When I was in the Peace Corps in Malawi, Africa, I lived under a dictatorship. The news magazines we received like Newsweek had adds for woman’s stockings blacked out because woman in Malawi were not allowed to show their legs and it was illegal to wear pants outside of the home.
There was a long list of banned books too. The titles included The Green Revolution. This was a book about gardening. Banned because the title included the word revolution.
You see where I am going with this…
Last week I received an email from PEN America informing me that one of my books, Four Feet Two Sandals had been removed from bookshelves in all Duval County Public Schools, Florida.
Why would a book about sharing, caring and friendship be banned from K-12 readers you might ask.
Because the characters are Brown? Muslim? Refugees? They come from Afghanistan? They live in a refugee camp in Pakistan? They want to come to theUnited States? All of the above? Certainly the title cannot be offensive?
I am proud that Four Feet Two Sandals was chosen to be part of the Essential Voices classroom collection of books including 176 titles. All of these books have been removed from shelves in Duval County.
In an attempt to address the poor literacy skills of many young people,The Essential Voices Classroom Libraries Collection, collated by Perfection Learning, “features characters representing a variety of ethnicities, religious affiliations, and gender identities.” The Collection is designed to stock classroom libraries with diverse and inclusive books, so that “Students will see themselves in what they read, developing an understanding and appreciation of themselves as well as others around them.”
Indeed, I wrote Four Feet Two Sandals in part in response to the question from a refugee girl asking a librarian, “Why are there no books about children like me?”
The goal as stated above, would seem to address not only the literacy problems our country faces but also the even greater problem of accepting our differences and coming together as a nation where we can have meaningful dialogue, moving forward in a positive direction. A big job for one little book! But many books, perhaps, could begin to make a difference?
One report shows that shows that from July 2021 to June 2022, 138 school districts in 32 states banned 1,648 unique book titles; the bans occurred in 5,049 schools representing 4 million students.
That’s a lot of possibility…
Books have been known to effect change…and perhaps that is the fear.
How about reading a banned book this holiday season, share one with a child in your family or community. We all hear about books being banned and shake our heads(how could this happen?) but for me the banning of Four Feet Two Sandals was a kind of wake up call. It reminded me of living under a dictatorship where a book was banned because of the title.
Four Feet Two Sandals translated in so many different languages. A Joy!