BOOKS OUT OF THE LIBRARY!!

Here's a link to an account of a rather horrifying book banning by a school library: BERMUDEZ TRIANGLE BANNED

The book is BERMUDEZ TRIANGLE by Maureen Johnson, and it sounds pretty innocuous to me, but then I'm homophilic rather than homophobic--"straight but not narrow," more or less, and from my way of seeing it, "they're here, they're queer, I'm used to it."

At my school, SHADE'S CHILDREN by Garth Nix was challenged by a parent a few years ago. Even after she and her kid moved, Mommy insisted that the challenge go forward, apparently because she did not want anyone else's kids exposed to this tale of the triumph of freedom and the family, which, had she read the book, she might have been able to figure out. Yes, there was some rather mature content, but in the view of our committee, it was appropriate for middle school. While some parents and students might object, there is a simple remedy for that: DON'T READ IT and DON'T LET YOUR KID READ IT!

I'm a pretty picky daddy myself, by some standards: there is a lot of stuff I don't let my kids, 3 and 10, look at. Yes, it does come up even with a 3 year old--at day care--and some G movies are too much for toddlers, in my view. I don't want my little boy traumatized by sharp-teeth! (Oh, no, no! I do not!) But parents have the responsibility: take a look at what THEIR kids are reading, and focus on their OWN families. But they have no right to deprive others the opportunity of reading certain books.

As Maureen says, "Book banning sucks!" (yup, yup, yup!)