If you've read this blog awhile you know how royally pissed off book banning gets me. In my childhood books were so nondiverse and timid I knew it wasn't right. I rejoiced as things got better, especially when I had children of my own. All the current censorship nastiness has me worried about the children of today and tomorrow and the teachers and librarians valiantly trying to keep the books they need access to on the shelves...
...and royally pissed at the people who are working overtime to bring America back to the period they consider the pinnacle of its existence...
...the 1950s and, more specifically, the McCarthy era. So when I found not one, but two books addressing the harm inflicted by book banning I snapped them up as fast as precious Tobago devours a tuna or ocean fish Fancy Feast entree. They both lived up to my expectations.
Banned Together, edited by Ashley Hope Perez, is like a who's who of kiddy lit. It's an anthology of pieces by juvenile and YA authors who have two things in common. They've won all kinds of prestigious awards. They've had their books frequently banned for bogus reasons, mostly by people who haven't even read said books.
Imagining the Unimaginable is by Ellen Hopkins, one of my favorite authors. She keeps the banners in a constant state of frenzied agitation by creating teen characters who do things like getting addicted to street drugs and having sex. As if reading about their activities will entice young readers to copy them. In her piece she imagines how much more bleak and restricted her youth would have been if she'd been adopted by Moms for Liberty type parents.
Perez herself, another of my favorites, contributed two pieces. Both Dancing With Haters and Getting to Know Your Hate Mail concern the plethora of hate mail she receives. Rather than let them erode her confidence, she turns them into creative pieces. In Dancing With Haters this takes the form of a poem. Getting To Know Your Hate Mail is hate mail quotes and her responses.
"What is wrong with you? You are truly helping to further the satanic agenda in our world.
Wow, who knew I was so powerful?"
"I don't think I will be able to eat for the rest of the day after seeing the filth being allowed in our schools because of the likes of you. Our poor children.
Look! It's the Moms for Liberty diet plan!"
Marinaomi uses a graphic format to share how a school library discarded book given to her by a teacher when she was eleven helped her get unstuck from overwhelming emotions and cope with the world.
"This experience instilled in me a lifelong love of literature, and a desire to help people in the same way that Mr. Vonnegut had helped me.
If Mr. P-C hadn't given me this book, I wonder if I'd be an author today. Would I even be alive? I'm grateful I don't have to find out."
These are just a few of the diverse and insightful pieces.
Perez closes with a direct letter to readers with these uplifting and inspiring words.
"Book banners want to get between readers and the powerful work of these authors. This collection says NO WAY. Our goal with Banned Together is to talk about what is happening to books in libraries, why these vanishing stories matter, and how you can empower yourselves and others to resist.
We hope this collection is just one step in your brave and bold reading journey. Look us up! We'd love to hear from you."
While Banned Together is targeted for the YA set, Danny Caine's How To Defend Books and Why: Book Bans and How We Fight Them is most definitely for adults. There's a wealth of complex information and inspiration crammed into this deceptively small volume. My advice to readers who aren't reviewers like me is to read it slowly, giving yourself time to fully engage with the material.
Believe me it will engage you emotionally as well as cognitively if you're attracted to this eminently important book. The machinations of those determined to block access to really essential books and legislate what children (and sometimes adults) can read will anger you. Some of the people taking great risks to fight this unrelenting censorship will gladden and inspire you. Some of the material, especially when we leave the United States is truly heartbreaking.
Caine starts by introducing the Orwellian language being used by the banners and challengers. Only they aren't banning. They are merely concerned community members keeping inappropriate material out of the hands of innocent children. This is supposedly a matter of parents' rights. But only white Christian nationalist parents have rights that need to be respected. Moms "grassroots" groups are funded by conservative political groups with deep pockets and agendas rather than T shirt sales. It's all supposedly for the children but children and teens who speak up for their rights are treated brutally by their "protectors".
"Book bans are not the hoax. Rather, the hoax is the right-wing narrative that all this is happening to enshrine so-called 'parents' rights.' Another hoax: that this is only about books. Indeed, what we'll call the book ban crisis is actually about the dismantling of secular education and the targeted elimination of identities that fall outside the Christian nationalist worldview. Any attempts to deny this? That's the actual hoax."
Going back to the McCarthy era in the 1950s and continuing on into the pandemic and beyond, Caine gives a truly comprehensive battle being waged. You meet the actors on both sides and the people and institutions that are deeply impacted. You follow the complex and often convoluted legal wars. You see how teachers and librarians are relentlessly bullied. There's all you need to get a handle on the issues involved.
And Caine introduces two groups often left out of the discourse. One is prison inmates where groups outside the institution and its employees have unrestricted power to control what (if any) reading materials they have access to. Often permissible materials have a Christian nationalist slant. Indoctrination, anyone? And relevant materials are too often taboo.
"Commonly censored categories of books include Black history and fiction; Indigenous and Latinx publications; LGBTQ fiction and self-help; and publications written by and about incarcerated people."
The other is the besieged Palestinians whose right to exist and share their stories is constantly under attack. Authors are slain. Libraries are burned and bombed.
Caine also serves up a wealth of ways readers can become involved in the fight against book bans and the evils they can lead to. Remember it's not only the books but the readers of disfavored identities and public schools and libraries the banners have beef with...
...It's how Hitler got his start.
I highly recommend How To Defend Books and Why to all who really care about this all too relevant issue. Teachers, librarians, book sellers, authors, and readers need all the allies we can get.
On a purrrsonal note, I have been an avid reader almost all my life. Having a college librarian father and and a college professor mother I could access materials carefully kept out of my classmates' hands. I did a 3rd grade book report on Dante's Divine Comedy. I realized how restricted the books in the children's wing were. I was an activist from an early age also. As an adult I protested and volunteered, often accompanied by my children. Then the pandemic hit, isolating me from opportunities to make a difference. I couldn't get into signing online petitions. I'd had a book review blog since 2011. One day I did a thematic analysis and realized an increasing percent of my reviews were centered on diversity, inclusion, and inconvenient truths. So this became my focus--making people aware of the books banners are trying to keep out of our libraries and our hands. Unlike those online petitions, it's a form that suits my interests, talents, and personality.
A great big shout out goes out to everyone engaged in the fight for diverse, inclusive, and truth telling books.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
