Entry tags:
How three penguins changed my life
While browsing Banned Books Week posts around the internet, I found a meme (originally from Jo Knowles):
1. Go find your favorite banned book.
2. Take a picture of yourself with said book.
3. Give that book some love by explaining why you think it is an important book.
4. Post it to your blog.
5. Spread the word!
I was about a month into my first library job when my supervisor plopped a picture book on the desk and inquired if I had read it yet. I was working as a part-time library assistant in the youth services department of a public library and the book the children's librarian handed me was And Tango Makes Three.
I read it. I loved it. Although my children's lit professor would cringe to hear me say it, the illustrations really are cute. (I dare you to look upon wee Tango and not smile at her adorable fuzziness.) To appease my professor (who really did teach me better), I'll add that the story and illustrations are equally charming and work well together to convey a story about a family that's "a little bit different" but no less loving than other families.
This book changed my life. It changed how I see and interact with the world.
Growing up, I was aware of homosexuality and censorship, but neither affected me directly so I didn't give either issue much thought. My parents are wonderful, open-minded people who let me do my own thinking and never told me that any way of loving was more or less acceptable than any other. I have always believed that people have a right to live their own lives—a right to choose who they love and what they read—but in my own world that was a given.
Then I met Tango.
And when I finished reading that book, so sweet and happy, I went straight to Amazon to look up the reviews, knowing there would be bad ones. It turned out there was only one bad review, since Tango had only been published a few months before. But that single bad review has stuck in my mind ever since. The scathing review indicated that this book was pushing a homosexual agenda by promoting tolerance of alternative lifestyles. The fact that someone could think promoting tolerance was a bad thing shocked and horrified me.
Reading Tango and that one bad review on Amazon brought censorship and lgbt rights to life for me. Once intangible problems, And Tango Makes Three made these into issues for me.
Everyone has the right to choose who they love and what they read.
No one has the right to tell others who they can or cannot love or marry. No one has the right to tell others what they can or cannot read.
( Further reading )
1. Go find your favorite banned book.
2. Take a picture of yourself with said book.
3. Give that book some love by explaining why you think it is an important book.
4. Post it to your blog.
5. Spread the word!
I was about a month into my first library job when my supervisor plopped a picture book on the desk and inquired if I had read it yet. I was working as a part-time library assistant in the youth services department of a public library and the book the children's librarian handed me was And Tango Makes Three.
I read it. I loved it. Although my children's lit professor would cringe to hear me say it, the illustrations really are cute. (I dare you to look upon wee Tango and not smile at her adorable fuzziness.) To appease my professor (who really did teach me better), I'll add that the story and illustrations are equally charming and work well together to convey a story about a family that's "a little bit different" but no less loving than other families.
This book changed my life. It changed how I see and interact with the world.
Growing up, I was aware of homosexuality and censorship, but neither affected me directly so I didn't give either issue much thought. My parents are wonderful, open-minded people who let me do my own thinking and never told me that any way of loving was more or less acceptable than any other. I have always believed that people have a right to live their own lives—a right to choose who they love and what they read—but in my own world that was a given.
Then I met Tango.
And when I finished reading that book, so sweet and happy, I went straight to Amazon to look up the reviews, knowing there would be bad ones. It turned out there was only one bad review, since Tango had only been published a few months before. But that single bad review has stuck in my mind ever since. The scathing review indicated that this book was pushing a homosexual agenda by promoting tolerance of alternative lifestyles. The fact that someone could think promoting tolerance was a bad thing shocked and horrified me.
Reading Tango and that one bad review on Amazon brought censorship and lgbt rights to life for me. Once intangible problems, And Tango Makes Three made these into issues for me.
Everyone has the right to choose who they love and what they read.
No one has the right to tell others who they can or cannot love or marry. No one has the right to tell others what they can or cannot read.
( Further reading )
