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When You Believe There’s “Porn” in the Children’s Library — is it Really a Trigger Word for Something Else?
I worked in a library children’s department for a long time, without coming across an inappropriate book, unless it was In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, which did cause a stir back in 1970. Little Mickey losing his PJs and flying all around naked. (Actually, who hasn’t had that dream?)
By the time I was doing story hours, no one gave it a second look. Just another children’s book, such as Strega Nona (banned in some places) or Cat in the Hat (Not this book, but Dr. Suess is not exempt from having some other of his books banned). There are children’s books that have been deservedly retired or sent to archives for out of touch content, and others that may need to stick around just to remind us of our past. (Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain comes to mind.)
I never came across anything else that we had, or was available in catalogs of children’s books to buy, that could have I would have considered pornography. But “porn in the library” is just a code phrase. And while I’ve been thinking that it is backlash against new-age, “woke” (shuddder!) books, which do get on the lists, I am seeing books of 40 or 50 years vintage on banned book lists. And again, there are some books of yesteryear that showed misogyny, lack of diversity, or…
