In looking for additional posts for Banned Books Week, I came across this article by Chrissie Gruebel for Barnes & Noble noting some of the petty and pretty ridiculous reasons people have sought to ban books.
And if you’re wondering about the image above, yes: Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? was removed from a school curriculum in 2010… for Marxism! Some of the other reasons for book removal are similarly ill-informed and, in some cases, antagonistic at the whole reason the book exists in the first place.
Now, one thing to note: Gruebel wrote this back in 2015 and while her snark remain on point, she does mention “…it’s kinda quaint that people still think they can ban books at all, right? It’s the most ineffective power trip in the world!”
Alas, as mentioned in Sunday’s post and as you’ll see perusing PEN America’s website, the censors have been taking this power trip as far as they can the past decade…. so while attempted censors still deserve merciless mockery, we’re going to keep an eye on them. After all, they don’t care about following any process.
(Gruebel herself appears to be continuing productive tomfoolery which I can only hope vexes the right sort of wrong people).