What We Are Doing to Libraries
If you want your heart broken–or if your heart is made of stronger stuff than mine–read this piece from the Washington Post, “The librarian who couldn’t take it anymore.”
Read MoreTania could feel something shifting inside her 21st-century media center. The relationships between students and books, and parents and libraries, and teachers and the books they taught, and librarians and the job they did — all of it was changing in a place she thought had been designed to stay the same.
A library was a room with shelves and books. A library was a place to read.
Now the library, or at least this library, was a place where a librarian was about to leave.
Librarians Don’t Belong In Jail
This is the kind of books that could have educators fined or jailed if LD 123 becomes law in Maine.
I’m from Portland, Maine. If you’re also a Mainer, please call your state representative and speak out against a bill, LD 123, which could leave school librarians open to $5000 fines and five years in jail for making books accessible to kids.
I hate the idea of targeting librarians and educators who are just trying to teach, inspire, and help kids. And I also hate the fact that this bill’s language is so vague that no one will be able to figure out what material violates it. Playboy? It’s Perfectly Normal? Any James Bond novel? GenderQueer? Speak? Julie of the Wolves? Who knows?
And that’s deliberate, of course. People who propose bills like these want every educator on edge all the time, worried about crippling fines and jail time instead of doing their jobs.
It’s vicious. It’s vile. Please push back.
Here’s an easy way to do just that.
Read MoreYou’re Right, Books Are Dangerous
Blue paper covers shelves of books that students are being denied access to.
This just breaks my heart.
In a classroom–a classroom–books are being kept away from students. Students want to read, to learn, to feed their curiosity, to enlarge their sense of the world, to simply have fun, and they’re being told NO. Are being told that’s not what school is for. Are being told that curiosity and openness of mind and heart must be controlled. Are being told that THEY must be controlled, that they and their teachers cannot be trusted to make choices about their own reading. About their own minds.
The people who made these laws are right about one thing–books are dangerous. They tell facts. They explain ideas. They make change. They are change.
And if that scares you–you might do something like this to children.
But it’s about your weakness and your fears, not about the books. And not about the students. The only thing on display here is the cowardice of lawmakers who don’t deserve the title, don’t deserve their jobs, and who are cowering in fear of chapter books.
Shame, shame, shame.
Read MoreCensorship
Thank you, Bonny Eagle School Board, for taking a stand against censorship and making sure kids will still be able to check out It’s Perfectly Normal!
A few takeaways in case you do not get a chance to read the whole article:
It’s Perfectly Normal is one of the most straightforward, nonjudgmental, accessible books about puberty and sexuality out there. It’s constantly praised and recommended for this age group.
It’s Perfectly Normal was not required reading or assigned in any class. It was just there, on the library shelf.
There was already a mechanism in place where parents could request that their kids be prevented from checking this book out. (I don’t like that, but it was there.) That didn’t satisfy this particular group of parents. They wanted to be sure that no kid could read this book. And while we’re on this topic, why does parental control only ever go one way? As a parent as well as an author, what if I want this kind of book available to my child? Do I not have any rights in that regard?
And finally, It’s Perfectly Normal for kids who are going through adolescence to want to read about adolescence, and it’s admirable for them to reach out and learn more about what’s happening to them. We should support that, not try to shut it down!
(And one extra point–I now really want to read Genderqueer, also under threat of censorship. Censors, take note–we most want to read what you try to take away.)
Read More
Sarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews