and covers everybody.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...
Censorship news from North DakotaLet's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human and similar books are under fire by North Dakota Republican Rep. Bernie Satrom, who endorses HB 1205, one of two North Dakota bills that would restrict “explicit sexual material” in libraries. (The other is the Senate bill SB 2360.) Proponents say they want to protect children from pornography. Critics say the bills encourage censorship and specifically target the LGBTQIA+ community. An early version of one of them banned depictions of “sexual identity,” “gender identity,” and “sexual perversion,” which the bills’ coauthors didn’t bother to define.
HB 1205 focused on children’s sections and would require that some books be moved into the adult section, even if they’re aimed at teen audiences. The broader SB 2360 would impose criminal liability on librarians who display the books in any establishment where a minor “may be invited as part of the general public.”
In 2022, in Valley City (population 6,500), Iain Woessner, a journalist from the local newspaper, walked into the Valley City Barnes County Public Library and, according to Hilde van Gijssel, president of the VCBC library board, asked the librarian on duty if they had the book Let’s Talk About It. Woessner couldn’t check it out because he didn’t have a library card, so he took pictures of it and left. The next day, van Gijssel received a phone call from the journalist wanting to know if the board was aware that the library stocked this “explicit” book.
The next day, an article appeared in The Valley City Times-Record under the headline “Library, Leaders Unaware of Explicit Book in Young Adult Section.” (City and county commissioners and library-board members are not expected to know every book in their local library. The librarians are responsible for developing the collections.)
After Woessner’s article came out, several others followed that forwarded the idea that Let’s Talk About It isn’t just explicit and inappropriate for kids but could be considered p____, even obscene.
Next came the heated Facebook exchanges, some angry gatherings of parents, meetings, and hearings (as well as meetings about hearings). When the library held its final meeting on the matter, the public was invited to share prepared remarks. approximately 70 percent of those in the crowd wanted the book to remain in the young-adult section and around 30 percent wanted it moved to the adult section. No one was in favor of banning the book outright.
Two weeks after Woessner’s article ran, something similar happened in nearby Dickinson, Jason R. O’Day, a reporter for The Dickinson Press, walked into the library and asked about Let’s Talk About It. The book wasn’t on the shelves yet and had only just been cataloged. A few days after his visit to the library. he wrote an article informing readers about the existence of the book and information about the next library-board meeting,
Around the same time, Autumn Richard, a thirty-something woman originally from Georgia, showed up at the library with a group of concerned parents and scoured the shelves of the children’s section for other books that they felt didn’t belong there. Of the 107 books that Richard found objectionable, only 14 were categorized as “sexually explicit.” The rest were marked as “gender fluid.” Two Grooms on a Cake: The Story of America's First Gay Wedding
Richard tells me that it was intended to be informative, and to “provide information of what is currently in the minor sections of the library.” She adds, “It’s up to the reader of the list to decide if that’s appropriate or not. It’s not my business to tell someone what’s appropriate or not.” The problem is, Richard’s list has helped her build a reputation as some sort of expert. In November, state legislator Lefor promised to work with her to “sponsor a bill to eliminate” children’s access to books deemed objectionable, as if her list were a rigorous, even scientific compilation.
Later that month, during a special hearing on Let’s Talk About It at Dickinson City Hall, Richard began her remarks with a bold claim: “I want to be clear that this is not an anti-gay movement. This is not to exclude a particular group or community. This is about providing material that is too mature for our youth—kids under the age of eighteen.” Later on, when I point out to Richard that many of the books on her list aren’t sexually explicit but just books with LGBTQIA+ characters or about LGBTQIA+ history, she takes a moment to collect her thoughts, then tells me again that she is not homophobic. The issue, she says, is that there were more children’s books about “homosexuality” than there were about other subjects like “agriculture” and “Christianity”—topics that Richard feels are more representative of western North Dakota. “That became kind of a question mark for the community,” Richard says, “why the library is choosing to cultivate in this manner.
Most people in the room that evening were against keeping Let’s Talk About It in its current location. Some wanted it removed from the library altogether. Others wanted it moved to the adult section or locked in a cabinet where a copy of Mein Kampf was previously kept. If it couldn’t go there, they said, then it should be stashed permanently behind the circulation desk. Many of the objectors invoked religion to make their cases. “Anyone who’s for this,” said one man, “you’ll have to answer to your maker one day.” Several attendees nodded in agreement. He continued, seeming to refer to transgender people: “God did not make people so they can change who they are.”
People shared similar views on their request for reconsideration forms, which Esquire obtained through an open records request. One person described the book as “highly suggestive towards the promotion of activities the Lord’s Word clearly deems immoral and vile.” Another responded to the question “What would you like to have done with this material?” with a straightforward command: “Burn it in HELL!”
The library director reminded those in attendance that the library is meant to serve every person in a community, not just the majority. “I wanted to try to make some sort of appeal to reason,” Ennen says of that day, “to help them understand when I’m making a recommendation and a decision gets made, what the rationale for that is.”
Ennen tried to compromise. She believed, based on community feedback, that the book should stay in the library but recommended that it be moved to the adult section. She also proposed that the library allow parents to place a hold on their children’s accounts so that they could approve everything their kids checked out. It wasn’t enough. The following month, Richard and North Dakota resident Thea Lee went on the local television show Ladies of Another View and denounced the recommendation. They thought the hold should be opt-out, not opt-in. "
Most people who wanted the book banned hadn't read it.
A large, quiet majority will not go to meetings to speak because of how targeted they feel in the meetings. They did share words of support by email and letter and showed up to testify against the bills in droves.
Romance novels could be affected by SB 2360; so could a scandalous-looking book about Madonna ... in the nonfiction section and a DVD copy of Iron Jawed Angels, a historical drama about women’s suffrage featuring a woman’s naked back on the cover.
The legislation in question has the potential to apply to every book in the library, not only the children’s collection.
"People don’t just go to libraries to read. They go to research and learn about the world—the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of it. We expect libraries to be reliable sources of information. That’s why librarians love to say a good collection should include offensive and controversial materials. If a person can’t find a book they object to in a library, that library has failed them."
Libraries are for everybody. When you remove a book from a public library, you violate this simple foundational principle. Not only that, you abandon the person who needs it.
Books like Let’s Talk About It are necessary. They fill in the gaps [sex ed doesn't cover]. And for kids who aren’t lucky enough to have open and supportive parent, Let’s Talk About It “would be an invaluable resource.”
Take a book out of the school library and the assumption is parents can still make it available at home. But what are parents and kids supposed to do if it isn’t available at the public library, either? What resources are they left with other than the Internet?
HB 1205 and SB 2360 might end up affecting a lot of people incidentally, but there shouldn’t be any doubt as to who the original target was. “Let’s hit the nail on the head here; these book bans are trying to ban queerness,” says a North Dakota teen-and- young-adult-services librarian who asks that their name be withheld out of fear of retribution.
A library director puts it more bluntly: “They think if they do these things, they’re going to somehow actually get rid of any LGBT person.” But they won’t. The only thing this legislation will do is communicate to young LGBTQIA+ people that who they are is obscene; that their sheer existence is so offensive, it can’t be written about or shared alongside everybody else’s stories. So risqué young-adult books like Gossip Girl? Those can stay. But Sewing the Rainbow, an award-winning picture book about “Sewing the Rainbow: The Story of Gilbert Baker and the Rainbow Flag”? According to Autumn Richard’s list, that one is “gender fluid.” As is Papa, Daddy, and Riley about a little girl with two dads.
