Category / Banned Books & Intellectual Freedom

by booksoverlookedblog

Your library will always be there for you. Please be there for your library.

Without in any way limiting the author’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

I’m writing this introduction on Saturday, January 18, on my lunch break. I don’t usually work Saturdays, but today I have a Teen Advisory Board meeting. In a few hours, a group of teenagers will come into the library and tell me what kinds of things they would like to see the library provide for them. I’ll distribute scholarship information for three local colleges, tell them about a student employee position that’s just opened up, and give them advice on how to apply and what the library looks for in a job interview. After, we’ll make cards for troops stationed abroad. Elsewhere in the library, adults and kids will be using computers to access the internet, do homework, apply for jobs, or catch up on YouTube. People who don’t have internet access at home can check out hotspots. Maybe they’ll use it to access live virtual tutoring, or Ancestry.com, or Consumer Reports – all free with their library card. And, of course, there will be books. All kinds of books: novels, picture books, biographies, travel guides, comic books, board books, cookbooks, books for beginning readers and books that read to you. 

Later this month, kids will practice reading to a licensed therapy dog. People struggling with food insecurity will receive assistance in applying for SNAP benefits. Toddlers and pre-schoolers will learn pre-literacy skills at storytime (including a bilingual storytime). Free tax assistance will be available. Senior citizens will take a class to learn basic computer skills English language learners will meet to practice casual conversations. I’ll also be running my favorite activity, a tabletop roleplaying game for teens, which has become a haven for a small group of queer teens. All of this for the low, low price of free. 

Libraries are one of the few places left where you don’t have to pay anything to be there, you don’t even necessarily need to be a member. Just come in, and we’ll try to help you. 

Libraries are magical. They are also in danger. 

For many of us in the United States, the next four years are going to be a scary and difficult time. There is so much I could talk about when we discuss the second Trump administration, but I want to focus on something that this blog has always focused on: books. Well, books, literacy, and access to information. As I have said in a previous post, access to information is recognized as a basic human right by the United Nations. In an age of rampant misinformation and censorship, this is a right that needs to be safeguarded more than ever. Public libraries are on the forefront of the battle for intellectual freedom, a battle which is only going to intensify in the coming years. 

As I’ve written about before, public and school libraries are facing intense scrutiny over the materials they have on their shelves. Book bans are on the rise, and libraries and library staff are facing threats of violence, lawsuits, and even jail time. And things are going to get much, much worse. 

The Trump administration’s plans are detailed in Project 2025. This is not a document of hypotheticals; this is a road map. And this road map leads to, among other things, a direct attack on every Americans’ intellectual freedom. 

Project 2025 aims to dismantle the Department of Education, cancel funding for public services,  support censorship, and, potentially, jail teachers, librarians, and booksellers. 

That’s not hyperbole. Project 2025 classifies any LGBTQIA+ material as pornography, including picture books like the innocent And Tango Makes Three or non-fiction books intended for education, like This Book is Gay. If that wasn’t bad enough, librarians and others who distribute “pornography” to children may be required to register as sex offenders. 

Yes, you read that right. No, this is not me being melodramatic. Conflating LGBTQIA+ media with pornography is a tried and true tactic when it comes to censoring, challenging, and banning books. 

Nor am I exaggerating the potential legal consequences for librarians. So far, Indiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Montana have passed laws that say school staff, public librarians, and museum employees could be jailed and/or fined thousands of dollars for distributing “obscene” material to children. 

Book challenges and bans are only going to become more frequent. Moms For Liberty, right-wing group dedicated to banning books, is strongly supported by the Heritage Foundation [PDF] (the organization behind Project 2025), by providing them with financial and even legal support.

The final thing I want to talk about regarding Project 2025 and libraries is not nearly as dramatic as everything else, but it is no less crucial. Federal funding for public services is going to be greatly reduced, up to and including eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Most libraries already operate on string shoe budgets, and librarians and library staff are notoriously underpaid. Cutting federal funding is going to hurt the services that libraries offer, especially in rural and low-income areas. 

