How Is a Book Like a Potato Chip?

I think this Agape Press article, "Poison in our Libraries," does a pretty good job of inadvertantly exposing the real issue behind many book bannings. I was struck by one paragraph in particular:

Laurie Taylor is the mother of two school age children. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Like most parents, she cares about her kids' education. So, when she discovered the school library had a sexually explicit book, It's Perfectly Normal, aimed at elementary age students, she did what any concerned parent would do: she went to the administration and asked that it be removed, along with two other books with similar themes.

Maybe it's just me, but disliking a book and immediately trying to then get it removed from a library does not strike me as what "any" concerned parent would do. Talk with the teacher and the librarian? Sure. Forbid his or her own child from reading the book? Maybe. But to immediately try to ban a book from a library because you don't like the content? To me, this woman doesn't sound like a "good parent," but rather, a fanatic, especially coupled with the fact that she then tried to get "dozens" more books banned.

Speaking of which, I thought another part of the article was interesting too:

At first, school system leaders seemed to agree with Taylor, and placed the books in a "parent library" section with other books geared more to parents than to children. But when Taylor found dozens more books with sexually explicit content, and asked that they not be made available to students without parental approval, the school reneged. It overturned its earlier decision and voted to leave all of the books on the shelves with unrestricted access by the students.

In other words, it sounds like the school tried to appease this woman, only to discover that when it comes to book banners, books are often like potato chips: one is never enough. If the library agrees to ban or restrict this book, well, then why not this book too? And this book, and this book, and so on and so on. But as I've blogged before, who gets to decide what goes in a library? If every parent gets a veto over every book, libraries would be effectively bare, and they would certainly be stripped of absolutely anything that might be interesting or relevant to a large number of students.

For the record, I should point out that the industry reviews of the book that started this hoopla, It's Perfectly Normal, unananimously say that it is age-appropriate, and a good choice for school libraries. But they also point out that it is frank in its approach to sexual education, and it is non-judgemental, especially on topics such as homosexuality.

In short, this openness, and the library's giving access to age-appropriate information, is the real issue here, not anything to do with "poison".