Same deal with the children’s book Miss Rita, Mystery Readerabout a father whose daughter wants him to dress up in drag for storytime.
Evidently, people—grown adults—keep snatching books off the neon-purple-and-tangerine display we’re currently standing in front of and stashing them in hard-to-reach corners of the library. They march down the stairs to the children’s section... to flip out over LGBTQ+ books.
House Bill 1205 has passed.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics...
In Students protest after Plattsmouth High School (Nebraska) removes books from school libraryThe school district called the decision to remove the books 'reasonable'
High school students in Plattsmouth took part in a protest Wednesday morning against a decision to remove certain books from the local high school's library.
Students feel the books in question should have never been removed and they cite the school’s own policy.
Sam McKnight, a junior, said the Plattsmouth Schools District simply didn’t follow that procedure and abruptly removed the books. She told us more about the book's material.
“Most of the books that they’re taking have LGBTQ themes or talk about racial injustice," she said. "They made a list of rules, they released their list of rules that they say they’re following but they’re not following it.”
https://www.3newsnow.com/news/local-n...
Mod
https://tinyurl.com/protectlibrary"
Thank you!!!!!!!!
Mod
Gender Queer: A Memoir
Lawn Boy
[book:All Bo..."
I am relieved to say this has been reversed:
"An Idaho library board that voted to remove six books from shelves without giving the community notice has reversed that decision and says it has no immediate plans to revisit the matter. The Idaho Statesman reported that the Ada Community Library board violated Idaho’s Open Meeting Law by banning Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and other books it deemed “harmful to children” without making clear it was an agenda item. The board acknowledges the error and reiterates that those votes are ineffective and the books discussed will remain in the library’s collection pending any further action,” the board said in a statement said."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ada-cou...
Mod
The anti nuclear energy lobby in Germany and in England straddled country borders and American students need to act the same and in open defiance of politicians, lawmakers and also their parents.
Thank you Kathryn! That is some good news. I picked up some banned books at the library book sale to pass on. I got my hands onIt's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, which coincidentally a friend and I were just discussing. While we both had basic sex ed at the same time (6th grade, junior high and maybe high school) we didn't learn much in the way of practical information. We both thought this book was informative and would have been nice to have when we were in school.
I also got The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
one early reader book on Ruth Bader Ginsberg
I looked at two libraries but the books donated were pretty bland, even in a liberal neighborhood.
The Virginia Board of Education has approved their new history curriculum standards and critics accuse it of being whitewashed.https://www.wdbj7.com/2023/04/21/virg...
I saw an interesting infographic that tells the story of this kind of rewriting of history. It goes back to one woman after the Civil War and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The same rhetoric is being employed by the SAME types of organizations under the guise of liberty, freedom and protecting our children. It's very disturbing.
I also heard at the library yesterday that they have a staffing shortage. I'm not sure why since there are millions of library school graduates but I can hazard a guess. My sister told my mom there's an opening for a librarian in her town. I said NO WAY would I touch that one with a 100 ft poll. I'd probably get fired on my first day. She's in a weird rural conservative pocket of a very liberal state. SO FAR the schools are teaching social emotional learning and reading New Kid.
Mod
I hope there is a large scale and heavy duty REVOLT and honestly, the governor deserves and needs some major and painful lessons. Even in his photograph he looks like someone really lacking ...
I was away for a few days and there's lots of news to catch up on. Some good news. Also, EveryLibrary quotes polls showing the majority of Americans DO NOT support book bans. These groups of extremists have way too much power. Nora Roberts was just banned AFTER raising money for the Patmos Library. She's raising more money in support of libraries.I didn't get to visit the ALA in Chicago but I know they're absolutely against book banning. It goes against the code of ethics. (More on that later).
Great news in Jefferson Parish (Louisiana)Jefferson Parish Library won't remove or reshelve 12 challenged books!!!
In letters sent on April 18 to those who filed complaints about the books, Jefferson Parish Library Director Jessica Styons wrote that a committee of librarians had “thoroughly read and vetted the material” and determined the books were in their proper places in the library.
the Jefferson Parish Library isn’t governed by a board of control. Instead, library policy is set by Jefferson Parish’s president, with guidance from the library director, though the Parish Council has the authority to override those decisions.
According to Lee Sheng, the library assembled a committee of librarians with “different backgrounds” to review the challenged books and make recommendations to the library director.
“If you come to our library and you react and you engage with any of our librarians or library staff, you would not walk away with the feeling that they’re trying to indoctrinate anyone,” she said. “They’re there to answer your questions …. I understand there’s different opinions on this, but I don’t think it's fair to our hardworking staff to be told that they’re spending their days trying to indoctrinate people.”
Lee Sheng said the library has more than 660,000 books in its collection and that parish librarians “try to develop as vast of a collection as all the interests and needs and people that we have in our parish.” They choose which books to acquire by combing through best seller lists, school library journals and literary awards, Lee Sheng said.
This Book Is Gay (YA NF)
Sex Is a Funny Word: A Book about Bodies, Feelings, and YOU (juvenile NF)
Empire of Storms (YA fic)
Breathless (YA)
All Boys Aren't Blue (YA NF)
Tricks (YA)
My Princess Boy (Juv NF )
Flamer (YA graphic novel)
Being You: A First Conversation About Gender (juv NF)
plus adult books
"Confess" by Colleen Hoover (novel)
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe (NF)
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas (Sci-Fi)
https://www.nola.com/news/jefferson_p...
The shelves of the “Teen Zone,” the young adult section of the Hamilton East Public Library in Noblesville, Indiana, are mostly empty. Manga, Japanese graphic novels, are missing. Racks of comic books sit half empty.But at the Hamilton East Public Library in Noblesville, almost vacant shelves greet borrowers in the Teen Zone due to an extensive review process ordered by the library’s Board of Trustees. Last year the board saw four seats turn over, including one now occupied by Micah Beckwith, a conservative pastor and former Republican candidate for a U.S. Congressional seat.
The review, which is currently underway, requires librarians and staff to examine thousands of books over the course of the next few months and is expected to cost the library system serving Fishers and Noblesville upwards of $300,000.
The policy, which the board passed in December, moves materials deemed not “age appropriate” to the system’s adult sections in the Noblesville and Fishers libraries.
The decision is gaining momentum — and attention — now due to the board’s definitions of what is “age appropriate” for the teen section as library staff seek more clarification about the policy’s reach.
At times, board members, who are appointed by elected officials, suggested library staff were not in compliance with the policy or had refused to work fast enough to complete the revisions. Library leaders said all employees were reviewing materials in addition to their regular duties.
Gone from the teen section are books on puberty, Captain America comics, and Marvel's Avengers graphic novels along with more typically controversial books such as Judy Blume's novel of teen love and sexuality "Forever."
The HEPL policy impacts more than 18,000 books and about 11,000 item records, according to the plan.
“Any instance of visual depiction of (view spoiler) would necessitate moving a book, the library’s interpretation of the policy reads.
The board sanctioned review also had library staff review the children's collection with a focus on nonfiction materials related to “puberty, human reproduction and the human body,” according to the plan.
Board members proposed the policy at the end of last year to reiterate that “parents are the ultimate decision-makers for children and patrons under 18 years of age,” the policy reads.
In March, library staff shared cost estimates for carrying out the review. The library estimated a one-time cost of $122,000 and projected ongoing costs of another $200,000 to hire additional staff for reprocessing materials.
