THE BAREFOOT LIBRARIAN Let Them Read
As librarians, educators, and booksellers would hope, the children's book industry is working harder to publish relevant books. This means there are more books (but not enough) featuring diversity, inclusiveness, racial topics, socialization, mental health status, emotional issues, social issues, environmental challenges, climate changes, strong characters from all walks of life, and the LGBTQ+ community. However, these newer books that reflect our times are some of the most targeted for removal from library shelves. As I have mentioned in previous articles, publishers and authors are fighting back by taking cases to court. And librarians, educators, and parents are taking a stand in school districts, local governments, and state legislatures. But these actions will take time. Meanwhile, thousands of books around the country remain of the shelves while these cases are resolved. So how would those fighting to get many of these children's books banned feel if books they deem important for their kids to read are challenged and removed from shelves? Well, recently, this happened. In Utah, a parent challenged having the bible in schools because it contained "vulgarity or violence." After reviewing the bible, the Davis School District voted to remove the bible from elementary and middle school libraries and classrooms. Parenting styles differ, so it should be up to each parent to decide what their children should or should not read. Parents have every right to object to books for their children and should take steps within their household to ensure that their children don't read these books. However, the freedom to read is essential to our democracy. And I think Judy Blume got it right - “Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.” Before all this furor started, were the children of those fighting to remove these books actually reading them? Kids nowadays are so glued to screens of every type. Sadly, I wonder how many children are reading books at all, much less these particular books.Frankly, the Internet provides easy access to many topics addressed in these challenged books in a much more explicit and often less valid way.
This uproar has led to a focus on books in the news. Maybe a happy outcome will be that more children will read books to see what the commotion is all about. Wouldn't having more kids picking up books and reading be great?
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