Asha's Mums by Rosamund Elwin and Michele Paulse

in
Asha's Mums
By Rosamund Elwin, Michele Paulse

Title: Asha's Mums

Author: Rosamund Elwin (Author), Michele Paulse (Author), Dawn Lee (Illustrator)

Publisher and Publication Year: Women's Press (UK), 1990

Summary

When her teacher doesn't believe she can have two mothers, Asha goes on a roaring rampage of revenge in this children's book. Or she has her mother's deal with it and there's a bit of a thing in class. Either way, this book was banned in Canada, so you know it pushes all the buttons.

Banned

Main case is from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada in 1997. The school banned the use of children's books depicting same-sex parents in elementary, including this one. A teacher, James Chamberlain, took the school to court, eventually getting a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada that since public schools were secular and non-discriminatory, the ban had no legal justification.

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell 20

in
And Tango Makes Three (Classic Board Books)
By Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell

Title: And Tango Makes Three

Author: Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, Henry Cole (Illustrator)

Publisher and Publication Year: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2005

Summary

In a world where penguins are locked up in cages called zoos, two male chinstraps dare to find… whatever it is you call companionship in penguins. Love? Sure. Hot, sweaty penguin love. Then a guy gives them an egg because fuck it, let's see what happens. The thrilling conclusion comes when the egg hatches and the two become daddies. Join us as we talk about And Tango Makes Three.

Banned

General:

  • Some parents and other adults who should stop trying to raise other peoples kids have objected to children reading a book about homosexuality, misreading the whole point of the book entirely.

  • The idea about comparing penguin love to human love has been found ludicrous by some, which is a pretty good argument because penguins don't have higher brain functions. That being said, "senior penguin keeper Rob Gramzay said that he never saw the pair complete a sex act, but the two did engage in mating rituals like entwining their necks and vocalizing to one another." Co-author Justin Richardson also said “We wrote the book to help parents teach children about same-sex parent families. It's no more an argument in favor of human gay relationships than it is a call for children to swallow their fish whole or sleep on rocks." That being said, the book is also not a call against homosexuality in any way, simply enforcing that families come in all shapes and sizes. Think about that when you read, that humans can learn a lot about forming families.

Specific Cases:

2006

Illinois - Shilo - Parents at Shiloh Elementary School requested the book be allowed checked out with parental permission, but the superintendent vetoed the matter.

Missouri - Moved from children's fiction to nonfiction in Savannah and St. Joseph after parents complained it had homosexual overtones. 

Missouri - Rolling Hills - book moved to nonfiction section by Library Director Barbara Read after parent complains of gay themes.

North Carolina - Charlotte - Superintendent Peter Gorman of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools ordered the book be removed from school libraries. A committee reviewed the decision claiming policy on challenged books were not followed.

2008

California - Lodi Public Library - resident challenged, claiming its "homosexual story line that has been sugarcoated with cute penguins

California - Chico - Three parents complained the book was unsuitable for young children. A school committee voted to retain.

Iowa - Ankeny - parents at local elementary school asked it be restricted for parental check out. School board voted 6 to 1 to keep the book in circulation.

Maryland - Calvert County - Parent requested the book be placed in a section for "alternative or non-traditional families". Another parent also claimed the book should be labeled or removed as being too young for sexuality and that when the penguins "slept together," it was referencing sex. The library board voted to retain the book both times.

Ohio - Dublin - Eli Pinny Elementary retained the book after a parent's concern that the book "is based on one of those subjects that is best discovered by students in another time or in another place."

UK - Withdrawn from two Bristol primary schools following objections from parents.

Virginia - Sterling, Loudoun County - Superintendent Dr. Edgar B Hatrick, after parents complaint, removed book from all school libraries despite staff complaints. The book was returned after Hatrick found "significant procedural errors that he believes void the process followed in this matter."

2009

Minnesota - retained in the Meadowview Elementry School in Farmington despite a paren't concern that "a topic such as seual preference does not belong in a library where it can be obtained by young elementary students."

Missouri - North Kansas City - Challenged but retained after parent's complaints about inappropriate "human sexuality education" and "tries to indoctrinate children about homosexuality."

2011 - Minnesota - Rochester - Pulled and removed from Gibbs Elementary School library but later put back after district policy had not been followed. The parent who challenged the book was required to be present when any item was checked out.

