You may notice displays for Banned Books Week in your library beginning this weekend. Its promoters, Amnesty International and the American Library Association (ALA), describe it as an annual “awareness campaign” that “celebrates the freedom to read, draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individuals.”
It’s a week of hyperbole and self-congratulation as the ALA frames itself as the adult in the room, perhaps showing film of ritual Nazi book burnings in the 1930s and insinuating that parental objections to depraved children’s books spring from the same impulse.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” comes in at number 7 on the ALA’s “10 Most Challenged” list this year. I had my doubts about that, as a statistical claim. The list is compiled by the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). So I read an interview of OIF Assistant Director Kristin Pekoll, in which she answered some questions about methodology.
She admitted that the Top 10 list is “a representation of the state of book challenges, not a strict statistical tally.” She said the numbers aren’t rigorously tabulated, and that the Top 10 format is “kind of a tradition, and it’s how we’ve always promoted and talked about banned books.”
So these professionals whom we trust for accurate reports and impartial analysis aren’t obsessed with data or accurate calculations. They rely on their overall impressions, and they report factual claims to us based on their preferences and habits of mind.
They aren’t neutral umpires. They have their own point of view. Pekoll said it’s “hopeful” that “there’s an ALA Emerging Leaders group [that] is going to work on a project for school libraries about protecting intellectual freedom in school libraries, particularly for LGBTQ materials.”
And there you have it. They see their “intellectual freedom” franchise as a vehicle for getting depraved materials into the hands of children in schools, where reading is compulsory. Here are some of the Top 10 Challenged Books that the ALA thinks you should accept:
I Am Jazz, about a Florida boy whose parents decided, when he was five, to help him be a girl. And Tango Makes Three, a board book written for toddlers and pre-schoolers, which portrays a homosexual relationship between two penguins.
Sex is a Funny Word, in comic book format, written for grades 2-6 about a broad range of sexual topics including transsexual identity, intersex conditions and masturbation. This one won the ALA’s own Stonewall Award for “exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience.” (There is a children’s category for the homosexual book award.)
George, which won the 2015 Stonewall Award, was written by self-described “queer activist” Alex Gino for grades 3-7 about a boy in fourth grade who changed genders. The graphic novel Drama won the 2013 Stonewall for its portrayal of teen homosexual crushes.
The ALA lists Thirteen Reasons Why as the single most challenged book in America. It centered on teen suicide and spawned a popular Netflix series. A Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine article reported that the release of Thirteen Reasons Why was followed by a 26 percent increase in keyword searches online for “how to commit suicide.” Overall, there were 900,000 to 1.5 million additional suicide-related online searches.
Are you feeling like a Nazi book burner yet? If not, you may need to explain to the ALA how conscientious, protective parenting is different from ceremonial book burning at a Nazi rally.
There are a lot of really good people in the library business. I know some of them because I used to be their colleague. Unfortunately, their professional association has been hijacked by people who don’t have your children’s or grandchildren’s best interests at heart.
The ALA has undertaken to shame children’s protectors to clear the way for those who wish to indoctrinate and break down the children’s resistance to moral corruption. It’s time for good parents and good librarians to stand up to the ALA.