HEPL director and CEO Edra Waterman said some library staffers have worked from home because the library does not have space for all nine employees to work simultaneously. So far staff has reviewed about 1,000 books this year.Board member Ray Maddalone asked why the staff had not reviewed more items and scoffed at the idea of staff members reading at home, calling it “terribly inefficient.”
“Why aren’t they just standing by the shelves reading books,” Maddalone said. But the review is time-consuming and staff have all their other duties as well, Waterman replied.
Library staff estimated more than half of the books in the teen section, many of which are shelved in the high school section, will be moved to the adult section.
That means more shelves and furniture will need to be moved and rearranged to accommodate the changes, according to the library’s response plan.
This rearrangement of books and review will require at least 8,000 hours of labor, for which about five full-time staff members and likely hired part-time staff would be needed.
In most cases, “reading books cover-to-cover may be required” to place them in a policy-designated section, according to the plan.
Examples of books relocated to the general collection due to the policy, include books on puberty,
Concrete Rose
Ramona Blue
Breathless
were all moved to the general collection.
During the board’s meeting, about a dozen public speakers shared their opposition to the policy. None spoke in its favor.
Noblesville resident Jennifer Midkiff, a mother of two, said that removing books that contain descriptions of criminal acts listed would censor what her children can read.
Such books could include murder mysteries, as well as childhood favorites like “The Rescuers” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” she said. S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders” — which features homicide, robbery and arson and frequently appears on middle school English curriculums — would also fall in this category..
Reading books that feature obstacles will help her children learn how to face challenges in their own lives, she said.
“No one is saying that these are good things, or that having these books on the shelves is promoting them,” Midkiff said. “In a story time sense, there are evils to be faced and I want my kids to see examples of evil being faced down and I want them to see it in a book.
A spokeswoman for the Hamilton East Public Library said Captain America comics and other Marvel superhero graphics novels from a list of reviewed works shared this month were removed in error. These items will remain in the high school graphic novel section.
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/l...
Good news from the youth in IowaStudents protest LGBTQ, education bills as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds hands them scholar awards
Davenport West High School senior Clementine Springsteen had planned to quietly accept her Iowa Governor's Scholar certificate from Gov. Kim Reynolds on Sunday.
But she couldn't stay quiet.
Instead, Springsteen, who is a transgender woman, walked across the stage wearing a pink, white and light blue tie to represent the transgender flag, and pins that read "Trans Rights Are Human Rights" and "She Her" as she reached out to shake the hand of the governor and also Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg.
Then, as Iowa's two top officials turned away, Springsteen said loudly, "Trans rights are human rights."
It was captured on video and shared on social media.
The protests of Newton High School seniors Miran Pettigrew and Leo Friedman made the rounds on Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.
"I need to make it clear to her that we're not gonna be silent," Springsteen said of Reynolds. "We're not going to be protesting in a way that is comfortable for her that she can act like it doesn't exist or that it's some minor inconvenience. I want to inconvenience her, to make her realize that this is an issue."
lawmakers passed an education bill that, once signed into law, will make it easier to ban books and curb LGBTQ instruction in public schools.
Pettigrew and Friedman had not planned to attend the scholar's program. The friends changed their minds when Friedman's parents suggested they could use the event to protest.
The Newton seniors settled on T-shirts from the Des Moines-based Raygun to help get their messages across.
Pettigrew paired a “Public Money for Public Schools” shirt with a blazer, while Friedman wore an “I Read Banned Books” shirt.
Worried they might be barred from the semiformal event, Pettigrew donned a jacket and Friedman wore a button-up shirt to cover their T-shirts.
Pettigrew chose to protest the education savings account law because she feels Reynolds and other public figures have lost faith and the will to keep supporting public schools.
“My mentors are teachers. My coaches are teachers,” she said. “And so much of what they do just made me who I am.”
Friedman's love of literature is the reason he chose to call out Reynolds on the issue of banning books.
"I intend no disrespect to any other of the students (or attendees) there for sure," he said. "But if the governor feels disrespected, that is the purpose of the protest. Because we don't respect what she has done recently with the laws that have been passed and the ideologies that she instilled into the government in our state."
The governor looked displeased at their attire and did not stand close to them for photos, Pettigrew and Friedman said in separate interviews.
The two seniors — who are both in the running for Newton High School valedictorian — will not face punishment for their protest, Principal Bill Peters said.
After her statement, Springsteen took her seat to the cheers and whistles of people in the crowd.
Leaving the event with her family, a woman fist-bumped the teen and said she was "brave." Seeing the interaction, another woman said — within earshot of Springsteen's mother, Kate Cole, — "that's so disrespectful."
Springsteen admits she laughed.
"Because what's more disrespectful here? My entire community being attacked for trying to exist for who we are or five words said on a stage," she said.
Springsteen's mother supports her daughter's activism, which goes beyond Sunday's protest.
"I was telling Clementine, you have to ignore those people and you have to focus on the positive because that's going to give you the energy to keep going and to keep fighting," Cole said.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/sto...
Book banning and racism are themes of the new Spiderman novel for young adults Miles Morales Suspended
In the sequel, Miles Morales — the half-Black, half-Puerto Rican teenage Spiderman — finds himself in school suspension for disagreeing with his history teacher. Morales goes to a fancy private school in Brooklyn, New York, where he doesn't always feel acknowledged. But with his superhero powers, he's invincible.
Reynolds' book is directed toward a wide audience — part poetry, part prose, with illustrations throughout. It grapples with huge themes though: censorship in schools, racism and fear.
On the book as a response to censorship
I don't want to shy away from the fact that it is a response, but I wish it weren't. But when it came time to write this book, the only thing that I could think about was what's happening when it comes to censorship and banning and challenging of the books that so many of us write for young people. Specifically, for a lot of us, it doesn't always feel like you're banning the book itself. Sometimes it feels like you're banning the people that those books are about, that you're saying that those lives are lives that should only exist in the shadows.
You can read/hear the rest of the interview on NPR
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/02/117320...
Book bans are a local affair in Alabama schools. That could change.A Shelby County middle school removed a book about the Black Lives Matter movement in 2022 after a local father complained.
Daniel Hill considers his effort, one of only two book complaints the district tallied since 2021, a victory, but says there are other books he’d also like to take out of his daughter’s school library.
So far, while Alabama has followed other states in trying to limit discussion of critical race theory, LGBTQ issues and other “divisive concepts” in school, the state has not tried to enact explicit book bans.
Instead, it’s up to parents and activists to take a book-by-book, school-by-school approach. And so far, experts say, recent challenges have been limited, though complaints have had an impact on some school activities, events and resources.
In 2022, an American Library Association spokesperson told AL.com the organization was aware of 11 challenges in Alabama. Only one challenge was about a book in a school library, Shawnda Hines said. Twenty-four titles were challenged, with 20 of those books involving LGBTQIA+ characters or authors.
Shelby County parent Daniel Hill said his daughter told him about a book, Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter” after she saw it prominently featured in a hallway at her middle school. The book, written by New York Times editor Veronica Chambers, lays out the timeline of the Black Lives Matter movement and how it was shaped by history. Chambers could not be reached for comment.
Hill, who is white and whose children are mixed race, said he thought the book promoted and “glorified” the movement. He didn’t think it belonged in a school.
“There are a lot of issues from promoting these ideas,” he said, “and I see it as planting seeds. These children would not be considering a fraction of this stuff if it wasn’t being promoted and pushed.”
