Why Were These Ten Picture Books Banned?

 

It saddens me when I read the ever-growing list of books added to the Book Banned and Challenged List. Sadly, a large portion of these bans are directed at the LGBTQIA community and people of color.

Some of these books may have lost their charm, relevance to today’s society, offend people’s political ideology, or their opinion of marginalized groups but they’re part of our history and shouldn’t be erased or forgotten.

How else will future generations learn from our past mistakes and triumphs?

                        Image by Magda Ehlers from Pexels

As a writer for young readers, I'd like to focus on ten books for the youngest audience that have been banned, challenged, or restricted.

Some I read as a child, the rest I read to my own children and students. Almost all the books were classroom and bedtime favorites that we read repeatedly.

These same books stimulated budding readers in the library, where many a giggle and prereading skills took place.

                                              Image by ParentiPacek from Pixabay

As I read through the various lists of banned and challenged books, I wanted to know why they had been banned, so I did a little digging.

My reactions to the reasons behind the bans ranged from outrage to secondhand embarrassment.

It didn’t take long to understand the reasons for the bans varied from preference to downright lack of due diligence.

 Banned Picture Books:

1-Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Awards: International Reading Association, Children’s Book Council (IRA/CBC) Children’s Choice 1984, Parent’s Magazine: Favorite Baby Books of All Time August 2006

2-The Giving Tree

Awards: New York Times Outstanding Book Award 1974

3-The Lorax 

4-Where The Wild Things Are

Awards: Caldecott Award

5-The Family Book

6-Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Awards: Caldecott Medal

7-No, David!

Awards: Caldecott Honor Book Award

8-Strega Nona

Awards: Caldecott Medal

9-Goodnight Moon

Awards: Caldecott Medal

10-Little Red Riding Hood Retold and Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

Awards: Caldecott Honor Award

                                       Image by Катерина Кучеренко from Pixabay

Why were these books banned?

In 2010, the Texas Board of Education banned Brown Bear, Brown Bear because they confused Bill Martin, Jr. (author of over 300 children’s books) with Bill Martin who wrote Ethical Marxism: The Categorial Imperative of Liberation. Embarrassing!

A Colorado public library banned The Giving Tree in 1988 because it was perceived as being too sexist. 

A California school banned The Lorax in 1989 because they feared it portrayed logging in a poor light and would turn children against the foresting industry.

Where The Wild Things Are suffered opposition after its release in 1963. Readers and psychologists argued that it was “too dark” and psychologically damaging and traumatizing for young children. It’s also faced scrutiny for its images of witchcraft.

Parents in Erie, Illinois banned The Family Book because it references same sex marriage.

In 1977, images of police officers represented as pigs caused Sylvester and the Magic Pebble to be banned in many cities across the United States. (Other characters are depicted as pigs in the book too.) Many also criticized it for having a magic wising pebble. Some believed this would promote occult practices.

                             Image by Ray Shrewsberry • from Pixabay

In 2022, one state attempted to ban or restrict 2,349 titles. This school year No, David! was among those that got the boot from Katy ISD. Are you wondering which of the fifty states deemed so many books unworthy?

According to the American Library Association, the state with the most attempts at book bans is—Texas. (Katy ISD didn’t comment on why it banned No, David!) Butt why? (If you’ve read the book, you’ll get the reference.)

                                      Image by Michaela, at home in Germany • Thank you very much for a like from Pixabay

They banned Strega Nona in libraries across the United States for painting a positive picture of witchcraft and magic. Two of my favorite things!

A New York children’s public librarian banned Goodnight Moon because she hated the book and thought it was too sentimental. The ban lasted 25 years (1947-1972). WHAT!!!!!!??

A wine bottle in a basket led to Trina Schart Hyman's version of Little Red Riding being banned in 1990 because many believed the wine condoned the use of alcohol. But what if it was sparkling cider?

                                          Image courtesy of Commons.wikimedia.org

As of September 22, 2023, Pensacola News Journal reported that Florida surpassed Texas as the leader of book bans.

For more information on banned books visit americanlibrariesmagazine.org.  

What banned books have you read?

Note: The books listed above may have won awards that I was unable to find.

For further reading, please visit commonsense media.org.

