In honor of Banned Books Week, I hereby bestow this year's award to a poorly translated, weakly illustrated Spanish-language edition of The Little Mermaid.
A parent returned her child's book to the me via the teacher with the message that we should remove this book from the shelves? Why? Because in one corner of one illustration--and they are very, very poorly executed cartoons--the a flatchested mermaid is topless. "Naturally she didn't complain about the lousy Spanish translation," I commented sarcastically, and the teacher laughed in agreement.
But in all seriousness, folks, I'm going to agree with the Annoyed Librarian that BBW is a lot of hysteria.
I myself would add, a lot of hysteria driven by ALA members who believe our children should be exposed to everything and anything in order to make them accept everything and anything. I'm very much a First Amendment proponent, but these people are imposing their own values on the rest of us at times and I find that hypocritical.
I just came across this article by Nancy Wolf, and it makes me glad I work in an elementary school. My daughter's a long way from teenagehood but I cringe at what she would get hold of if I worked in a teen library.
That being noted, I'm annoyed that this Safe Libraries group is obviously aligned with the Right, of which I am not. Can't one be a moderate librarian? Why should everything be a choice between the Anything Goes crowd and Fox News?
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2 comments:
I couldn't agree with the banners more. In a world full of mindless violence, run-away greed, deterioating education standards, escalating international armed conflict, political corruption, and an alarmingly damaged natural environment, the most dangerous thing I can think of is sweet little mermaid illustration flashing a bit of tit. ;-)
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