Hill called the principal at Oak Mountain Middle School who told him the school had a process for challenging books. Hill completed the form and presented his case in front of a panel at the school.
The panel, made up of teachers, parents and students, he said, then voted to keep the book in the library. The principal appealed the school’s decision to the district level, according to Hill.
The school board’s legal counsel thought the book could be in conflict with a recent state intellection freedom rule, and recommended it be removed from circulation, according to a spokeswoman.
“I was personally disappointed that I had to go through a process for something that I feel is so obvious,” Hill said.
“It was satisfying to have that [book] removed, but, in a general sense, I think the victory was just a drop in the bucket. But it’s not an efficient way, in a general sense, to combat what’s going on up there.”
Hill claimed the library now has more objectionable materials. He’d like the principal to exert more authority over the materials in the school library and said it would be difficult to challenge all of the books he found objectionable.
“I’m not prepared to come up there and contest books nonstop.”
LOCAL Alabama, a nonprofit organization working to “restore freedom, liberty, and constitutional values in our local communities,” asked communities to share objectionable material with them via an online form in August.
A representative of the organization told AL.com the group had not received any information about objectionable library books as of the end of March.
In December, Alabama Board of Education Vice President Wayne Reynolds asked why there is no statewide policy on how to challenge books and materials.
Andrew Maxey, who chairs a task force exploring new standards for school libraries, said he believed local school boards should develop book challenge policies. Currently, local school boards each make up their own rules.
Maxey and other members of the Library Task Force presented a draft of “Guidelines for Exemplary School Libraries” to the state board at their December work session.
The board delayed a January vote to adopt the standards.
Alabama Superintendent Eric Mackey told board members the department wanted to revise some of the standards and would ask the committee - 16 school librarians among the 20 members - to review those revisions before bringing it to the board for a vote. That would likely happen this summer, Mackey told AL.com.
https://www.al.com/educationlab/2023/...
More bad news from IndianaBill to allow banning books in Indiana moves to governor's desk
What kids can and cannot read in class is once again a point of contention at the Statehouse after Senate Bill 12 was essentially revived.
The language allowing books to be removed from school libraries was moved right into another bill, House Bill 1447, that's now passed by lawmakers and on its way to the governor's desk.
Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-District 46, has spent 20 years working in public education, including as a teacher and principal. She said this quick switch is frustrating.
"It's problematic to me that this is the way we're going to amend legislation – at the last minute in really substantial ways without getting input from the public," Hunley said.
The bill would allow a community member or a parent to go to their school board and ask that a book be removed from the school library if they believe it's obscene or harmful.
A school board would review each request at a public meeting and decide if the book should be taken off the library shelf. And even if school officials do decide to keep the book, parents can appeal the decision.
Schools will also be required to publish on their website a catalogue of all material in their library.
The proposed law allows for a local prosecutor to bring criminal charges against a school librarian or teacher if they refuse to remove a book that's determined to be obscene. This law would take away the education defense for a librarian or teacher that they were offering the book to kids in the name of education.
Nicole Cooper, an English language arts teacher at Harshman Middle School, said that's concerning.
"Those are the same books that teach lessons that yes, are a part of history that are terrible, that are uncomfortable, that could be considered controversial. But what happens when we take that away from a group of kids, our new generation who will be making the laws, who will be running the country, who will be making decisions? It's not fair," Cooper said.
In her 20 years of teaching, Cooper said she's never seen a book come up in the classroom that would qualify as obscene or harmful. But, she said, she doesn't believe parents should get to decide what's right and what's wrong for an entire class or school just because they don't like it.
“I don’t think it’s the place of a school library or even a parent to say, I don’t want my child to read this but I also don’t want your child to read that either. I just don’t think that’s fair,” Cooper said.
She stressed even when some lessons challenge your ideas, your background and share history that might make us comfortable, it can help children to think critically, expand their knowledge and grow. She's seen the need for it firsthand in reading books like "Animal Farm" and "Code Talkers" with her students.
Rep. Martin Carbaugh, R-District 81, said, in the end, voters will decide who's right.
"I trust our local school boards to get it right and if enough in the community think our local school boards don't get it right, we've got elections," Carbaugh said.
"I hope the governor sees this bill for what it is -- unnecessary," Hunley said. "We already have procedures in criminal code that address this very issue. I hope we will not see the governor signing this piece of legislation into law."
https://www.wthr.com/article/news/edu...
Bad news in UtahRiverton Mayor Trent Staggs has called for the removal of certain books from the Jordan School District libraries, claiming that they contain sexually explicit content unsuitable for minors.
He approached the district board meeting on Tuesday saying “scores of parents” are calling for books with sexual content to be taken off the shelves, but they don’t believe the district is listening to them.
He also is taking issue with the process the Jordan School District uses to review potentially offensive material. The books are reviewed at each individual school, when Staggs believes the review process should be district-wide.
“It puts the onus on the parents to go out and do all the legwork, find the book, put it in front of their committee to determine whether or not it’s a violation," Staggs said.
“With extensive public input, the Jordan School District Board of Education recently updated policy that aligns with changes in State Law regarding the evaluation of age appropriate books and materials in our schools.
We follow this policy when reviewing, approving, or removing materials or books in our schools.
https://kutv.com/news/crisis-in-the-c...
More on Indiana- community members speak out against the book banning billhttps://www.14news.com/2023/05/02/tri...
I'm going to end with good news and post more tomorrow.Wilson Co. (Tenn.) School Board votes to keep two books in high schools. Rather than removing them or keeping them, the board could also vote to mark the books as “mature reading” and restrict access.
The state put out its recommendations for barring books last week, saying if the district gets a complaint, a committee will read the book and show it to the school board, which will then make the final call.
The Wilson County School Board can review two books a month and has now reviewed 12 in total.
https://www.wsmv.com/2023/05/01/wilso...
The Kite Runner
The Carnival at Bray
I'm going to end with good news and post more tomorrow.Wilson Co. (Tenn.) School Board votes to keep two books in high schools. Rather than removing them or keeping them, the board could also vote to mark the books as “mature reading” and restrict access.
The state put out its recommendations for barring books last week, saying if the district gets a complaint, a committee will read the book and show it to the school board, which will then make the final call.
The Wilson County School Board can review two books a month and has now reviewed 12 in total.
https://www.wsmv.com/2023/05/01/wilso...
The Kite Runner
The Carnival at Bray
Mod
Well, if the majority of Americans DO NOT support book bans, then when they vote, they should not be voting for ANY politicians who support book bans (both at the state and at the federal level).
Mod
Students protest LGBTQ, education bills as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds hands them scholar awards
Davenport West High School senior Clementine Springsteen had planned t..."
Considering that all that horror show Kim Reynolds does is disrespect students who dare to be different and question their sexual orientation, she totally deserves to be publicly shamed and disrespected over and over and over again.
Manybooks wrote: "Well, if the majority of Americans DO NOT support book bans, then when they vote, they should not be voting for ANY politicians who support book bans (both at the state and at the federal level)..."
The politicians are all courting the suburban mom vote and according to my parents, Gloria Steinem claims the suburban women in the South and Midwest typically side with whatever their husbands want and haven't caught on to women's rights yet. I think though all this transphobic, homophobic and racist nonsense is going to come back and bite them all in the behinds. Those high school students are now old enough to vote, with more on the way by next year. Are they really going to vote for the politicians who take away their freedoms, deny their history and ban their favorite books? They're already protesting.
