DS upset at library removal of books

[Scallybatch]

Went into my local library today with DS, only to be told they have removed all Tin Tin and Asterix books! He was really upset as these are his favourite books!. All the lady could tell me is that they had been told to as they upset some people. I'm baffled. Would I be unreasonable to complain?

I don't remember the Britons going into battle but I do remember they had prim ladies drinking hot water out of china teacups (with their little finger in the air) and saying how delicious and refreshing it was (before tea had been brought here).

To be fair, I'm inclined to agree a blanket removal is overboard; I suspect laziness.

Maybe.

Or they might have taken them all for review. I sent up one book we received a complaint about for review a few months ago and haven't seen it since - it's still sitting on someone's desk.

Oh you are one of those people, who try to shut people up by throwing the word “privilege” around and I can see you have a similar mindset to the book banners. Interesting. Maybe something for you to reflect on, especially as book banning is strongly associated with authoritarianism, for obvious reasons, and why it’s so problematic.

The point you have made is, in any case, irrelevant. I am ethically opposed to book banning regardless of whether I am personally depicted in a derogatory way or not. And banning books to avoiding hurting people’s feelings is a very dangerous slippery slope to go down. I’m not going to share my ethnic background with you as it’s none of your business and, as I said, irrelevant to the discussion.

Surely you draw a line at what is appropriate for children somewhere?

And do you genuinely consider not keeping something on display in the children's section "banning"?

You just think any and every book should be available in the children’s section?

There are definitely some books that are inappropriate for children, and if our understand of that changes over time then of course libraries should update their collection accordingly.

Theres been some other threads on MN in the FWR section recently about some inappropriate children’s books that are available in libraries, with posters pointing out why they shouldn’t be, and many (including myself) have agreed with them.

Mr men books banned in America?
Why?

You could have just said you’re a selfish c*nt and saved yourself the essay 🙄

@Mama2many73 I don't think the Mr Men books are banned in America.
The TV from about 15 years ago was a US/UK production and shown on the Cartoon Network in the USA.
Out of curiosity I'm going to look on Barnes and Noble website.

Mr Men, TinTin and Asterix all available for sale on the Barnes and Noble website in the USA.
I assume individual schools/libraries can "ban" them they aren't banned banned in the USA.

Love the idea of racist books being "behind the counter" in the library so that people like Richard Tice can get Little Black Sambo out in a plain wrapper to read to his children at bed time....

@CurlewKate I had always heard of Little Black Sambo but never actually knew the story so I just googled it.
It seems it's the original title and illustrations that were (and clearly are) considered racist.
The actual plot seems fine.
Apparently there are modern versions where the title, illustrations and character names have been changed - but the plot remains.
I would find it highly unlikely that a library would have a copy "behind the counter" as the original versions are long out of print.

Don't assume it was a council decision, when I worked in a library we did "weeding" of the collection ourselves. Sometimes it was just because they didn't get borrowed very often and were taking up the space on the shelves that more popular books could have.

But in this case it does sound like it was someone deciding on behalf of others what they should be offended by.

They aren't. They are very popular there.

They weren't released there until the late 90s so that's probably why Americans could only get them in the UK.

Wow. Not sure where you are getting that I’m a selfish cunt from. And not sure the personal attack really necessary. And if you are going to swear have some gumption and do it properly. The asterisks aren’t necessary, everyone knows what the word is.

They're not. The United States is made up of 50 individual states. There is no book that is banned in all 50 states. In the state I live in there are no books that are banned at all.

Give it a few months

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/06/05/ohio-republican-proposes-bill-that-would-defund-libraries-over-materials-government-deems-harmful/#:~:text=H.B.%20556%20would%20charge%20teachers,able%20to%20rent%20or%20buy.

I'm not the PP but I do think your position here is self-centred.

It's one thing for you, an adult, to be fine with the existence and availability of racist literature. It's another thing to think that material of that sort should be promoted to children (of all backgrounds) in the children's section of a public library. That basically makes the public library an unsafe space for certain children, based on their ethnicity.

@Dappy777

I'm 100% against ANY censorship. If you believe people should be free, then they should be free...not free only to express the same opinions as you.

Isn't it more of a right-wing thing rather than 'woke' to ban books? (Eg: Florida for their list of over 700 books banned from school libraries.) If you're for the concept of freedom, shouldn't the children of Florida be able to access these texts?

https://www.fldoe.org/file/5574/2324-SDRPS-100628-2.pdf

It's not censorship not to have something in a library. They have "The Times", they don't have nak mags for obvious reasons. It's so "first world problems" to get one's tit in a mangel over this - you don't know you're born. If you had been born in one of the soviet countries before 1989 then you'd know what censorship is.

Shame. Asterix books are amazing. Educational too.

Tbf I did learn what a menhir was from them.

Tbf it’s mainly the right wing folk who have a habit of mass book banning. They are banning children’s books all over the US that even have any mention of social justice themes, that tackle racism etc. it’s allegedly a small bunch of MAGA women who devote all their time to raising challenges to various books. But they’re having a massive impact and some schools are withdrawing invites to certain authors typically non-white and non-heterosexual ones.

It’s not happening here in the UK on the same scale at all. The most you get is a few books tweaked by the “left” to remove offensive words.

I do find it interesting how some people on MN will be crying over children’s books promoting trans ideology being on shelves, but then feel it’s ok to have racially offensive books.

You can’t really have it both ways. It’s the double standards that irritates me.

And this is coming from someone who loves tintin btw. It helped inspired my love of reading. It was the first series I ever read, I was about 5 and tore through the series at my local library 😃

Theres a lack of diversity in children’s books, too many children aren’t seeing themselves reflected in books - try being bothered more about that more than by the absence of tintin from one library 😵‍💫

Yes, it is. Many of my friends are authors in the US and they’ve been impacted by the book bans. It’s a massive issue there.

The freedom of speech type people have been mysteriously quiet about this and then they’re having meltdowns about no tintin. Absolute joke

Well said. People like this don’t give a darn about non-white kids though. I had a white friend who had mixed race children send me through some nonsense about “political correctness” gone mad and not being able to say anything.

I told her to be more concerned with the fact her kids can still get called the N word in our village ffs