Wanda Taylor is the author of both fiction and non-fiction books for children and adult readers. Her latest book is the middle-grade novel The Grover School Pledge.
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” That was one of my favourite books when I was in Grade 6, in the seventies. Its author, Judy Blume, used Margaret’s journey through adolescence and boys and bras to speak to readers. She, and others like her, crafted compelling and relatable characters who found themselves caught up in true-to-life situations. Young readers gravitated toward them because they saw themselves or their situations in those characters and stories.
Judy Blume’s book was controversial at the time – imagine the audacity she had to speak to young girls about wearing a bra! – and for years it was on the American Library Association’s list of most-challenged books. I couldn’t understand what all that ridiculous fuss was about. In fact, I wanted to be this kind of bold writer, too.
The push to ban books has certainly moved beyond stories about bras. In 2019, author Jerry Craft wrote a middle-grade book called New Kid, based on his own life experiences (he was one of the only Black students at a new private school). His book won a slew of awards, including the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Author Award. Yet it soon came under scrutiny from some school boards for promoting critical race theory (CRT) – and was even pulled from classroom shelves in one Texas town.
I grew up in rural Nova Scotia. When my family moved out of the Black community of East Preston and into the city of Dartmouth, my sister and I were two of only four Black children in the entire school. We were othered by students who told us to go back to Africa, and by teachers who made us feel different. Speaking about race through books is not an exercise in CRT, but rather a way to use examples from the past to show children how we can change the future. Struggle and resilience are recurring themes through all my books.
When adults dismiss, negate and try to ban books that grapple with these experiences, it can cause irreparable harm. Young people don’t always share their struggles with adults, and sometimes what they need is to see how the characters they love deal with those tough situations. Characters and stories that mimic readers’ experiences help normalize how they move around in the world. That’s critical to their mental health, emotional growth and self-worth.
With all the insurmountable challenges we face as a society, children’s literature has proven itself to be a powerful way to affect young minds and help readers navigate tricky terrain and difficult topics. Books are a valuable bridge for initiating difficult conversations. They allow kids to find familiarity, validation and resolution through characters their age.
Taking this away by banning a book is not a solution. Children are not a monolith. What may be good (or not good) for one doesn’t mean it’s the same for all. A book that talks about being the only Black kid in a classroom may be uncomfortable for a white parent to read to their child, but a godsend to a Black parent who wants their child to realize they’re not alone.
Who are we as adults to impose our world views, opinions and bans on society’s future leaders? Banning books, fussing over the ones we disagree with, and sheltering readers from things they are experiencing anyway does nothing to prepare kids for what our world really looks like. Not all things are pretty. As an author, I want my characters to fall down and get back up. Encounter people unlike them. Find ways to create community. Embrace a diversity of friends and experiences. I don’t know how to write them any other way. If that means banning my books, I hope young readers will still find their way to those stories.
In 30 years, the world will look much different than it is today. I hope people will be more open-minded, too, and that kids in future generations will look back at this moment in time, and our constantly growing list of banned books and all the energy spent on keeping stories away from young people, and scratch their heads. Those future kids will certainly wonder: Who thought those bans were a good idea, and what was all that ridiculous fuss about?