Unsafe in the library
What makes you feel unsafe? Do you feel threatened by a book – or by a picture in a book? Recently a children’s book in Manitoba was temporarily removed from a school division’s library shelves because some adults said it made them feel unsafe. They had no problem with the text which is a simple story of a child helping her grandmother prepare a special meal for the family. What upset them was a detail in an illustration, a very small drawing of a map, labelled in Arabic and covered with a fabric design. The map in the drawing was of disputed land, that of Israel and Palestine.
This map is certainly not the first, nor the only map to be contentious in today’s world. Nor is this the only map to make people uncomfortable. I have seen numbers of maps printed over the last 100 years that today draw into question land rights. Check out “Oh Canada: Our Home on Native Land.”
If you want to start a classroom discussion, ask students about the land they are living on and the land their ancestors came from. Who owns the land – and who used to live on it? I still cannot figure out which country my own great-grandparents came from because the village they left changed hands repeatedly during wars and occupation. Was it a peaceful exchange of property? Certainly not. Just look at today’s maps of Ukraine as drawn by Russia. Should we keep such a map out of school libraries, or should we show students what is happening in their world today?
Some people collect historical literature and maps. These items have value for historians as well as for museums, libraries, and individual collectors. Some of these items increase in value over time, while others become highly problematic. Recently, a politician chose to resign when it was revealed that he had in his possession a signed copy of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto, Mein Kampf. To be clear, it is not illegal to own this book, nor is it the only historic item in the politician’s collection. While I do not know if the revelation of his ownership of this “collector’s item” is the only reason he chose to step down, I am deeply concerned that the books we choose to own could jeopardise us.
It is especially troubling when the pretext of “safety” is used to censor, challenge, ban, or simply remove books from libraries. After all, who doesn’t want to be safe – and even more significantly – who doesn’t want to keep children safe? But what does it mean to feel unsafe? Clearly, we are not talking about physical safety. So, can a book actually imperil safety? If in the unlikely occasion that a child noticed the map in the illustration of Upside Down Iftar it would be an opportunity to discuss world events. Teachable moments might make adults uncomfortable, but unsafe?
“Child safety” is being misused a lot these days. The Alberta Minister of Education used it to justify a Ministerial Order banning from all schools and school libraries in the province all books that have even the remotest pictorial representation of sexual content. Most of these banned books are aimed at young adult (YA) readers. Again, it is clear that certain adults are made uncomfortable because they fear they could be asked difficult questions by the young people who have access to these books.
I also suspect that the very word “graphic” is misunderstood by people who have not read the books in question. Do they think this word is being used as an adjective to describe the illustrations, rather than simply as an identifier of the book’s being illustrated? A graphic novel is one where the text is illustrated through out. Even Charles Shulz’s Peanuts books could qualify as graphic novels. Graphic sex, needless to say, is something else entirely!
On a more serious note, however, the four graphic novels that Alberta’s Minister singled out to justify his broad ban, and which have also been the target of similar bans in the U.S., are all award-winning books that are highly accessible to teenagers. Some of these YA readers may have difficulty reading dense text that has no illustrations, while some may be seeking ways to explore their own identity, sexual and otherwise.
For these YA readers, graphic novels that deal with the lives of people like them, that help them to contend with and understand how others have dealt with such issues as bullying, sexual attraction, and family strife, can provide a sense of safety. Rather than making such young people feel unsafe, these books can create a sense of belonging. It can be validating to know that there are others who think and feel what you do. It can be comforting to know that even when things look dark, others have found a way through.
Could adults such as teachers and parents feel challenged by this kind of literature? Of course. But our best hope is that these adults explore their own discomfort and use what they find to help the younger people feel safe enough to explore their own concerns.