More news from IowaSchool library book bans are seen as targeting LGBTQ content
Teri Patrick bristles at the idea she wants to ban books about LGBTQ issues in Iowa schools, arguing her only goal is ridding schools of sexually explicit material.
Sara Hayden Parris says that whatever you want to call it, it's wrong for some parents to think a book shouldn't be readily available to any child if it isn't right for their own child.
The viewpoints of the two mothers from suburban Des Moines underscore a divide over LGBTQ content in books as Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds pushes an especially sweeping crackdown on content in Iowa school libraries. The bill she's backing could result in the removal of books from school libraries in all of the state's 327 districts if they're successfully challenged in any one of them.
Longstanding disagreements about content in school libraries often focus this year on books with LGBTQ themes as policymakers nationwide also consider limiting or banning gender-affirming care and drag shows, allowing the deadnaming of transgender students or adults in the workplace, and other measures targeting LGBTQ people.
The trend troubles Kris Maul, a transgender man who is raising a 12-year-old with his lesbian partner in the Des Moines area and wants school library books to reflect all kinds of families and children. Maul argued that those seeking to remove books take passages out of context and unfairly focus on books about LGBTQ or racial justice issues.
LGBTQ people are more visible than even five years ago, Maul said, and he believes that has led to a backlash from some who hope limiting discussion will return American society to an era that didn't acknowledge people with different sexualities.
"People are scared because they don't think LGBTQ people should exist," Maul said. "They don't want their own children to be LGBTQ, and they feel if they can limit access to these books and materials, then their children won't be that way, which is simply not true and is heartbreaking and disgusting."
Under a bill backed by Reynolds, the titles and authors of all books available to students in classrooms and libraries would be posted online, and officials would need to specify how parents could request a book's removal and how decisions to retain books could be appealed. When any district removes a book, the state Education Department would add it to a "removal list," and all of Iowa's 326 other districts would have to deny access to the book unless parents gave approval.
"The parents are the governing authority in how their child is educated, period," said Sen. Amy Sinclair. "Parents are responsible for their child's upbringing, period."
Patrick, a mother of two, expressed befuddlement about why anyone would want to make sexually explicit books available to children.
"I have to believe that there are books that cater to the LGBTQ community that don't have to have such graphic sexual content in them," said Patrick, a member of a local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that has gained national influence for its efforts to influence school curriculum and classroom learning. "There are very few books that have ever been banned and what we're saying is, in a public school setting, with taxpayer-funding money, should these books really be available to kids?"
Hayden Parris, a mom of two from a suburb only a few miles away, understands the argument but thinks it misses the point.
"A kindergartner is not wandering into the young adults section and picking out a book that is called like, "This Book is Gay," said Hayden Parris, who is leading a parents group opposed to Iowa's proposed law. "They're not picking those books, and the fact that they can pick one out of several thousand books is not a reason to keep it away from everyone."
Sam Helmick, president of the Iowa Library Association, said communities should decide what's in their libraries and that it's important for children to have access to books that address their lives and questions. Helmick didn't have that ability as a child, and students shouldn't return to that time, she said.
"Can we acknowledge that this will have a chilling effect?" Helmick asked. "And when you tell me that books about myself as an asexual, nonbinary person who didn't have those books in libraries when I was a kid to pick up and flip through, but now publishing has caught up with me and I can see representation of me — those will be behind the desk and that's not supposed to make me feel less welcome, less seen and less represented in my library?"
https://roanoke.com/entertainment/boo...
Library policy under scrutiny in Kalona, Iowa book ban debateWidespread definition disagreements, from ‘censorship’ to ‘pornography’
Gender Queer: A Memoir
Roughly 50 community members crowded into the Kalona Public Library’s meeting room Tuesday night, spectating a 2-hour work session of the library’s board of trustees. The library continues to juggle several requests that it remove the book “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, from its collection.
It is the only Kalona Public Library book with a subject heading of “Gender-nonconforming people,” and one of four books in the library’s collection with a subject heading that contains the word, “Asexual,” according to a catalog search.
An increasingly vocal group of people have sent emails, made public comments, and submitted formal requests for reconsideration to the Kalona library, asking that “Gender Queer“ be taken off the shelves. Those advocates argue that at least six illustrations of nudity or sex acts in the graphic novel-style memoir constitute pornography, and allege that it is geared toward children, despite its placement in the adult non-fiction section.
“Because it is in a cartoon format with graphic imagery, that’s where it’s a problem,” said patron Andrew Lundstrom, who wants the book removed. “I think it should be a problem for the library to have something like that … It’s a teenager performing sexual acts, isn’t that child pornography? I almost fell out of my chair when I saw it.”
A subgroup of those critics claim the author’s transition away from conventional gender identity may cause younger readers to do the same, something they say would contradict Christian values and cause mental health problems.
“As a pastor with a number of young families at our church, I feel a duty to the next generation to protect them from the messages of self-doubt and questioning the way that God created them,” wrote the first request for reconsideration form submitted to the library. “I want to help build a community where our kids are safe and loved, and just the way God made them. Books like ‘Gender Queer’ put our kids at risk.”
Advocates said parental controls over their own children’s content were unsatisfactory, and that only the book’s removal would keep it away from minors during library visits.
While Gender Queer is hardly the library’s only work with depictions of sex, Library patron Shane Schwartz said he took issue with the use of images to do so.
“If the bible had illustrations like this, I would not want my kid to pick it up,” he said. “I should be able to go to the library and say, ‘Go pick out three books,’ without having to worry that (my kid) is going to see something and then … get fixated on it. And then there’s questions in his mind that have no appropriate explanation for years.”
A smaller, but still outspoken group of library users say the book has an essential place in the library’s collection, and vehemently oppose efforts to ban it from the collection.
Many of those patrons argue that the taxpayer-funded city library would effectively censor Kobabe’s memoir by omitting it from the collection. While community members could ostensibly find the book elsewhere post-removal, its ban from the Kalona Public Library would make doing so more time-consuming, and likely more expensive.
“I am deeply disturbed that members of the community, including and especially a Christian pastor, believe they should be able to dictate what books are available in a public library, and what others can and cannot read,” wrote one patron in an email to the library on April 17, one of several written messages provided to The Union with identifying information removed in response to a public record request.
“As the grandfather of a teenage, transgendered grandson and a friend to numerous fine, upstanding LGBTQ individuals, I think it’s a shame the Kalona Public Library doesn’t have more LGTBQ-positive books for people to explore and check out,” that email continued. “People have a right to decide what they want to look at or read; they do not have the right to dictate what others see and read.”
Another email said the book’s controversy was no reason to ban it, and suggested that those who disagreed with its contents simply avoid reading it.
“As citizens of a democratic society, we have the right and the privilege to decide for ourselves what books are appropriate for ourselves and our children,” it said. “This ban would set a dangerous precedent ... under the guise of protecting our children from content that there is no reason for them to access in the first place.”
While most board members said they were not offended by Kobabe’s work, they said their decision would be based on library policy, rather than their personal opinions. That policy, however, focuses almost exclusively on how to go about adding new books, not how to consider their removal.
Library Director Trevor Sherping said it would be nearly impossible to reach consensus on such standards for the board in Kalona. He gave an anecdote about a parent who once informally asked the library to remove all Marvel movies from the catalog, on the charge that they were p___graphic.
