A banned book?

Apparently a picture of a "witch" taking a bath is pornographic and will distress the young so much it will have a negative effect lasting a lifetime. At least it will if the child happens to live in Florida. 

"Guess What?" by Mem Fox was published in 1988 but it has apparently taken this long to discover the dreadful and shocking effect that the book can have on young children. 

The author is not amused - and neither are some other people. Fox of course is the author of "Possum Magic" which seems to sell quite well in America. This is despite the fact that the Vegemite sandwiches central to the story are probably not widely consumed there. Perhaps it could be banned too because it "isn't likely to be understood"?

There were apparently over one hundred and seventy books for children banned in a recent cull by educators in Florida and this was just one of them. Anything considered violent or pornographic has been removed. 

I have no objection to genuine violence or pornography being removed. I don't want children to be subjected to those things any more than I want to subject myself to those things. But, there is nothing wrong with taking a bath in a completely non-sexual way is there?

Going to these extremes is not helping anyone. Children see far worse on television and in advertising every day. Here they will see police with guns and in America they will see many more people with guns. Do all parents in Florida manage to keep the mass shootings there from their children? I know some will try but children have ways of learning about such things.

Children will see some people in shopping centres with very revealing clothing. They will see beach scenes which are much more suggestive than the witch taking a bath.

A long time ago now, in another lifetime, I was a school librarian for a short time. It was a wonderful job being able to introduce children to books. At that time there was talk in this state of possibly banning a book by Jill Paton-Walsh. "The Dolphin Crossing" is a book about war - and death. It was in some libraries and not others. I bought a copy for the school library. I talked to the "Mother's Club" about doing so first. I told them what the book was about and I suggested that if we banned it the children would simply find other ways of reading it. I suggested that we would simply require the children to get permission from a parent to read it. There were no objections to buying the book and no parent objected to their child reading it. The "top reading team" (advanced readers who met in the library) all read it. We discussed it and we discussed how those sort of issues were handled in books. They all read Serrallier's "The silver sword" and Holm's "I am David" as well. We talked about the different ways issues in those books are handled. 

And I remember one of the boys saying to me at the end of my time in that school, "Those books helped me to start growing up."

That surely has to be a good thing. Isn't it one of those things we want books to do?