@ Book Bans

[hermione]

This is in Michigan. A prosecutor is threatening to charge librarians criminally if a book is not pulled from the shelves. Note that the book is actually shelved in the adult section of the library but the claim is we need to protect kids.

www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-prosecutor-mulls-charging-lapeer-library-over-lgbtq-book?fbclid=IwAR2uXt254Oaefy1GmIMA25vFWVhwL3Y0juzmBBHKuBUOtZURUz3feaKX4vg 

[AJL]

This is bananas to me. Absolutely bananas! How is this not a first amendment violation? And also, would our SCOTUS actually strike down these actions? 🤬😡

[macmars45]

It's hard not to despair over everything. :-(

[wanderingback]

This needs an @@ please

[wanderingback]

One resident checked out the book and took it to the police. The police returned it to the library. Good for them.

Glad the librarian is standing up to this even though shouldn’t have to.

The antis and white supremacists are going to keep pushing, it seems rather bleak.

[smock]

I'm rolling my eyes so hard at the "shocked" prosecutor who can't handle an LGBTQ book because it includes drawings of sex acts, but has no issue with “The Joy of Sex" (which is at the same library and includes drawings of heterosexual sex acts).

In case these book banners need a history lesson, the side banning books is never the "good" side.

[Nonny]

@i've read the book Gender Queer, because I was highly (HIGHLY) skeptical about all the conservative hang wringing, and there are no sex acts between prepubescent children in the book.

My guess is the sex act that is getting them riled up is the scene that involves two consenting young adults (probably in their early twenties - their age is kind of ambiguous, but it's clear they are not minors). I'll put it under spoiler tags since I know people are at work.

SPOILER: Click to show

It involves performing fellatio on a strap on penis.

Most of the nudity in the book involves things like wanting to wade topless in the summer at a child, or going to the gynecologist.


ETA: I want to be clear, I'm not in favor of book bans in general, but this one is so just so ick because of how it's just about attacking the LGBTQ+ community under the guise of "won't someone think of the children." I hate these people so much.

[mpm]

WTH.

On this subject, @ mrs.frazzled is currently doing a banned book story time series on TikTok where she reads books from the banned book lists to draw attention to how absurd these ban attempts are and it’s spectacular. I’ve been adding many to our future reading lists.

[maudefindlay]

I'm in IN and we have a local church going after our library, because one of their members felt "uncomfortable" upon seeing the LGBTQ display in the teen section. She's 19, ffs go to the kids dept then, maybe that is your speed. What makes you uncomfortable doesn't mean we remove it. Our libraries should not be run like a church.

[fernweh]

This library is very close to where I grew up (about 20 minutes). I’m outraged but not at all shocked.

[nsl]

Speaking as a school librarian who has been dealing with this dystopian nonsense for over a year now, we NEED non-librarians/non-teachers to stand up and be as vocal as possible about why you object to banning books from your school and public libraries. The groups pushing these bans (and the legislation in question--it's all over the country now) are organized and well funded. Our side isn't. People in my job know that the majority of our patrons and community members don't want books restricted or banned--or librarians arrested and charged--but if you don't go to meetings, speak out, write your legislators, etc... we will continue to lose this fight. Because we are most definitely losing it right now.

Timely anecdote time: Earlier today I got a call from my asst. superintendent--the dude himself, not just his office--asking me to pull a book from our shelves. The ask was a direct violation of district policy, but due to a law passed here last year having the book available probably puts us in a legally precarious place. I said no, that I was going to follow policy and leave it on the shelves until/unless it is officially challenged. This is what doing my job as a librarian means--I might just lose my job for this decision. Help me and the people doing the same work in your community by not forcing us to go it alone.

[erbear]

Mar 15, 2023 16:08:14 GMT -5 mpm said:

WTH.

On this subject, @ mrs.frazzled is currently doing a banned book story time series on TikTok where she reads books from the banned book lists to draw attention to how absurd these ban attempts are and it’s spectacular. I’ve been adding many to our future reading lists.

As a career teacher, I stand by the saying that the best way to get a kid to read a book is to ban it. It's almost unbelievable that librarians are on the front lines of this but here we are. Who knew that I would be considered a crusader for pushing kids to read?

[nsl]

Mar 15, 2023 17:47:43 GMT -5 erbear said:

Mar 15, 2023 16:08:14 GMT -5 mpm said:

WTH.

On this subject, @ mrs.frazzled is currently doing a banned book story time series on TikTok where she reads books from the banned book lists to draw attention to how absurd these ban attempts are and it’s spectacular. I’ve been adding many to our future reading lists.