There is a big disconnect between politicians and their constituents in the perception of public libraries. They are valued community spaces with something for everyone – be it Talking Books for the blind, someone to walk you through an online job application, even just a safe place to exist. There’s a lot of love for libraries. In fact, there’s more public libraries than there are McDonald’s in the U.S.

To borrow some words from The Memeing Librarian: The library will always be here for you. So please be there for your library. 

I know that libraries are not going to be on the forefront of your mind as we go into this next big challenge together. However, there are simple, everyday things that you can do to support your library, free speech, and freedom of information. 

First, VOTE! Not just in big national elections, but state and local elections as well. Local elections determine so many things in your community, like commissioners, judgeships, school boards, and funding for public services like the library. 

Get a library card if you don’t already have one, and check out books. I know this seems obvious, but it’s really important. One of the things that determines funding for libraries is the number of members a library has, as well as circulation for books, DVDs, and other library materials. Some libraries even have “library of things” where you can borrow items like tools or cake pans, or seed libraries if you want to start your own garden. My library system also lends hotspots and backpacks with educational materials based on certain topics.

Attend library programs. Like I mentioned above, statistics are everything when it comes to securing funding. Library programs aren’t just for kids, either. There’s lots of stuff for adults and teenagers. Some popular recurring programs we have for adults are film discussions, “craft and chat” events, and English language learning events. Attendance is also a good way to show the library what you’re interested in seeing for future events. Many libraries also have teen advisory boards, where teens can give their input into library programs and earn community service hours. 

Volunteer. There is always something that needs to be done, whether it’s organizing books, preparing crafts for storytime, tutoring, or corralling kids during a craft-a-palooza. You could also join a Friends organization. Many libraries also have a Friends organization, which raises money for the library. Our Friends organization has helped pay for activities and guest presenters, like theatre performances and historical impersonators. 

Donate if you are able. Financial donations are obviously the most direct way you can give, but there are other things you can donate as well. Lightly used books that someone else might want to read (please don’t give us your old copy of Windows 95 for Dummies) may be added to the library’s collection or sold in a book sale to raise money. It doesn’t have to be just books, either. Last year, someone donated a huge box of Pokemon cards, which meant that every kid who attended a Pokemon program I ran got 2 cards to take home, and a holographic card if they registered for the Summer Reading Program. 

Give the library your feedback (but be nice about it). If you liked a program, if you hate the new signage, if we absolutely need to get this book or that movie. Most libraries also have online surveys and book order requests on their websites.

Tell your librarian what you love about the library. I love my job, but it’s not as easy as it looks, and there are times when I’ve fantasized about just walking out and never coming back. It’s the little wins, like helping a patron find the perfect book or a parent giving a compliment that helps us get through the day and reminding us why we do this. 

When you take a book off the shelf and decide you don’t want it, don’t put it back on the shelf. Don’t put it at the end of the shelf. Don’t leave it next to the self check-out. Please stop reshelving the books. Please. I’m begging you.

These next four years are going to be tough. Take care of yourself, take care of your loved ones, and take care of your library. 

Some sources and further reading: 

Project 2025 and Its Threat to Free Expression, Part 1 (PEN America)
Project 2025 and Its Threat to Free Expression, Part 2 (PEN America)
Project 2025 and Its Consequences for Libraries (EveryLibrary Institute, PDF)
Red states threaten libraries with prison — as blue states work to protect them (Washington Post)
Unite Against Book Bans (American Library Association)
Banned & Challenged Books (ALA)
Trans Rights Readathon
We Need Diverse Books



by booksoverlookedblog

Banned Book: Prince and Knight

Without in any way limiting the author’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

Think of your favorite fairy tale. Were there talking animals? A handsome prince falling in love with a beautiful princess? Did it teach a lesson? 