2013 - Utah - Marked for removal in the Davis School District because parents might find it objectionable.

2014 - Singapore - National Library Board (NLB) announced it would destroy three children's books with pro-LGBT families themes as they saw the titles as being "against its 'pro-family' stance following complaints by a parent and its own internal review." The decision was eventually reversed pending review.

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

$12.48

It's Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley

in ,

Learn about your body and sexy times in this week's episode.

Banned

1996

Pennsylvania - Challenged at Chester County Library because the book it prompted kids to begin desiring sex and "a clear example of child pornography"

Utah - Challenged at Provo Library for discussions of sex, masturbation, and homosexuality

Washington - Removed from Clover Park School District because parents claimed it was too graphic and "could foster more questions than it answers"

1997

Missouri - Challenged but retained at Mexico-Audrain County Library by a Baptist minister who complained about the title and it's discussion of sex, death, and birth.

North Dakota - Challenged but retained at the Fargo Public Library as "explicit, pornographic, and too easily accessible to children"

1999 - California - Challenged but retained at the Auburn-Placer County Public Library for being sexually explicit

2000 - Massachusettes - Challenged at Holland Public Library due to sexually explicit content and moved from children's to adults section

2001

Alaska - Restricted to elementary school kids with parental permission in Anchorage due to values and because "marriage is mentioned once in the whole book, while homosexual relationships are allocated an entire section"

Florida - Challenged at Marion County Public Library for being pornographic

2002 - Texas - Challenged, but retained, in Montgomery County library system after the Republican Leadership Council characterized the book as "vulgar" and trying to "minimize or even negate that homosexuality is a problem".

2003 - Texas - Moved from the young adult to the adult section of the Fort Bend County Libraries in Richmond. Also moved to the restricted section of the Fort Bend School Districts media centers after a resident complained via email about the book's content.

2005 - Arkansas - Challenged, but retained at the Holt Middle School library in Fayetteville despite a parent's complaint that it was sexually explicit.

2008 - Maine - A Lewiston patron refused to return the book to the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries because she was "sufficiently horrified by the illustrations and sexually graphic, amoral, abnormal contents." A police investigation found the library did not violate the town ordinance against obscenity and the patron will stand trial for theft.

2011 - Florida - Challenged, but retained at the Lee County libraries despite the book's explicit illustrations.

2015 - Missouri - Challenged as an e-book at the Francis Howell middle school libraries in St. Charles because of cartoon nudity.

2016 - Oregon - Rainer parents complained after books used by 6th grade class were left out in view of 4th graders. ""Inappropriate human development and sexuality books were disseminated to students who had library. Procedures have been put into place to make sure this doesn't happen again. All questionable books have been pulled from library shelves." - school's principal

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

King & King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland

in
King and King
By Linda de Haan, Stern Nijland

Can a prince find love in a hellish wasteland where Texas has a monarchy?

Banned

2004

Indiana - Moved from children's to adults section in Shelvyville-Shelby County library because a parent considered the homosexual story inappropriate

North Carolina - Restricted to adults in a school's library in Wilmington because the children's book is about a prince who's true love turns out to be another prince.

2005 - Oklahoma -  Challenged by seventy state legislators calling for the book to be removed from the children's section and placed in the adult section of the Metropolitan Library System in Oklahoma City.

2006- Massachusetts - Parents of a Lexington second-grader protested that their son's teacher read the fairy tale about gay marriage to the class without warning the parents first. The book was used as part of a lesson about different types of weddings. Lead to a long fight in U.S. District Court and Court of Appeals against the book being allowed in schools with parents still attempting to go to U.S. Supreme Court after other courts ruled there was no agenda for indoctrination and that public schools could not protect individual students from ideas that could be offensive, particularly if there is "no requirement for the student to agree with or affirm those ideas, or even participate in discussions about them."

2007 - Pennsylvania - Retained at the Lower Macungie library after the donated book was challenged because "let them be kids...and not worry about homosexuality, race and religion. Just let them live freely as kids."

2008 - England - Withdrawn from two Bristol, England primary schools after parents complained the book was unsuitable and that the parents had not been consulted.

Sources

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA, 2014.

Marshall University

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/