@ Book Bans

[chedifuen]

I'm absolutely sick over this. I sit on our local library board and we had interviews recently to replace a few people. We had several people wanting to serve so that they could get books banned. They're not even attempting to be secretive about it. Luckily, we were able to select other candidates.

I've also had trouble with my own personal Little Free Library. I had a "banned books welcome" sign up and someone took it down. I replaced it and they removed it again and loaded my library with Christian parenting propaganda. I suspect LFL are an upcoming battle ground. I live in a very liberal area, I was definitely caught off-guard to be targeted by the crazies.

[seeyalater52]

This article does a nice job summarizing Scholastic’s offensive request to edit out racism from author Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s author’s note as part of the licensing agreement they’d offered her. Infuriating. Also I had no idea Scholastic was headquartered in Florida… feels like that should be as relevant to this current discussion as the oft-cited Texas market for textbooks influencing content has been over the years.

www.npr.org/2023/04/15/1169848627/scholastic-childrens-book-racism

[basilosaurus]

Apr 17, 2023 21:17:11 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

This article does a nice job summarizing Scholastic’s offensive request to edit out racism from author Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s author’s note as part of the licensing agreement they’d offered her. Infuriating. Also I had no idea Scholastic was headquartered in Florida… feels like that should be as relevant to this current discussion as the oft-cited Texas market for textbooks influencing content has been over the years.

www.npr.org/2023/04/15/1169848627/scholastic-childrens-book-racism

As much as I wanted to get out of FL asap, the FL of my youth was a very different landscape, basically 2 distinct states. Now it's a lone island of blue along with Miami-Dade. And desantis is punishing them for it. Just look at how long it took for desantis to even acknowledge the massive flooding in fort lauderdale. 

But, from that article I didn't read that as scholastic being hq in FL. It read "a" florida publisher. Not that it was this particular one.

The overall point of publishing giants being a root source of censorship is what I get out of this. 

[seeyalater52]

Apr 18, 2023 2:56:54 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Apr 17, 2023 21:17:11 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

This article does a nice job summarizing Scholastic’s offensive request to edit out racism from author Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s author’s note as part of the licensing agreement they’d offered her. Infuriating. Also I had no idea Scholastic was headquartered in Florida… feels like that should be as relevant to this current discussion as the oft-cited Texas market for textbooks influencing content has been over the years.

www.npr.org/2023/04/15/1169848627/scholastic-childrens-book-racism

As much as I wanted to get out of FL asap, the FL of my youth was a very different landscape, basically 2 distinct states. Now it's a lone island of blue along with Miami-Dade. And desantis is punishing them for it. Just look at how long it took for desantis to even acknowledge the massive flooding in fort lauderdale. 

But, from that article I didn't read that as scholastic being hq in FL. It read "a" florida publisher. Not that it was this particular one.

The overall point of publishing giants being a root source of censorship is what I get out of this. 

Hah thanks for correcting that. I’d read it elsewhere on Twitter and that’s what I get for scrolling in that place very late at night and not fact checking!

[Michelle]

Apr 12, 2023 10:51:45 GMT -5 chedifuen said:

I'm absolutely sick over this. I sit on our local library board and we had interviews recently to replace a few people. We had several people wanting to serve so that they could get books banned. They're not even attempting to be secretive about it. Luckily, we were able to select other candidates.

I've also had trouble with my own personal Little Free Library. I had a "banned books welcome" sign up and someone took it down. I replaced it and they removed it again and loaded my library with Christian parenting propaganda. I suspect LFL are an upcoming battle ground. I live in a very liberal area, I was definitely caught off-guard to be targeted by the crazies.

My daughter's LFL was built to promote diversity. People keep stealing the books we put in there and someone even replaced them with a Mormon Bible. There is stuff from all major religions, but they are children's books - not an actual religious text.

It was so tacky and rude.

[hermione]

Apr 12, 2023 6:20:19 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

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.

These numbers are incredibly low.

[sporklemotion]

Apr 18, 2023 14:20:46 GMT -5 hermione said:

Apr 12, 2023 6:20:19 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

"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.

These numbers are incredibly low.

I wonder if it includes school libraries, or if it includes other actions intended to restrict books. In my district, a group has been requesting copies of all book orders so that they can monitor them— this has a chilling effect, but I’m not sure if it’d be counted in the number in the article?

[nsl]

Apr 18, 2023 15:40:46 GMT -5 sporklemotion said:

Apr 18, 2023 14:20:46 GMT -5 hermione said:

These numbers are incredibly low.

I wonder if it includes school libraries, or if it includes other actions intended to restrict books. In my district, a group has been requesting copies of all book orders so that they can monitor them— this has a chilling effect, but I’m not sure if it’d be counted in the number in the article?

It wouldn't be. The ALA's numbers are also self-reported, so districts or librarians who choose not to report bans are never going to be tabulated. This also doesn't include "soft censorship," or books that are not purchased or are preemptively discarded out of concern that they may be targeted. I confess that I didn't request replacements for any of our outdated nonfiction books on human anatomy or sexuality this year--even though I was weeding extensively in that section and updating it--because I knew I'd never get those titles past the parents who watch our purchase request lists like hawks. If I didn't have my purchasing requests emailed to parents every month (and then have to wait 30 days for comments before I purchase anything) I'd have updated those titles in a heartbeat.