“People come in and say it’s obscene, and they think because they think it’s obscene, it is,” he said. “I have to remind them that, no matter what you think about it, unless it’s like, legally obscene, it’s just a huge sliding scale … It’s hard for people because this may be the first time that they’ve considered, ‘What do you do with a book that you don’t agree with?’”
In any case, library officials said they needed to be cautious of what they called “soft censorship,” in which barriers would reduce a work’s circulation, even if it wasn’t removed outright.
That concern may rule out middle-ground resolutions like keeping the book in a locked case before checkout, or behind the counter where it would be available only upon request.
“It might be embarrassing for somebody to come up and ask the librarian for a specific book, but they might want that book,” Board Member Shirlene Seale said. “The other thing I was thinking was, at what point do you know when to stop putting things behind the counter? Because there … are quite a few books that are out there that are maybe not what I would want to read.”
Some library board members said they’d be comfortable adding books that critique transgender and nonbinary-centered gender theories to the library collection, but were far more hesitant about removing a book for its ideas.
Trustee board Vice President Kyle Askling said he wanted the library to serve as a marketplace of ideas.
“My concern is removing that viewpoint, because I actually learned something from that book,” he said. “I didn’t understand what it meant to be asexual. And it totally made me aware of it … I at least know where they’re coming from because of it.”
https://www.southeastiowaunion.com/ne...
Mod
I hope that this happens, but I am also afraid that somehow there will be a move afoot to ban trans gender individuals from voting altogether.
Iowa Library Association urges concerned residents to contact their representativesIn March, the Iowa Library Association issued a press release calling on concerned Iowans to contact their representatives to voice their opposition to this legislation, which it says will “harmfully impact the vital work of librarians and educators, as well as the pursuits of every student, library patron, and life-long learner in our state.”
In a statement sent to The Daily Nonpareil Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh cautioned the state legislature against what he calls “the treacherous slide down the proverbial slippery slope.
“A difficult obstacle when crafting effective legislation is to not create laws that contain obviously contradictory components,” he said. “The Iowa legislature is considering enacting new legislation rooted in an effort to expand parental involvement in their children’s access to information. The contradictory shortcoming is that this law will allow a small group of Iowa citizens, acting on their own personal belief system, to make final decisions as to what is considered appropriate written content for every other Iowan.
“If the content is deemed inappropriate in a single Iowa community, it must subsequently be pulled from library shelves across the entire State of Iowa. We are all Iowans, but your beliefs certainly won’t always synchronize with my beliefs and vice versa. Legislation should not support capricious restrictions on citizens’ rights to access legal information.”
Council Bluffs Public Library Director Antonia Krupicka-Smith echoed the mayor’s concerns, and said the proposed legislation could limit access throughout the community “due to opinions not supported by our residents.”
https://nonpareilonline.com/news/iowa...
A librarian in New Jersey has been labeled a child predator and she's suing A woman working as a high school librarian is fighting back in court against local residents who she says are targeting her and calling her a “child predator” over books on the school’s shelves. Roxana Russo Caivano, a librarian at Roxbury High School in New Jersey since 2010, accuses four Roxbury town residents of slandering and libeling her by suggesting she’s exposing students to books that they consider p____ic, according to a lawsuit filed in state superior court in late March.
Now she’s suing the four residents for defamation. She says their accusations, which began in September, wrongly accuse her of criminal behavior and are aimed at harming her reputation and job, according to the complaint.
The other defendants are being represented by Corinne Mullen, who told The Daily Record, which first reported the case, that Caivano’s lawsuit would “impose a chilling effect on the First Amendment rights of the parents.” Anthony Caivano, Caivano’s attorney who is also her husband, told the outlet that parents concerned about any school library books should redirect their efforts to the township board of education or the state, which has approved the books as part of the curriculum.
Three defendants named in the complaint are women who spoke out against Caivano at a March 6 Roxbury Board of Education meeting, according to the lawsuit. At the meeting, they “attacked (Caivano’s) credentials and employment status, and caused (her) emotional distress by stating that (she) has (view spoiler) the complaint says. Caivano argues these three women do not have children who attend Roxbury High School.
Two of the women have said they are parents of children who go to the school, including in an interview with Fox News on April 28.
Caivano says one of the women has published “libelous and defamatory” information on a blog, saying she’s “guilty of criminal acts by including certain works of literature” at the school library, according to the complaint.
Gender Queer: A Memoir
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nati...
More from IowaA Rethink on Book Banning: how S.F. 496 could affect LGBTQ+ Students
Courtesy of Emma Ketelsen
The Iowa Senate is poised to pass a bill that would drastically change how public schools in the state approach LGBTQ+ students and topics. Senate File 496 would ban the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in grades K-6 and remove books from schools that describe or depict a sex act. The bill is part of Governor Kim Reynolds’ push for what she has labeled “parental rights’’ in schools.
The bill has activists concerned that S.F. 496 will be misused to remove any books relating to LGBTQ+ topics from classrooms and school libraries.
Mike Beranek, president of the Iowa State Education Association, a public school teacher’s union and branch of the National Education Association, described the importance of books representing all minorities being included in school libraries.
“Our children need to see themselves in the books they read, hear themselves in the curriculum and the conversations that take place and to recognize that there are people who are different than they are and that they need to understand how to work cooperatively in their life,” Beranek said.
Iowa House Democratic Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst voiced her support for the LGBTQ+ community and is against the bill.
“Every kid in Iowa deserves to learn and thrive in a safe environment at school,” Konfrst said.“ Censoring public schools from providing information or talking about LGBTQ+ families puts the lives of more Iowa kids at risk.”
ACLU of Iowa Executive Director Mark Stringer voiced support for LGBTQ+ youth ...
“...politicians are deciding that they know what is best for individual kids and individual families.”
Stringer also denounced these bills as a way for politicians to “score political points” and expressed worry over S.F. 496 possibly banning books and references that acknowledge or that include gay, transgender and nonbinary people.
Iowa Safe Schools, a nonprofit that works to support LGBTQ+ youth and teachers at school, is concerned about students’ freedom of speech and access to knowledge being violated. Iowa Safe Schools is currently lobbying against the bill.
“It’s not cherry-picking here and there. The end goal is to really drastically rein in the materials that our libraries have offered and destroy libraries from being a safe and inclusive space for everyone to learn and read,” said Damian Thompson, ISS Director of Public Policy and Communication.
Thompson raised concerns that groups lobbying for banning books in school are trying to keep students from thinking critically and engaging in academic discussions about specific topics or learning to decide what material is appropriate for them. He cited the recent removal of a graphic novel adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” that was removed from a Florida high school.
“Our students are much smarter than I think some of these folks are giving them credit for, and maybe that’s why they’re concerned,” Thompson said. “They don’t want them to think critically about so many of these issues, which are obviously front of mind.”
Thompson explained that ISS’s “flagship program” is their Affirming Resource Library, which curates age-appropriate, completely free literature for students, parents and educators discussing LGBTQ+ topics. The ISS is working to continue expanding the program.
In an email, Ryan Wise, the Dean of the School of Education at Drake University, echoed that inclusive books are crucial to students.
“Books depicting the struggles and achievements of historically marginalized communities give students from diverse backgrounds a voice and share a perspective that is too often silenced,” Wise said. “In addition, book bans and other restrictions have an adverse effect on students considering the teaching profession.”