When we’re very young, fairy tales and fables are usually our first introduction to stories. We learn a lot about narrative structure from these old tales. We learn that stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Stories have characters and conflicts. We even learn some basic symbolism: a cottage represents safety and home, the woods represent danger, and a castle represents success. A beautiful person is good, and an ugly person is evil. These simple, familiar stories set the foundation for our understanding of narratives long before we have the ability to read one on our own. 

There are many things in traditional stories that aren’t viewed as fondly today as they once were, like beauty equating to goodness and women as prizes. There are lots of retellings of classic stories now, which often change turn the formerly helpless maiden into a certified bad-ass. Heck, the best-selling Twisted Tale series are just Disney AUs based on their popular movies.

I didn’t write my earlier post about traditional literature just because it’s one of my favorite genres (though that is true), but because I want to discuss the oft-challenged picture book, Prince and Knight, but Daniel Haack and Stevie Lewis.

Well, let’s look at this dangerous book together. I love the illustrations – bright and colorful, and perfect for a picture book. The story is also told in rhyme, which I enjoyed. Sometimes rhyming picture books can be clunky or choose awkward words to make the rhyme work, but I didn’t see any of that here. Overall, it’s nice to look at and fun to read out loud.

Prince and Knight repeats familiar fairy tale beats: a prince goes on a journey, overcomes a challenge, and is rewarded with true love. The main difference between this and stories like Sleeping Beauty is that the prince’s true love is another man. 

The story goes like this: a prince is getting ready to inherit the kingdom, but the king and queen know that it’s too much work to rule alone. They want their son to find a nice girl and get married. He meets many lovely ladies, but he doesn’t want to marry any of them. When a dragon attacks, the prince races to save the kingdom. He’s not fighting alone, either. A bold knight rushes into the battle to assist the king. They save each other’s lives, and together, capture the beast. Soon, the prince realizes that his one true love, the one he’s been searching for, is this brave knight in shining armor. The prince and the knight are married, the kingdom rejoices, and everyone lives happily ever after.

I loved Prince & Knight. There’s action, but not violence (the prince and knight tie up the dragon rather than slay it), and it has an adorable happily ever after. My favorite thing about the book might be the king and queen’s reaction to the prince falling in love with another man. They’re ecstatic that he’s found someone and don’t care that it’s not a princess, and the whole kingdom celebrates their wedding. 

Cute, right?

Unfortunately, not everyone thought so. According to the ALA Prince and Knight was one of the most frequently banned or challenged books in 2019 for “featuring a gay marriage and LGBTQIA+ content; for being ‘a deliberate attempt to indoctrinate young children’ with the potential to cause confusion, curiosity, and gender dysphoria; and for conflicting with a religious viewpoint”

Siiiigh. Let’s break this down.

Prince and Knight was published in 2018, three years after same-sex marriage became legal throughout the United States. According to Pew Research Center, a majority Americans support same-sex marriage and it’s part of the cultural landscape, whether you think it should be or not.

“Confusion” and “curiosity” are natural parts of childhood. Young kids are learning about the world and, no matter what book you read to a young child, they’re going to have questions. For an example from my own life, I was in fourth grade when I two older students – who were also my neighbors – told me that our principal was a lesbian. I’d never even heard the word “lesbian” before, and it had to be explained to me: girls who love girls. I became worried, and asked, “am I a lesbian because I love my mom?” The older girls told me that girl family members didn’t count. Later, my neighbor’s mother called my house to warn my mom that I might be asking some questions about what I’d learned that day. But I can’t remember asking any other questions about it, or even it being that big of a deal in the long run. If a child has a question about the gay marriage in the book, “Some boys fall in love with other boys” isn’t indoctrination, it’s just a true statement. And it’s not going to be as earth-shattering as you think. And while we’re not totally certain what causes gender dysphoria, you don’t get it from reading a picture book.