As a career teacher, I stand by the saying that the best way to get a kid to read a book is to ban it. It's almost unbelievable that librarians are on the front lines of this but here we are. Who knew that I would be considered a crusader for pushing kids to read?

Unfortunately, the refrain that banning books just leads kids to reading them more just isn't borne out by the facts. Kids need school libraries (as well as public libraries in some cases) precisely because they either cannot safely take certain books home, or because there is no way for them to access them outside of that protected space due to needing an adult to transport them to the library/bookstore where it's available. This is most significantly true for our LGBTQ+ students. Banning. Books. Never. Helps. Kids.

And I totally feel you on never imagining that I'd be labeled a radical for encouraging students to read. In what sane world is putting a book in a kid's hands a crime? Particularly a book that's written for their age group, reviewed positively by professional book reviewers, and added to my collection as meeting a need no other volume could meet?

ETA: Kelly Jensen is an author, former librarian, and activist who's done some important work on this topic. I'll encourage anyone outraged about the current state of book bans to read her work: bookriot.com/author/kellyjensen/

[Michelle]

nsl,

My community created a Banned Book society. We read a different book proposed for banning each month and discuss some of the potential reasons some parents might be concerned. We also share opinions on the proper grade level.

We have a couple of librarians in the group to lend their expertise as well.

We prepare ourselves for school board meetings where we can speak - from an informed perspective- about any proposed book banning. So far we’ve fended off the banning and hope to keep it that way.

All our communities need to do this. Especially in red states.

[erbear]

Mar 22, 2023 6:49:35 GMT -5 Michelle said:

nsl,

My community created a Banned Book society. We read a different book proposed for banning each month and discuss some of the potential reasons some parents might be concerned. We also share opinions on the proper grade level.

We have a couple of librarians in the group to lend their expertise as well.

We prepare ourselves for school board meetings where we can speak - from an informed perspective- about any proposed book banning. So far we’ve fended off the banning and hope to keep it that way.

All our communities need to do this. Especially in red states.

I had a club at my middle school two years ago called “the Subversive Book Club” (tic at my school — we don’t ban books). There were close to 50 kids in it (out of 150 in the middle school). We had speakers come in, and we just read and talked about how stupid banning books is. I figured kids are going to be on the front lines of this mess so they ought to have 1) read the books and 2) formulated ways to combat the stupidity.

[picksthemusic]

I was raised by an English teacher, so I was reading all kinds of things as a young person that were probably not super age appropriate. VC Andrews, anyone? Like, I remember when we were all reading that voraciously as 13 year-olds.

All that to say book bans are awful and if it starts happening here, I'm speaking up.

[sadie]

Mar 22, 2023 6:49:35 GMT -5 Michelle said:

nsl,

My community created a Banned Book society. We read a different book proposed for banning each month and discuss some of the potential reasons some parents might be concerned. We also share opinions on the proper grade level.

We have a couple of librarians in the group to lend their expertise as well.

We prepare ourselves for school board meetings where we can speak - from an informed perspective- about any proposed book banning. So far we’ve fended off the banning and hope to keep it that way.

All our communities need to do this. Especially in red states.

Can you share more about your book list for this society? I will soon be joining my local library's board of trustees and will likely be facing banning controversies at some point.

[sonrisa]

Books with murder and guns are all over the library. But god forbid we acknowledge queer people exist.

I took my kid to an exhibit of Maia kotabe’s work on the display at a local college. Their favorite was ‘non-binary bunny' 

redgoldsparkspress.com/projects/7121743

[Michelle]

Mar 22, 2023 12:00:31 GMT -5 sadie said:

Mar 22, 2023 6:49:35 GMT -5 Michelle said:

nsl ,

My community created a Banned Book society. We read a different book proposed for banning each month and discuss some of the potential reasons some parents might be concerned. We also share opinions on the proper grade level.

We have a couple of librarians in the group to lend their expertise as well.

We prepare ourselves for school board meetings where we can speak - from an informed perspective- about any proposed book banning. So far we’ve fended off the banning and hope to keep it that way.

All our communities need to do this. Especially in red states.

Can you share more about your book list for this society? I will soon be joining my local library's board of trustees and will likely be facing banning controversies at some point.

We're using the various books brought up in Texas since that is where we are located. This is a good resource: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-library-books-banned-schools-rcna12986

Each month, members get to vote on the next book we read. So far we have read the following, with the first as a softball to get us started:

Of Mice and Men
Gender Queer
The Hate U Give
Out of Darkness (Ashley Hope Perez)
The Bluest Eye
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Perks of Being a Wallflower
Project 1619
How to Be Black (chosen for levity after Project 1619).

