Banned Book Week
This week is Banned Book Week (September 22 - 28, 2024), an annual event in the U.S. that celebrates the freedom to read and raises awareness about books that have been challenged or banned in schools and libraries. Children's books often face challenges due to their content, themes, or language. Unfortunately, many children’s books that have been challenged or banned feature children of color, or themes that impact them such as ethnic identity, discrimination, and racism.
While I wholeheartedly believe that parents and caregivers are the best judges of the books that are appropriate for their own children, other people should not restrict anyone’s access to books. I encourage adults to pre-read books before reading them with their children to evaluate if the content is consistent with their values and if their child is ready for the content. It is equally important for adults to consider if they are ready to discuss difficult or challenging content with their children. Pre-reading provides the opportunity to think through these issues in advance of introducing a book to a child.
The books featured this week have all been challenged and/or banned due to their themes and content. While each of these books addresses complex, emotionally charged issues, they reflect real-world challenges that impact our children. Books like these can provide opportunities to discuss difficult themes with children, answer their questions, and provide support and reassurance.
Joyful Reading!
Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Méndez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation
Written and Illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh
2015 Pura Belpré Honor Book for Illustration
2015 Robert F. Sibert Medal Honor Book
Reason for Challenge/Banning: This book was challenged in Tennessee because it "features contemporaneous quotes uttered by White segregationists in court.” It wasn't banned in its entirety, but teachers are censored from reading pages 25-27 to their students.
Seven years before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, Mendez v. Westminster, a 1946 class-action lawsuit challenged the constitutionality of separate schools for Mexican American students in Southern California and eventually helped end public school segregation across California and served as a foundation for the Brown case. This book chronicles the experiences of Sylvia Méndez and her family. When they tried to enroll Sylvia and the family children in a school near their newly leased farm, they were told the children had to attend the “Mexican school,” even though they were citizens of the U.S. and proficient in English. No one could provide Sylvia’s father with a valid reason why Sylvia and the other children in their family could not attend the better-resourced school that was closer to their home, so he filed a lawsuit and eventually prevailed. Duncan Tonatiuh’s narrative is accessible to children and highlights the struggle of faced by Sylvia’s family to access a quality education for their children, and the challenges faced by the children when they became the first children of Mexican descent to attend a school that had excluded them. The text is masterfully supported by Duncan Tonatiuh’s distinctive illustrations based on the Pre-Columbian codices of the Mixtec and Maya people. An extensive author’s note includes photographs of Sylvia, her parents, and the schools, as well as glossary and bibliography.
Mendez v. Westminster: For All the Children, a short documentary which aired on PBS that is now available to the public, introduced by the film’s writer/producer, Sandra Robbie. In addition to describing the lawsuit, a new introduction provides insights between the Brown and Mendez cases with an interview Robert L. Carter, who worked on both cases.
A Conversation with Sylvia Méndez features an extended interview with Sylvia Méndez reflecting on the court decision and the quest for civil rights in the U.S. Learn more about the court decision and its impact.
Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice
Written by by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, Ann Hazzard, Illustrated by Jennifer Zivion
Reason for Challenge/Banning: This book has been challenged for “divisive language” and because it is thought to promote anti-police views and has been identified by American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom's Top 10 Most Challenged Books.
Written by three psychologists, this story explores the impact of a police shooting of a Black man on the children in the community. Emma (a White child) and Josh (a Black child) are young children who have many questions about incident. In conversations with their parents, they explore questions about race, discrimination, police relations with the community, from diverse perspectives. Each conversation ends with a gentle call to action from their parents, focused on how as children they can make change in their community. Shortly after these dialogs, a new child, Omad, joins Emma and Josh’s class, and is quickly ostracized both other children. Remembering the conversations with their parents, Josh and Emma stand up for Omad, including him in a soccer game, and making a new friend in the process. Jennifer Zivion’s richly textured illustrations capture the mood of the themes explored using darkness and shadowing contrasted with lighter hues to align with the story content. The book Includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers with guidelines for discussing race and racism with children, child-friendly definitions, and sample dialogues.
The authors have created an extensive resource for parents, caregivers and educators: Anti-Racism Resources for Children and Adults.
Sulwe
Written by Lupita Nyong'o, Illustrated by Vashti Harrison
2020 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor
Sulwe, a young girl, “was born the color of midnight.” She struggles with the hue of her skin, as each member of her family, although unique in their skin tones, is lighter than Sulwe. At school, she is teased by other children for her darkness, and called, “Blackie,” “Darkie,” and “Night,” while her lighter skinned sister is popular with other children and called, “Sunshine,” “Ray,” and “Beauty.” Sulwe, tries to lighten her skin with an eraser and her mother’s makeup, and even tries to do so from within by eating only light-colored foods. Despite her mother’s reassurance and reminder Sulwe means “star,” she cannot recognize her own brightness. One night, a shooting star takes Sulwe on an adventure to learn about the sisters, Day and Night, sisters who loved each other but were treated differently. As a result of this experience, Sulwe learns that she is “dark and beautiful, bright and strong.” Lupita Nyong'o’s gentle text is brilliantly accompanied by Vashti Harrison’s deeply hued, vibrant illustrations. Nyong'o provides a thoughtful Author’s Note that describes her own challenges with her skin color.
Lupita Nyong'o delivers a moving speech about beauty at the 2014 Essence Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon, delivered several days before winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 12 Years a Slave.
Beyond the Books
The American Library Association, BannedBooksWeek.org, and public libraries across the country will sponsor special programming and resources to call attention to censorship and the importance of free and open access to books for everyone. Let Freedom Read! provides ways to take action, even if you only have 5 minutes.