Shoud We Still Read Dr. Seuss Books?

                                                                   

Should we still read Dr. Seuss books to our children or not? Recently for me that's become a loaded question.

Do we want to perpetuate the underlying messages woven into his books by reading them and carry on the imaginative spirit his work inspires; the fun and frivolity with words that parents, teachers, and students have taken to heart?

Or do we dismiss his work, banning it from classrooms and libraries, because of his political views during a turbulent time in American history, when certain stereotypes among white Americans were the norm?

Like many children, my own grew up on Dr. Seuss books. Green Eggs and Ham was my son's absolute favorite book and the first one he read by himself in Kindergarten; one of the proudest moments of my life. I can still see him as a toddler sitting on his bedroom floor, pulling his Dr. Seuss books off of his shelf and carefully turning the pages.  

            
Since the refusal of the school librarian in Boston, of Melania Trump's gift of Dr. Seuss books, I have felt it necessary to do some additional research on the prolific author. Some of my findings surprised me while others saddened me.

As part of an author study, I have done superficial research of him in the past to provide a brief overview of his life to my students. I had never read that he was a racist, so I was taken back when I heard about the Boston librarian's statement. I kept thinking how could one of the most beloved children's authors be a racist?

https://pixabay.com/en/boys-reading-children-book-kids-932821/

            
Theodor Seuss Gesiel (Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg, Rosetta Stone, Theophrastus Seuss) was an American author, political cartoonist, poet, artist, and publisher born on March 2, 1904. He died on September 24, 1991 at the age of 87.

He attended Dartmouth College and the University of Oxford where he assumed the pen name Dr. Seuss. After leaving Oxford, he began working for several different publications as a cartoonist and illustrator.

He also worked on advertising campaigns for Flit and Standard Oil and as a political cartoonist for PM, a left-wing New York newspaper. It seems that some of his views were in direct conflict with each other.

He supported the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, while frowning upon anti-Semitism and the treatment of blacks in the U.S. at the same time, which is also at odds, because of his portrayal of black people as savages, wearing grass skirts, in the Flit advertisements. Could he in his white-privileged ignorance have thought that these advertisements were innocuous?

            
As I processed this newfound information I realized that, while it is upsetting to know that Dr. Seuss held unctuous opinions, he was a product of his generation. In the Pre-Civil Rights Era racial relations were quite different, nonwhites were shunned and segregated from mainstream society.

A sad truth that is part of our American history. In the 1940s, after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, emotions and fears were running high, the mob mentality ruled. We have witnessed this phenomenon ourselves with the mistreatment of Muslim Americans after the 9/11 attack.

            
Unfortunately among white Americans, Dr. Seuss's art form was accepted as the norm. Today, where most people have grown up in a more racially equitable society, they would criticize his political and advertising artwork and it would be rightly shunned. Dr. Seuss himself would agree with this consensus.

            
Although some of Dr. Seuss's work was controversial not all of it was negative. He did make some positive political statements in his writings that promoted diversity and cultural responsibility as well.

Horton Hears A Who, a story about democracy, isolationism, and America's postwar occupation of Japan was dedicated to Mitsugi Nakamura, a Japanese man who Dr. Seuss named, 'my great friend.' The Sneetches had its roots in his opposition to anti-Semitism, The Lorax was a parable about the environment, and The Butler Battle Book took aim at the arms race.       

            
Like all of us, Dr. Seuss was a human being with flawed opinions. Fortunately, he realized his small-minded prejudice towards those who were different from him and changed tack. He evolved into a more accepting person that was later reflected in his work.

Should we judge a man so harshly for a belief system that he was brought up in, when he had the cognizance to recognize its failures and change himself? Could we not use his life lesson as a teachable moment about personal and societal growth?

            
So, should we still read Dr. Seuss's books to our children or not? Ultimately the decision is a personal one. 

Sources and sites for further reading:

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/10/07/dr-seuss-museum-mural-to-be-replaced-amid-claims-racist-depiction.html

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/10/andy_yee_dr_seuss_chinese.html

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/10/08/dr-seuss-racist-painting/

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/politicaldrseuss/film.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss

https://www.inquisitr.com/4526060/dr-seuss-books-racist-explained/