The Supreme Court came out against books and it sucks. Sure, they say it's only some books but the reality of things is when the Supreme Court has said that picture books that mention anything about the world that parents somewhere might not like, it means several things.
Teachers and librarians are going to have to figure out what books some parent somewhere might not like. My mom was a teacher, and once showed the Disney version of "The Lion King" (the original cartoon one which was rated PG) during after school care on a rainy day when they couldn't have outside time, and had a parent complain. That child's other parent was surprised to hear that because they had taken the kids to see the movie.
So, in order to prevent further issues they only showed G movies.
This case was brought by parents in Montgomery County, Maryland. A place I attended school. It wasn't my parents objecting since I am above picture book age. But it feels close.
The idea that anything aimed at a picture book audience could be so terrible that a child couldn't possibly see it or hear about it, sort of defies the principles of educating children. I am not saying parents can't have values. Of course they can. I once read an op-ed by parents who hate the curriculum about recycling, because they feel the way we truck recycled items around in this country actually creates more climate harm than it saves. That is a perspective. And I understand that when children are in the sponge learning stage, it can be hard to figure out how to say, yes your teachers are very knowledgeable, but also I personally do not agree with everything they taught you today. But guess what, this is the world. Exposure to other people and other ideas is a normal response to talking to other people. You and your children should be prepared for that.
But let's also talk about what it means for the authors of these books. First it is incredibly sad for them. They worked hard to make books that were lovely and thoughtful and age appropriate. And now they are being told that their books cannot be safely shown to some children if their parents disagree.
Now when you google their books, you will get a Supreme Court case.
Many libraries and schools will remove these books from their collections.
Many libraries and schools will choose not to ask these authors and illustrators to come to their schools.
Should these authors and illustrators choose to produce another book, they will have to decide if they should be more cautious about subject matter or not.
When their publishers review their sales record, they will likely not consider that being banned from certain schools and libraries hurt their sales. They will just have low sales. And so they will get either lower offers or no offers when their work is being considered.
Being banned doesn't help your sales, even if you know some authors who were banned and are successful. Judy Blue, to give an example, is not successful because she got banned. She is successful because she happened to write enough bestsellers to counter being banned. Not everyone gets the chance to do that.
What can you do? Write to your library and tell them you love books. Thank them for displays or programming that includes books that have characters of all kinds. If your library has a board, show up to the meetings. I sent my library what I called a love letter. I was specific about the things I loved that they were doing.
And I am writing to my city council as they discuss budget to indicate how much I think the library is an important part of our budget.