Since 1990, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network has surveyed queer youth every two years for The National School Climate Survey. According to their 2021 report, only 16.5% of LGBTQ+ students reported LGBTQ-related topics being included in textbooks or other assigned readings–down 3% since 2019. Only 48% of the 22,298 students surveyed could find books or information on LGBTQ-related topics in their school library.
That lack of representation has an impact. About 45% of LGBT youth seriously considered suicide in the past year, with nearly one in five transgender students attempting suicide, according to a national survey by the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group and suicide prevention network. LGBTQ+ students that felt supported and affirmed at school reported lower rates of attempting suicide.
“If it’s not been evident already, by all the politicians speaking out, having these resources, having these books and everything saves lives,” said Andi Turnbull, a transgender student at Drake University. “I know some people personally who probably wouldn’t be around if we did not have these resources because they [were so] religious. They grew up so closeted, and they didn’t have any outlet to express themselves without fear of being judged.”
https://timesdelphic.com/2023/04/a-re...
https://tinyurl.com/IowaAffirmingLibrary
and ironically, the Library's Bill of Rights was penned by a librarian in Iowa in the 1930s to fight fascism. It's now the basis for library policy across the U.S. Forrest Spaulding, the library director of the Des Moines Public Library, responded with a short, four-point list of what he called “The Library’s Bill of Rights” in 1938.
Spaulding wanted to protect the library’s integrity as a space to find resources and promote the freedom of information. He wanted to keep it free from political interference, growing intolerance and the censorship he noticed creeping in, so the library could continue serving the people of Des Moines.
He was specifically focused on how censorship and intolerance affected the rights of minorities and individuals.
The document was presented to the library board and passed as library policy in November that year, apparently without issue.
In America, Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” Ernest Hemmingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath,” and Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” were among the books banned. Others—both fiction and nonfiction—were banned for depictions of racism in the American South and/or for sexual content.
A whole series of American social studies and history textbooks written by Harold Rugg, which put more emphasis on class inequality in American history, was frequently challenged and banned across the country.
In June 1939—a few months before World War II would officially start—at a meeting for the American Library Association (ALA), Spaulding’s friend and a member of the association moved for a more universal version of the Des Moines document to be used for all American libraries. It was adopted easily.
Prior to Spaulding, censorship wasn’t a big concern for many librarians, but the changing culture made the ALA more responsive to an explicit stance against censorship and having information freely available to anyone.
When pushed about his opposition to all censorship, Spaulding replied, ‘If more people had read “Mein Kampf,’ some of Hitler’s despotism might have been prevented.”
That was the principle which fueled Spaulding’s advocacy.
Close to 84 years later, the universal Library Bill of Rights now has seven points, but it still revolves around the idea that public libraries are for everyone and no idea should be restricted or censored. In fact, the most current bill of rights declares public libraries have a responsibility to actively fight against censorship, not only resist it.
Spaulding was also appointed as the chair of a special ALA committee on censorship, the Intellectual Freedom Committee.
Spaulding spent the rest of his life fighting censorship, and advocating that free information was key to a healthy society.
https://iowastartingline.com/2023/05/...
The good news is from Illinois, where I was just on vacation. Illinois lawmakers push back on library book bans
"Illinois lawmakers approved a measure requiring libraries to adopt an anti-book banning policy in order to receive state funding, in a Wednesday vote that fissured along party lines.
The legislation has passed both chambers and now heads to the desk of Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said he looks forward to signing it.
“This landmark legislation is a triumph for our democracy, a win for First Amendment rights, and most importantly, a great victory for future generations to come,” said Giannoulias in a news conference Wednesday after HB 2789 cleared the Senate in a party-line vote.
In order to be eligible for state funding, the bill requires libraries to adopt the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights, which holds that “materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation,” and “should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”
Libraries may also develop an alternative policy prohibiting the practice of banning to receive the funds.
All 19 Republicans in the Illinois Senate voted against the measure, including Republican Sen. Jason Plummer, who represents Edwardsville, a city northeast of St. Louis.
Plummer said the bill is an effort by Illinois Democrats “to force their extreme ideology on communities across this state” and would wrest control from local libraries.
“The members of locally elected library boards, who work to increase literacy in their communities, don’t need a book-ban agenda foisted on them by Chicago politicians who are just trying to get cheap publicity,” Plummer said in a news release.
“It’s offensive to the ideals of good government to threaten to take public funding away from the very communities that generated that funding through their taxes,” he said.
Sec. of State, Alexi Giannoulias, a Democrat, said he is “blown away that this has become a partisan issue.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...
Down in Florida, the you know whos are on the war path banning random books like Nora RobertsFrom the Washington Post
Tiffany Justice, co-founder of the right-wing book-purging organization Moms for Liberty, offered a righteous-sounding answer when asked this past weekend on “CBS Sunday Morning” what sort of book she wants to see remain in schools.
(view spoiler)
That’s hard to square with what just happened in Martin County, Fla. The school district there recently decided to yank from its high school library circulation eight novels by Nora Roberts that are not “pornography” at all — largely prompted by objections from a single woman who also happens to be a Moms for Liberty activist.
“All of it is shocking,” Roberts told us. “If you don’t want your teenager reading this book, that’s your right as a mom — and good luck with that. But you don’t have the right to say nobody’s kid can read this book.”
Book banners are increasingly going after a wide variety of titles, including romance novels, under the guise of targeting “po___graphy.
Martin County is where 20 Jodi Picoult novels were recently pulled from school library shelves. This, too, was largely because of objections from that same Moms for Liberty activist, Julie Marshall, head of the group’s local chapter.
he basis for Marshall’s objections to Roberts’s books, according to parental objection forms obtained and provided to us by the Florida Freedom to Read Project, is this: “These books are adult romance novels. They have absolutely no reason to be in school libraries.”
That sole objection, with no elaboration, was lodged against a bunch of books written by a single author, leading to their removal.
Four of those books, which make up “The Bride Quartet,” are about friends seeking love as they build their wedding-planning business.
The books have some sex scenes, but the language is often vague enough that a child would have little idea what was happening. ... And — spoiler alert — each book ends with a marriage proposal.
Roberts allowed that the books contain “sex” but noted that it is “monogamous” and “consensual.” Speaking of the censors, Roberts told us: “I’m surprised that they wouldn’t want teenagers to read about healthy relationships that are monogamous, consensual, healthy and end up in marriage.”
Three of the other Roberts books make up the “Dream” trilogy, and each also ends with a marriage proposal. The final Roberts book is a futuristic romance/thriller that does not end this way.
Roberts, for her part, divides her time between raising money for libraries and working on her next project. Speaking about the activist who got her books pulled, Roberts joked: “I’m writing another book that this woman can ban.”
Also banned
Forever...
The Fixer (Pulitzer Prize winner)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...
Michigan residents polled to see what they think about book banning lawsThe Michigan Library Association (MLA) commissioned EPIC-MRA, a survey research firm, to conduct a statewide survey in which 800 voters submitted responses regarding awareness of and attitudes toward the dictating or materials in local public libraries.
Michiganders oppose book banning by a vast majority, according to the findings.
"A small minority who are trying to ban books are cynically attempting to limit as much as possible the teaching of history, especially books discussing slavery, race, political ideas they disagree with, criticisms of people and events in U.S. history, and discussions about sex, gender identity or sexual orientation," said Bernie Porn, President of EPIC-MRA. "About 9-in-10 voters say books on these topics should never be banned, with 2-in-3 saying the same thing about books dealing with sexual content."
