Hello Friends,
I originally was going to write about horror books this month. Halloween and all of that, but then, as unluck would have it, just before Banned Books Week landed, the Superintendent of the school district where I live decided that because of the oppressive, Orwellian laws enacted by my governor and his cronies, sent out a memo that was released to the public that, is well, something I would expect from an Orwell novel. The real horror is book banning.
For those who don’t know, in Florida, there is a law that bans not only books in libraries, it bans discussion of topics in classrooms. One of the many things that are being kept from the eyes and ears of the children of Florida is LGBTQ+ people. The book Heather Has Two Mommies is out and so if there is an actual girl called Heather who has two mommies, it is unclear if she can even talk about it. Signs point to no because the law is amorphous and school district employees are freaking out about what they can and can’t say or do, or think. Rightfully, they asked for clarification from those in charge.
The actual wording, and I want to quote it here, because the superintendent and school lawyer put this in writing, for all to see. They put their names on it.
Q: "Are we removing books from any school or media center, Prek-12, if a character has, for example, two mothers or because there is a gay best friend or a main character is gay?”
A: "Yes. These characters and themes cannot exist,"
Cannot exist. Forget what that says to the writers of those books and the kids who read those books, although, I will circle back to the first part in a minute, think about what that says to the kids who are LGBTQ+ or who have siblings, or parents, or friends, or teachers, or know someone who is. Which, by the way, is everyone. Everyone knows someone who identifies as such. Some may choose to ignore this, but unless a person was born in a cave to a straight mother and that person and the mother never leave the cave, then everyone knows someone who is LGBTQ+. Kids can’t see themselves in the books. They can’t see the people they love represented in books. Because they “cannot exist.”
That means I can’t ask for my book to be included. There are four characters in Welcome to Mansfield who exist, but are not allowed to exist in the local public school library. The next book has a bi-sexual lead character. The third book features an asexual main character. Spoiler alert: all of the books will have LGBTQ+ characters because those people are people. Those people are in my family and in my life and they exist no matter what the Charlotte County Public School District says.
Insert expletives here.
Done? Take your time. Throw things if you must.
For the past several years I have volunteered for the Friends of my local library and it is my pleasure to work on literacy outreach for the youth. I’ve brought in writers and artists who spend a day at the middle school teaching them about why art matters, why reading is important, and why creating and telling their own stories is valid. The kids love it. The writers and artists love it. It is pretty awesome.
Because of this law, there are some people whom I can’t invite and some people who have just told me no. They don’t feel safe coming here. Adults don't feel safe coming to my community to talk to children about books. The thing is even if everyone I ask says no and in desperation, I wanted to tap myself as the speaker, I couldn’t because my book is not allowed. I am honestly not sure what it means going forward, but I am going to keep fighting the good fight for literacy, for kids, and for the right of all people and books to exist.
Notes from my Bookshelf
I have an interactive book bingo going on right now and so I’ve been reading books suggested to me by friends, family, and social media followers.
The first 8 for the October card update will feature books from bell hooks (that is how she spells it), Tom Robbins, Jack Kerouac, Carson McCullers, Natasha Brown, Zadie Smith, R.F Kuang, and Haruki Murakami. Quite an eclectic bunch, but I had a great time. Books are good food (for the brain).
Notes from my Desk
Well, this month, the third book in The Austen Chronicles took a bit of a backseat as I did some traveling to do some book promotions. I was a keynote speaker at Mount St. Mary College in Newburgh, New York for their Founder’s Day celebration. I did several events. You can read about it all here.
I did appear on Tonya Todd’s Banned Book Conversation series for the second year in a row. Please watch my appearance which features Veronica Klash and Brenna Thummler, who just so happened to be one of our featured literacy outreach guests of years past. Once you are done with that, watch the rest of the series as well. It is awesome.
I did get a chance to see the cover of the new Moon Knight collection to which I contributed. It looks awesome. Check it out here.
Finally, Lea and I spent some time doing final quality control on the forthcoming audiobook of Welcome To Mansfield which is read by actor, writer, teacher, podcaster, and friend of mine, A.A. McCartney. Coming soon to audiobook sites and library apps near you!
Thank you for subscribing,
ARF
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