As far as a religious viewpoint goes…I’m pretty sure we can guess which religion the complainants are talking about. Some religious communities, like the Buddhist Churches of America and some Jewish movements have celebrated or supported same-sex marriage for decades, and many sects of Christianity do so as well now. Even the Catholic church is slooooowly becoming more accepting of same-sex couples. So this book isn’t against all religious viewpoints, just a certain one. 

At the start of this post, I talked about the role fairy tales play in our formative years. So I have a question: why is Prince and Knight indoctrination, but a story like “Sleeping Beauty” isn’t? Classic Western fairy tales are often about finding true love through magical means. The prince magically awakens a sleeping princess with a kiss; a princess kisses a frog and finds her true love; a glass slipper fits only one woman perfectly. So many stories treat the princess as a prize to be won. I would say reading only fairy tales like that introduce kids to harmful stereotypes of gender. So why aren’t tales of heterosexual love accused of indoctrinating kids? 

I love fairy tales, old and new. I am aware of the pitfalls in classic traditional stories, and I enjoy adaptations that change things up. I still think fairy tales and other traditional stories and rhymes are an important part of early literacy. But there’s a phrase I heard once that’s always stuck with me: “It’s not what you have, it’s what you don’t have.” This sums up how I feel about a lot of media diets. If you get nothing but stories with a narrow view of what the world is like, it’s going to affect how you see the world. I don’t see anything inherently wrong with traditional stories, but I think it’s important for children to see stories where the princess saves the prince, where the ugly person is kind, and where the prince and the knight find true love. 

Because in real life, girls can save boys, not-beautiful people can be kind, and two men can fall in love and marry each other. To pretend otherwise is insulting to all of those who don’t live in a fairytale.

by booksoverlookedblog

Banned Book: Flamer by Mike Curato

This is the last post of the year! I will be taking a break in January and be back in February.

New on the ALA’s Banned Book list this year is the graphic novel Flamer by Mike Curato. If you’re a picture book aficionado, you might already be familiar with his work, such as the Little Elliot series.

In 2022, Flamer became challenged and banned books in the U.S. due to LGBTQIA+ content, and being considered as “sexually explicit.” Despite this, the book has received high praise from critics, but I think the blurb on the cover says it all.

This book will save lives.

Jarret J. Krosoczka

Fourteen-year-old Aiden Navarro isn’t excited to go to high school. He was frequently bullied at his Catholic middle school, and fears that public high school will be much worse. His parents’ frequent fights don’t make his home life easy, either. Thankfully, he has an escape during the summer at sleep away Boy Scout camp. Aiden loves scouting, but the Summer of ’95 isn’t going to be like any camp experience he’s had before. As the summer goes on, Aiden finds himself drawn to his confidant bunk mate, Elias. At first Aiden thinks that he admires Elias’s confidence and friendly nature. It can’t be a crush, right? That would make Aiden gay. And if being gay is a sin that can condemn you to hell (and get you kicked out of Boy Scouts), then it must be pretty bad. And Aiden isn’t a bad kid.

So he can’t be gay…right?

The last two weeks of summer camp are filled with some great memories – and also some terrible ones. Though Aiden makes great friends and loves camp, he’s also subjected to homophobic and racist bullying. When things look at their bleakest, Aiden wonders: does his life really have value?

The comic is in black and white, except when fire and a few other important objects are depicted. Flames are yellow, red, and orange, the only colors in the book. It’s used to great effect, especially in the climax and resolution.

Non-spoiler review: Flamer hits on heavy real-life topics that many tweens and teens can relate to. The main themes of identity and growing up are relevant to everyone, not just LGBTQIA+ youth. There is some mild sexual content, so I’d recommend this book to kids 13-14 and older.

I want to talk about the reasons that Flamer was challenged, banned, removed, or relocated.

One of the reasons was that Flamer is “sexually explicit.” Is it? Well, I think that depends on who you ask. Explicit-ness can be subjective and your feelings about what is and is not “sexually explicit” can change with time and experience. Some of the things that made me blush when I was fourteen I’m totally comfortable with now and I wouldn’t consider “explicit” today. Whether you find the sexual content in the book offensive or too much is really up to your own comfort levels. For me, the sexual content in Flamer was a little uncomfortable to read, but it wasn’t graphic. It seemed realistic and fit with the overall theme and story of the book. I can’t really object to it.