The poll found that 67% of the respondents said there is no time when books with discussions about sex, gender identity or sexual orientation should be banned, and 57% of respondents said they are less likely to vote for their member of Congress, a State Senator or State Representative if they allow and/or require book bans at local libraries.
71% of respondents positively rated local libraries providing programs, services and diverse, quality collections of books and materials.
83% majority of all participants would support state legislation protecting the right of the public to read what they would like to in public libraries and for books not to be banned.
70% majority of the respondents said that librarians are very capable or mostly capable and trustworthy in determining which reading materials should be included in local libraries.
42% plurality of all respondents agreed that "there is absolutely no time when a book should be banned from local public libraries."
75% majority said we need to protect young people's access to books so they can learn about different perspectives and grow into adults who can think for themselves.
80% agree with the following statement: "Individual parents can set rules for their own children, but they do not have the right to decide for other parents what books are available to their children."
77% agreed that libraries should contain a diverse collection of materials that represent different communities throughout the world
https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/...
Gender Queer: A Memoir under fire in Windham, Maine school district today. Wednesday night, Windham and Raymond school officials will make a decision.Senator James Libby of Standish proposed a bill this year that he says would protect children from what he sees as “inappropriate material” and set a standard for what is allowed in schools.
https://wgme.com/news/local/windham-r...
Mod
Illinois lawmakers push back on library book bans
"Illinois lawmakers approved a measure requiring libraries to adopt an anti-book b..."
Glad for some good new amongst the rest. And hope you had a wonderful vacation! I've never been to Chicago, except the airport, but I know it would be an amazing place to visit.
O'Hare airport is just as big and busy as everyone says it us but the city was fun. My friend I was visiting really likes the governor and now I do too! The ALA is based there so I'll have to go back and check it out and get more involved next time. BookRiot has a shopping list of banned books goodies. I have a shirt from the local library.
https://bookriot.com/banned-book-good...
The Seattle Public Library becomes the second library to offer a Books Unbanned shelf to teens for free. Any teen and young adult 13-26 living anywhere in the country can apply for a library card to access the virtual shelf.https://www.spl.org/programs-and-serv...
Yet censorship continues in places like Tennessee, following Florida in the textbook battle."Gov. Bill Lee has signed a new law that puts book publishers, sellers and distributors at risk of prosecution for providing written materials to the state’s public schools that may at any point be deemed obscene.
The new law could open book vendors to Class E felony charges, carrying 1-6 years in prison and a minimum $10,000 fine that could be increased to $100,000 for the newly created offense.
Library and free expression groups — including PEN America and the Tennessee Association of School Librarians — have called the measure an effort to censor and intimidate the publishing industry and one that will likely deter book publishers everywhere from doing business with Tennessee schools.
Gov. Bill Lee has signed a new law that puts book publishers, sellers and distributors at risk of prosecution for providing written materials to the state’s public schools that may at any point be deemed obscene.
The new law could open book vendors to Class E felony charges, carrying 1-6 years in prison and a minimum $10,000 fine that could be increased to $100,000 for the newly created offense.
Library and free expression groups — including PEN America and the Tennessee Association of School Librarians — have called the measure an effort to censor and intimidate the publishing industry and one that will likely deter book publishers everywhere from doing business with Tennessee schools.
Strengthening the potential for felony charges against publishers and distributors harkens back in history decades and decades ago when government sought to stymie the circulation of new ideas and information . . . This bill reflects common tactics by authoritarian governments abroad
– Jonathan Friedman, PEN America
The new law is one of 119 being considered this year in state legislatures across the nation to limit children’s access to written materials — some similarly creating new criminal offenses while others have involved redefining state obscenity laws or otherwise restricting children’s access to reading material, according to a database of legislation compiled by EveryLibrary, a library political action group.
Only a handful of states are considering measures similar to Tennessee’s approach targeting book sellers and distributors.
Among them is Texas, where proposed legislation would require publishers to affix age ratings to the covers of books sold to public and charter schools; school districts would be barred from buying books from publishers who failed to comply.
In Louisiana, proposed legislation would provide for attorney general investigations into publishers and distributors of material that is “harmful to minors.”
Debates over suitable and unsuitable books for kids have emerged in school and library board meetings across the state, but this law is the only one focused on public school children’s access to books to make it through the Tennessee Legislature this year.
“Strengthening the potential for felony charges against publishers and distributors harkens back in history decades and decades ago when government sought to stymie the circulation of new ideas and information — eras associated with the very definition of censorship and suppression,” Jonathan Friedman, director of PEN America’s Free Expression and Education program, said in a statement.
“This bill reflects common tactics by authoritarian governments abroad,” he said.
Tennessee’s law would leave it up to District Attorneys to determine if materials meet the state’s definition of obscene. Obscene is defined under state law as (view spoiler) and, as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value — according to an average person applying contemporary community standards.
The law, introduced by Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, and Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, takes effect July 1. Lee signed the measure into law on Friday.
https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/05/...
California is going in the opposite direction, however, as much as I support the idea, I think in practice it will not go over well with many parents and open up more ridiculous challenges taking up time and money. California Bill Would Require Books on ‘All Gender Expressions’ in Every Elementary School
'California Democrats are advancing legislation that would require elementary schools to provide students access to books about radical gender ideology and other progressive causes, an effort to push against the "national Christian white supremacist movement," according to the bill's author.
California assemblyman Corey Jackson, a Democrat, said the legislation "intends to combat the national Christian white supremacist movement, which is aimed to ban books." His bill, which was pushed through committee and will now head to the full legislature, would put a state board in charge of classroom and school library books and texts.
Books about "people of all gender expressions" would be required in every public and charter school, according to the current text of the bill. To remove any potentially inappropriate materials, schools would first have to ask the state’s permission. But certain religious books could be ditched without government approval"
In a sign that the Assembly is aware of the measure’s contentiousness, education committee staff suggested Friday that Jackson axe the provision that would make schools seek state approval before removing books. It is unclear what the measure will look like in its final form.
Jackson, however, framed his proposal in politically charged terms, telling the committee that he wants to address "the radicalization of the Christian faith," which he claimed uses anger and economic uncertainty "to achieve a political objective."
"We must meet this moment of history and make sure we are on the right side of it," he said.
Lance Christensen, the vice president of policy for the California Policy Center, who last year ran as a Republican for state superintendent of schools, spoke against Jackson’s bill and the Democratic lawmaker’s rhetoric.
"It’s shocking to have an author of a bill to make such inflammatory commentary on those who would oppose this bill in good faith," Christensen told the committee. He added that opposing "radical indoctrination does not mean we are all white Christian nationalists" and that Jackson and his fellow Democrats were confusing bookshelf curation with book-banning."
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/cali...
Children's Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Out of the Blue (other topics)The Princess in Black and the Prince in Pink (other topics)
My Rainbow (other topics)
Butt or Face? Volume 3: Super Gross Butts (other topics)
The Day the Books Disappeared (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jodi Picoult (other topics)Sarah J. Maas (other topics)
Ellen Hopkins (other topics)
Jodi Picoult (other topics)
Scott Stuart (other topics)
More...
Gender Queer: A Memoir
Lawn Boy
All Boys Aren't Blue
Out of Darkness
This Book Is Gay
The Bluest Eye
The Boise Public Library has copies of all of the books removed from the Ada Community Library system. “This was an effort to ensure that our policy and staff guidelines were usable and understandable, to test the exception in the statute, and to explore the types of books that do and do not fall within the prohibition of the statute,” the board said.
Read more at: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/l...