Frequently high in votes but not yet chosen have been:
LawnBoy
New Kid
How to Be an Anti-Racist (at different reading levels)
Stamped
This One Summer    


If our school board gets challenged books, they get bumped in priority for the reading list. 

[Michelle]

Mar 23, 2023 9:30:40 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

Books with murder and guns are all over
The library. But god for we acknowledge queer people exist.

I took my kid to an exhibit of Maia kotabe’s work on the display at a local college. Their favorite was ‘non-binary bunny

redgoldsparkspress.com/projects/7121743

The book with the most graphic and pervasive murder, rape, incest, thievery, torture, and cruelty is the one most heavily promoted in schools - the Bible.

[basilosaurus]

Mar 23, 2023 10:42:32 GMT -5 Michelle said:

Mar 23, 2023 9:30:40 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

Books with murder and guns are all over
The library. But god for we acknowledge queer people exist.

I took my kid to an exhibit of Maia kotabe’s work on the display at a local college. Their favorite was ‘non-binary bunny

redgoldsparkspress.com/projects/7121743

The book with the most graphic and pervasive murder, rape, incest, thievery, torture, and cruelty is the one most heavily promoted in schools - the Bible.

It's almost a cheap punchline to point this out. I still do it of course. Sure, get your daddy drunk and rape him. Send a she bear (she of course) to kill 42 children for making fun of a bald guy. But a child realizing racism exists? That's way too far.

These fucking assholes

[maudefindlay]

Just saw this in my feed. I really believe the majority are against this, but we sit and are quiet and the sick minority who want this are loud and organizing.

[Jalapeñomel]

Mar 24, 2023 7:57:50 GMT -5 maudefindlay said:

Just saw this in my feed. I really believe the majority are against this, but we sit and are quiet and the sick minority who want this are loud and organizing.

@@@@@@

As a HS teacher, I will say that the kids coming up will not stand for this. 

[sonrisa]

Mar 24, 2023 7:57:50 GMT -5 maudefindlay said:

Just saw this in my feed. I really believe the majority are against this, but we sit and are quiet and the sick minority who want this are loud and organizing.

churches can build all the libraries they want. Christian scientists have been doing it for years. They have nothing to do with public libraries and no one goes there for a reason.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Mar 28, 2023 9:00:52 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

Mar 24, 2023 7:57:50 GMT -5 maudefindlay said:

Just saw this in my feed. I really believe the majority are against this, but we sit and are quiet and the sick minority who want this are loud and organizing.

churches can build all the libraries they want. Christian scientists have been doing it for years. They have nothing to do with public libraries and no one goes there for a reason.

The church I attended growing up had this little library where members could donate their old books, pick up new ones, etc. It was a solid 90% smutty romance novels.

[basilosaurus]

Not a book, but a single parent complained about a Disney created Ruby Bridges movie.
www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/03/27/removal-ruby-bridges-film-pinellas-school-sparks-outrage/

"A North Shore Elementary parent who would not allow her child to watch the film when it was shown in early March later complained that it wasn’t appropriate for second graders. In a formal challenge dated March 6, Emily Conklin wrote that the use of racial slurs and scenes of white people threatening Ruby as she entered a school might result in students learning that white people hate Black people."

Under FL's DeFuhrer's parental "rights" a single complaint pulls the book (or movie) immediately until further review. There's no timeline for that review, though.

[1yeartogo]

www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/us/texas-llano-county-library-banned-books/index.html

Apparently this library system is considering shutting down as opposed to returning books to shelves, because less information/education is always the answer (sarcasm, 🤦🏼‍♀️)

[basilosaurus]

Apr 12, 2023 5:48:11 GMT -5 1yeartogo said:

www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/us/texas-llano-county-library-banned-books/index.html

Apparently this library system is considering shutting down as opposed to returning books to shelves, because less information/education is always the answer (sarcasm, 🤦🏼‍♀️)

"In 2022, the number of attempts to censor library books reached an unparalleled record high since the American Library Association began documenting data about book censorship over 20 years ago, the organization said in March.

It cataloged 1,269 demands to censor library books in 2022 – nearly double the number of challenges in 2021."

Lovely. I truly do not understand the workings of these small-minded assholes.

[seeyalater52]

Apr 12, 2023 5:48:11 GMT -5 1yeartogo said:

www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/us/texas-llano-county-library-banned-books/index.html

Apparently this library system is considering shutting down as opposed to returning books to shelves, because less information/education is always the answer (sarcasm, 🤦🏼‍♀️)

The Missouri House just voted to defund all public libraries. They’re getting better at just going straight to the source I guess.

[underwaterrhymes]

My husband is a library director and this makes us so ANGRY.