The day my local library board banned 'Maus' changed how I talk about books

I was at the Williamson County library board meeting back in January 2022 when they voted to remove 'Maus' from the middle school shelves. A parent complained about a few swear words and a picture of a naked mouse. I sat there thinking about how the whole point of the book is showing what hate can do, and here they were worried about a mouse being drawn without clothes. Now anytime someone says a book should be banned, I ask them to tell me what the book is actually about first. Has anyone else noticed that the people calling for bans often haven't even read the whole book?

4 comments

4 Comments

fiona_kim21d ago

If they actually read the books maybe they'd have better reasons to ban them. Parents should get a say in what their kids see at school, not everyone wants their 8 year old reading about war and trauma.

nelson.vera21d ago

Had a friend whose third grader brought home a book about the Holocaust and wouldn't stop having nightmares for weeks.

ivanbell21d ago

Why do people always double down on banning books they havent cracked open? When they went after Maus here they couldnt even describe the plot right. One lady said it glorified violence but the whole book is about surviving genocide. Read the damn thing first then come talk to me.

-1

logan52521d ago

@ivanbell I hear you but gotta push back a little. Have you seen some of the stuff parents are actually concerned about? A kid in my library district grabbed a graphic novel that had pretty explicit sexual content and the parent cried foul because the description online said "coming of age story." People banning Maus are dead wrong, I agree there, but not every book ban is people being idiots about a classic. Sometimes it's parents who just want some say in what's age appropriate for their 8 year old. Maus is a bad example to use for the whole debate.