Dodging the question. The school board, governor, and the librarian all all part of “the government”. The loud conclave are arguably also if you grant their ability to vote in all but the librarian.
I think there were 3 books I asked my book loving kid to wait on.
One she got from the public library, The Princess Diaries. Having seen the movie I thought nothing of it. Then I read the book and decided it wasn’t appropriate for my 4th grader. My fault for letting my 4th grader loose in the YA section.
Another was around the same time. I used to listen to Lillian Jackson Braun’s Cat Who series on audio CD. I’d finish a CD and give it to my daughter as I started the next one. In one of the books the motive for the murder was something I thought my daughter would find upsetting. We discussed it and she did end up finishing.
The last one was Wicked. Super into the musical, she wanted to read the book. She was in middle school but I preferred that she wait. Honestly I didn’t think she’d like it. She had access to my Audible account so she could have listened if she wanted to. Anyway she asked again maybe in 9th grade and I wasn’t gonna police her reading at that age so I said go ahead. I don’t know if she ever even finished it. I actually think we would both like it better now.
No, it’s not. Not Banning is what we should be doing here in Real America. And by “banning,” I mean (IMO) that some locally-elected governing unit shall not make a list of books not to be available at the Public Library that it oversees.
But the subtle reality is that a library has limited space, and if there’s not enough room, well, then, the librarian makes the call. And a book selling will occur. Those not sold will be thrown away. Librarian is not obligated to have a “Library of Congress”-sized inventory at their disposal.
A “restricted section” seems the most practical way to resolve the issue of a book having found its way into a library and which has some demand, but that its content is not for all ages of sanity levels.
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Ronald Dahl estate/ Puffin are working on new editions of Dahl books.
Augustus Gloop is no longer “enormously fat”!
He’s now just “enormous”.
The changes covered in the article are so minor that I don’t really care. But in a way it is ruder than the Seuss changes, since I’m pretty sure Seuss really didn’t want to offend anybody, while Roald Dahl regularly spits in your face.
The writer of the Martian-- which is a great kids book but also features a million F-bombs recently wrote a book where the character is weirdly not allowed to swear. But… the new book also tells you the best way to commit suicide.
If they are clearly marked on the cover under the title “Edited from original content” or something similar I don’t think this is a big deal.
I’d like to know the reasons as well. And, where to get the original.
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To be fair I have no idea how often new versions of books are released after someone dies. Maybe this kind of thing is super common?
Mostly seems funny since the Dahl is so full of inappropriate shit.
Florida has emptied its school libraries while state trained censors look for inappropriate material.
I don’t want to get too deep into what’s appropriate or inappropriate for children, but the need to hide all the books while they decide which books can be white-listed or potentially risk prison time, is pretty stupid, as well as creepy.
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I prefer to let parents decide for their own children, and no one else’s. ESPECIALLY mine.
Looked for that picture in legitimate news sources, but found this interesting read instead:
Oh, found that picture: in an article from Pen America, via Twitter, from February:
This is the most disconcerting.
In Duval, a media specialist described to The Independent, a “sad sight” of students walking by an empty, closed library unable to access books, until she reviews 37,000 of them. The process, she explained, is challenging and subjective: “The phrase ‘harmful to children’ is so vague… It used to just encompass pornography. They have now added excessive violence. They’ve added negative language. Just they have snuck so many little things underneath harmful to children, it just seems like they’re trying to catch us making a mistake.”
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Another, from February, about biographer Jonah Winter:
Oh, here is an asshole now:
“Oh, kids will ‘feel bad’.” Sorry, children’s feelings are not the responsibility of teachers.
Oh, found this in the comments (was not part of an exposé on this person:
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At the risk of overusing the word Nazi …
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But, but…
She added that she has Jewish friends and is a fan of the Israeli Netflix series “Fauda.”
Oh, and:
Asked why she wanted the books removed in the first place, Salinas said she had just been expressing her “opinion” that they did not “support the curriculum” but declined to elaborate.
She said she had only read parts of the books. “They have to read for me because I’m not an expert,” she said. “I’m not a reader. I’m not a book person. I’m a mom involved in my children’s education.”
Stay educated, Florida Gal!
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In her complaint that led to The Hill We Climb being removed from some elementary schools, she listed the author as Oprah Winfrey instead of Amanda Gorman (Oprah wrote the foreword). The part of the book she objects to are the following verses:
We’ve braved the belly of the beast.
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace,
And the norms and notions of what ‘just is’
isn’t always justice.And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow, we do it.
Somehow, we’ve weathered and witnessed
A nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.
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Wow that shit is deep, for a simpleton who doesn’t read.
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So a person who can’t read (or can’t be bothered to read) wants to ban books. Makes total sense.
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Bible banned by school in Utah.
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I mean, have you read the Old Testament? 
Sounds like someone (a non-pro-book-banner) is fighting back, not that some book-banning nut job thinks the Bible should be banned from schools.
Good on them.
The book-banning lawmaker:
The Utah state lawmaker who wrote the 2022 law had previously dismissed the Bible removal request as a “mockery”, but changed course this week after calling it a “challenging read” for younger children.
“Traditionally, in America, the Bible is best taught, and best understood, in the home, and around the hearth, as a family,” Ken Ivory wrote on Facebook.
As is all religion. Keep that shit out of our public schools!