[sonrisa]

Apr 18, 2023 17:35:00 GMT -5 nsl said:

Apr 18, 2023 15:40:46 GMT -5 sporklemotion said:

I wonder if it includes school libraries, or if it includes other actions intended to restrict books. In my district, a group has been requesting copies of all book orders so that they can monitor them— this has a chilling effect, but I’m not sure if it’d be counted in the number in the article?

It wouldn't be. The ALA's numbers are also self-reported, so districts or librarians who choose not to report bans are never going to be tabulated. This also doesn't include "soft censorship," or books that are not purchased or are preemptively discarded out of concern that they may be targeted. I confess that I didn't request replacements for any of our outdated nonfiction books on human anatomy or sexuality this year--even though I was weeding extensively in that section and updating it--because I knew I'd never get those titles past the parents who watch our purchase request lists like hawks. If I didn't have my purchasing requests emailed to parents every month (and then have to wait 30 days for comments before I purchase anything) I'd have updated those titles in a heartbeat.

May I suggest trying with this book anyway? 

www.amazon.com/s?k=every+body+book&hvadid=243316332666&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9032092&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=6511049438685308245&hvtargid=kwd-474136129677&hydadcr=15494_10339824&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_6e90uhvg9_e

[nsl]

Apr 18, 2023 17:43:17 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

Apr 18, 2023 17:35:00 GMT -5 nsl said:

It wouldn't be. The ALA's numbers are also self-reported, so districts or librarians who choose not to report bans are never going to be tabulated. This also doesn't include "soft censorship," or books that are not purchased or are preemptively discarded out of concern that they may be targeted. I confess that I didn't request replacements for any of our outdated nonfiction books on human anatomy or sexuality this year--even though I was weeding extensively in that section and updating it--because I knew I'd never get those titles past the parents who watch our purchase request lists like hawks. If I didn't have my purchasing requests emailed to parents every month (and then have to wait 30 days for comments before I purchase anything) I'd have updated those titles in a heartbeat.

May I suggest trying with this book anyway? 

www.amazon.com/s?k=every+body+book&hvadid=243316332666&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9032092&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=6511049438685308245&hvtargid=kwd-474136129677&hydadcr=15494_10339824&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_6e90uhvg9_e

We're a high school, so we need more age-appropriate titles. This is a good one for younger readers, though!

[maudefindlay]

Sharonsaysso has an awesome reel on IG explaining why book bans are wrong. Great talking points if you end up discussing this with someone in favor of bans.

[Patsy Baloney]

Saw this bump up and thought I would add info about Illinois’ legislation to combat bans:

wgntv.com/news/illinois/gov-pritzker-signs-illinois-anti-book-banning-bill-into-law/amp/

“Illinois public libraries that restrict or ban materials because of “partisan or doctrinal” disapproval will be ineligible for state funding as of Jan. 1, 2024, when the new law goes into effect.”

[erbear]

@@@

I just saw the summer reading list for middle school at my school. All "banned" books

[nsl]

It's so heartening to see what Illinois is doing, and that there is a more organized effort to combat bans by the anti-ban crowd. That said, I spent my morning sitting in a Utah state legislature education committee hearing, and got to hear the Davis School District (the one that just banned the Bible, per both our state law about "sensitive materials" and the internal policy they developed as a result of that law) raked over the coals because they DIDN'T ban The Freedom Writers Diary. You would not believe the number of times that book was called pornography today. To the superintendent's credit, he defended the challenge committee's decision and stood up for students' rights to read as much as he could, a real surprise given the history of that district. Criticize TFWD all you want for white saviorism, but it is most definitely not porn, and yet multiple members of our state legislature called it such today based on a single passage written by a kid about her own life experiences.

Some other pieces of book banning news that are good, though: Penguin (one of the biggest publishers in the country) has formally filed a lawsuit, along with PEN America and several of their authors, against a Florida district that is banning those authors' books: www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2023-05-18/pen-america-and-penguin-random-house-suing-florida-school-district-book-bans

And if this issue matters to you, please do subscribe to Kelly Jensen's weekly column on what's happening on the local and state levels at Book Riot: bookriot.com/author/kellyjensen/. She's one of the only columnists I know who's covering this extensively on a regular basis, and her work is great.

[basilosaurus]

nsl you're in Utah I think? What's going on there with the small movement to ban the bible as pornographic in your area?

[nsl]

Jun 15, 2023 1:37:58 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

nsl you're in Utah I think? What's going on there with the small movement to ban the bible as pornographic in your area?

It's only been challenged in one district (that we know of), and that same district is also now facing a Book of Mormon challenge which will probably go down as well as you'd expect. What's really ironic is that the district where this is happening is one of the more conservative ones just north of Salt Lake City. Technically the ban wasn't under our pornography/sensitive materials law, but it never would have been challenged without that law so I consider it splitting hairs not to consider it a consequence of this very stupid piece of legislation.

The legislators who were behind our original book banning bill naturally lost their damn minds when the news broke, and right now seem intent on revising it next session to make school boards the final arbiters of what can stay or go from school libraries. All that would do is open up school board members to the kind of abuse we saw a couple of years ago if a book challenge committee makes an unpopular choice. There were several school board members who testified yesterday asking them NOT to do this as it will add an additional burden on them because they'll have to start reading challenged books.

Our legislature only meets for 40-ish days every winter, so nothing is going to get resolved anytime soon. The Bible decision has been appealed, the Book of Mormon challenge won't be finalized until sometime in the fall at the earliest, and we don't know what other highly polarizing challenges are brewing.