At the very beginning of October I REALLY hurt my back - like bedridden, going to the ER, missed 3 weeks of work level hurt. So, I only got 1 book read and that was after I was well enough to go back to work.
That Librarian: the fight against book banning in America by Amanda Jones
Being a public librarian, I had heard about Amanda Jones and other public and school librarians who were being personally targeted for standing against censorship in libraries. I was excited to read this book and find out more about her story. Her story is pretty crazy in that she was targeted for something she did completely outside her job. She is a school librarian and went and spoke at a public library board meeting when she found out the "book content" was on the agenda. Her speech was not inflammatory in the least, yet the next day she found herself the target of vicious online attacks. After initially being shaken up and crying for an entire weekend, she started to get mad and decided to sue the main two people behind the attack campaign for slander. At the end of the book her case is still pending appeal.
While the description of the book is "part memoir, part manifesto," I could have done with a little less manifesto. I very much enjoyed the first few chapters even while I was enraged with her for what was happening. Then the book started to get pretty repetitive - LOTS of small town drama with local politicians and people who jumped on the bandwagon of defaming her, LOTS of repetition about how important it is for White, straight people to stand up for marginalized communities, and LOTS of repetition about how much this impacted her physical and mental health. I don't want to demean her story AT ALL but there was just a lot of repetition to the point I started skimming those sections.
Let me be 100% clear - as a librarian intellectual freedom is a hill I'm willing to die on. Even if I vehemently disagree with the content, I stand behind public libraries offering any and all viewpoints. If there is something I see that I don't want to read, I don't read it. I don't try to force other people to not read it though. There is definitely a huge rise in book challenges in both school and public libraries and online campaigns have a lot to do with it. This is something EVERYONE should be concerned about. As Jones says, if you have questions about book policies any librarian would be willing to explain their library policies with you. And if you hear about a "concerning" book - check it out from your local library and READ IT before you challenge it or post about it's dangers. While I didn't love every page of this book, it's still an important read. Amanda Jones is a hero and she is standing up to ignorance and censorship.
Some quotes I liked:
"At a recent Livingston Parish Public Library Board of Control meeting in my community, a board member suggested that we should not allow anyone under the age of eighteen in the library without a parent in case they go into the adult system...John Chrastka of EveryLibrary...pointed out that in Louisiana sixteen-year-olds can get married. I hadn't even thought of that. Sixteen-year-olds cna also have jobs. Wanting to ban a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old from entering the library without an adult when they can work and get married at that age is perverse to me." (p. 42-43)
"In 2022, the Office for Intellectual Freedom received a record 1,269 book challenges, the highest number of demands to ban books reported to ALA since the association began compiling data about censorship in libraries." (p. 46)
"When speaking about Utah, Peter Bromberg told Utah's KSL News-Radio, 'It's not school libraries that parents need to be concerned about. It's their phones. If we're really concerned about the deleterious effects of pornography on children's brains, that's where we should be focusing. Not on books or literature.'" (p. 52)
While the description of the book is "part memoir, part manifesto," I could have done with a little less manifesto. I very much enjoyed the first few chapters even while I was enraged with her for what was happening. Then the book started to get pretty repetitive - LOTS of small town drama with local politicians and people who jumped on the bandwagon of defaming her, LOTS of repetition about how important it is for White, straight people to stand up for marginalized communities, and LOTS of repetition about how much this impacted her physical and mental health. I don't want to demean her story AT ALL but there was just a lot of repetition to the point I started skimming those sections.
Let me be 100% clear - as a librarian intellectual freedom is a hill I'm willing to die on. Even if I vehemently disagree with the content, I stand behind public libraries offering any and all viewpoints. If there is something I see that I don't want to read, I don't read it. I don't try to force other people to not read it though. There is definitely a huge rise in book challenges in both school and public libraries and online campaigns have a lot to do with it. This is something EVERYONE should be concerned about. As Jones says, if you have questions about book policies any librarian would be willing to explain their library policies with you. And if you hear about a "concerning" book - check it out from your local library and READ IT before you challenge it or post about it's dangers. While I didn't love every page of this book, it's still an important read. Amanda Jones is a hero and she is standing up to ignorance and censorship.
Some quotes I liked:
"At a recent Livingston Parish Public Library Board of Control meeting in my community, a board member suggested that we should not allow anyone under the age of eighteen in the library without a parent in case they go into the adult system...John Chrastka of EveryLibrary...pointed out that in Louisiana sixteen-year-olds can get married. I hadn't even thought of that. Sixteen-year-olds cna also have jobs. Wanting to ban a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old from entering the library without an adult when they can work and get married at that age is perverse to me." (p. 42-43)
"In 2022, the Office for Intellectual Freedom received a record 1,269 book challenges, the highest number of demands to ban books reported to ALA since the association began compiling data about censorship in libraries." (p. 46)
"When speaking about Utah, Peter Bromberg told Utah's KSL News-Radio, 'It's not school libraries that parents need to be concerned about. It's their phones. If we're really concerned about the deleterious effects of pornography on children's brains, that's where we should be focusing. Not on books or literature.'" (p. 52)
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