Bigger, Longer story on the banning attempt

Idaho Mom Protests Book

This article (complete with entertaining comments at the end!) goes into great detail. The story the woman tells is that her four year old picked out "How To Get Suspended and Influence People." She checked it out, took it home, and then realized it was "appalling," "disgusting," and quite a variety of unpleasant things. Now, if it was, in fact, grouped with the other books for four year olds, she might have had cause to politely request that the library move it to the nearby teen shelf (which is where most libraries keep it). But she went a bit further - she wants the book removed from the library altogether, and has complained to the mayor and city council.

Now, I don't believe her whole story about the four year old one bit - I'm SURE she went looking around for a kids book that seemed appropriately "appalling" to spearhead a broader push against the library with the eventual goal of removing all the books she finds "inappropriate." There are plenty of books with more swearing and more explicit references to sex out there, not to mention all the violent stuff.

But if I have to be the target for a group of jerks who want to push librarians and communities around, I'm happy to do it!

Already wrote up most my thoughts On Censorship some time ago.

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Adam's New Book: Sept 2013