The other major complaint against Flamer is that it contains LGBTQIA+ content. And, well, duh. It’s a story about a young teenager accepting himself as gay.

As we saw earlier, LGBTQIA+ content was a really common reason given to challenge/ban books for the last 10 years. I won’t beat around the bush: this is homophobia and transphobia. There’s no other way to explain it. Otherwise, why would perfectly innocent (and adorable) books like And Tango Makes Three or This Day in June be challenged so frequently? I wouldn’t hand an elementary-age child Flamer; it’s not appropriate for the age group. But a cute picture book about a same-sex couple like Prince and Knight? Well, I wouldn’t have a problem suggesting that to a young child.

Because queer people (and penguins) exist. Everyone – from all walks of life – need to see themselves represented in media, but I think this is especially true for kids. Our early experiences shape our lives, and it’s important to see ourselves reflected in what we watch and read. Simply put, if you can’t see it, you can’t be it.

Beyond this point, there are going to be spoilers. If you’re interested in reading Flamer, check it out before you scroll down. I’d hate to ruin the (awesome) ending for you.

Content warning: there will be mentions of suicide from here on out. If that’s not something you want to read about, it’s okay to sit this one out. Mental health resources can be found at the bottom of this post.

Towards the end of Flamer, Aiden feels that everyone has turned against him. His best friend hasn’t written him back after he hinted at being gay in his most recent letter to her; a camp counselor he looked up to was removed from camp after he was discovered to be gay; Elias has been avoiding Aiden after Aiden surprised him with a kiss on his cheek. After yet another day of harsh bullying, Aiden can’t see how his life will ever get better. It feels like it would be better to end it now, and save himself years of misery. He runs to the camp’s outdoor chapel with a pocket knife and plans to take his own life.

Before Aiden can harm himself, he is taken to a strange place filled with darkness and fire. In a beautiful sequence, he speaks to “the fire of life” within himself. It challenges him: why is Aiden trying to destroy them both? They are not weak. They deserve to live. In this encounter, Aiden realizes that his life may not be as easy as his friends’, but it still has value. He still deserves to live. No matter what happens, he is enough. Just as he is.

It’s a powerful moment.

Even more powerful when you consider that suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens in the United Sates. LGBTQIA+ youth are at a higher risk for suicide, especially when they live in environments that are not supportive of their identities.

LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society.

The Trevor Project, Facts about LGBTQ Youth Suicide, 2021

Aiden is fictional. But his feelings are real to those who’ve lived through them. The impact that Flamer can have on its readers is also very real. No matter how bad things have been for Aiden, or how bad they might get, he knows that he as value as a human being. And that’s a really great message, especially for teenagers. Even more so for LGBTQIA+ youth who need to see someone with the same struggles they’re going through, and come through it feeling strong.

One last thing to really drive the message home: Flamer is true. Well, parts of it. Flamer is a semi-autobiographical graphic novel, inspired by author and illustrator Mike Curato’s experiences as a gay Boy Scout in the 90s. In an author’s note at the end of the book, Curato shares some of his internal conflicts when he was Aiden’s age, and some memories from camp.

Including his suicide attempt in the camp’s chapel.

Curato survived, and went on to become a much-loved, award-winning illustrator. And now his story – and Aiden’s – is there to tell kids like him you are worthwhile. You are valued. You are enough.

And I cannot imagine why anyone who would be so cruel as to take that message away from kids who so badly need to hear it.

National Suicide Prevention Hotline (US): 1-800-273-8255
List of Suicide Crisis Lines (Worldwide)
The Trevor Project Lifeline: 1-866-488-7386 | Text: START to 678-678 | Online chat available
Q Chat Space

More resources can be found here: https://booksoverlookedblog.com/resources/