My librarian aunt told me to stop defending banned books so defensively

Back when I first got into reading challenged books I used to get so mad at everyone who wanted to ban them. I would argue with anyone who said a book was inappropriate for kids. Then my aunt who has been a librarian for 30 years sat me down after a family dinner in Nashville last Thanksgiving. She said I was coming off like I was attacking people instead of inviting them to understand why books matter. She told me to try saying "tell me what worries you about this book" instead of jumping straight into a debate. At first I thought she was wrong but after I tried it at a school board meeting in March it changed everything. One mom told me she was scared her 8th grader would read about racism and feel guilty for no reason. We actually talked for 20 minutes about how The Hate U Give handles that subject instead of just yelling at each other. Has anyone else had to learn the hard way that being nice works better than being right about these books?

2 comments

2 Comments

emmap161d ago

Good point, but did that mom actually read the book herself?

michael_jones1d agoMost Upvoted

300 pages of a YA novel that takes a few hours to read. @emmap16 is probably right that she didn't read it. But does it really matter if she read the whole thing or just skimmed it? The book's not exactly War and Peace. People get too worked up over whether someone "earned" their opinion on a kids book. Let's be real here, half the outrage online is just people looking for something to be mad about.