Letters to the editor may be sent to [email protected]. All opinions stated in letters to the editor and guest columns are those of the author and should not be construed as an endorsement by Lowell’s First Look.
To the Lowell Area Schools Community
My name is Jodi Picoult. I am a bestselling author of thirty novels, including Nineteen Minutes – which is currently the most banned book in the US. I am one of many whose books have been challenged. The books being banned at school districts in this country tend to fall into three categories: those with sexual content, those written by BIPOC authors, those written by LGBTQ authors. In most school districts where my book has been challenged, those doing the challenging have not even read the books. They have been provided with a list of titles from parents in other communities who express “concern” for what children are being exposed to.
Christine Beachler is the foot soldier on the front lines of this epidemic of banning. As a school librarian, she has stood up to those in her Michigan community – particularly one very loud parent – who has defamed her, singled her out for her “complicity” in allowing banned books to be on shelves, and has questioned her morality. She has received death threats and has been called names I choose not to repeat here.
What is Christine’s crime? She is standing against book bans. She is making sure that kids have the resources they need to deal with an increasingly complex world.
The parent who has decided to make Christine her personal vendetta thinks she is “protecting children” from exposing them to material that she deems salacious. Make no mistake —what children are being exposed to are ideas and lives different from their own, which creates compassion and empathy. Or, in some cases, children are being exposed to ideas and lives EXACTLY like their own, which provides representation and validity and a sense of belonging. The books on these lists are not depraved or revolutionary. They are just the kind of books that help kids learn to think for themselves…which is the point of an educational system, and which is also terrifying to a certain small subset of Americans right now. Although it is legitimate for a parent to decide what is appropriate for his or her child, they have no right to make that decision for another parent’s child, or to remove access to a book that other child might need.
This is not the first time historically we have seen bans and challenges to literature. Because of that, we can say with historical accuracy that this is the first page of a fascist playbook. If you want to control the thoughts of a nation you start by controlling what they read. For those of you rolling your eyes, consider some of the books most commonly challenged right now were written to chronicle and explore moments in history where being different led to systemic discrimination. The thinking of those who promote book bans and challenges is that by removing these books, we get to rewrite and sanitize history. It doesn’t work that way.
Instead, what we know categorically is that kids who feel marginalized and read books with characters that are like themselves wind up feeling less marginalized. Kids who have never encountered someone different from them get to do so in the safe space of a book, and it leads to understanding. Books bridge divides between people. Book bans create them.
I know, as do many of my writer friends who wind up on these lists, that it is the work of a select few individuals who are championing book challenges. I also know that it’s brave librarians like Christine Beachler that are standing between the freedom to read and an authoritarian nation that controls what the populace reads. Trust me, no one is distributing “porn” to kindergartners. That’s only what this one misguided parent wishes you to believe. What we want is for kids to be able to read what they want to read, instead of being told what they should read. We want kids to have access to books that create windows through which kids can escape and mirrors in which they can find themselves. Because we’ve seen what the next chapter looks like, historically, when people like Christine don’t speak out against book challenges…and it’s not pretty.
Best,
Jodi Picoult
#1 NYT bestselling author
Reminder that we are an all-ages news site. As a general rule, we do not publish comments with strong profanity, and I have deleted one short comment that included only a profanity and personal attack directed at another commenter.
Maryalene LaPonsie
Owner/Editor
It should be up to a child’s parents to say what their child can and can’t read. The end. Teachers and librarians should be able to have books they’ve deemed worthy in their classrooms and libraries.
When I walked into my eldest daughter’s sixth grade classroom, I was pleased to see an entire wall of books. When I looked at the titles, there were some that make me say “hmmmm.” However, I didn’t ask the teacher to remove them. When my daughter brought books home, we both read them and talked about them afterward. If there was a book I had reservations about, I shared them with her. Sometimes she read the book anyway and we discussed it. Sometimes she started the book and abandoned it because it had material in it she was uncomfortable with.
If you don’t want your child reading a book, don’t let them. You don’t get to decide for other parents what their kids can read.
If a classroom or library got rid of every book someone had an objection to, the shelves would be completely empty.
Firstly, zero books were banned. Almost all are available free online, without age verification. Secondly, discernment is not hatred. While most books describe the appearance or love interests or beliefs of the main characters, not all books violate law or offend the sensibilities of most parents and community members. Almost all of Jodi Picoult’s books have been removed in my school district (Clay County, FL.) These books were formally challenged and sent to committee, and found to violate both state law and community standards.
What’s in your kid’s library 🤔
WETHEPEOPLE2.US/INAPPROPRIATE-BOOKS-IN-SCHOOL
Ps. It is entirely disingenuous to say book challenges unfairly target issues of race or sexuality (or religion). Just stop shelving porn and inappropriate rubbish near our children. Otherwise, expect more challenges.
Sincerely,
Bruce Friedman – concerned parent
I’m interested in where you are retreiving books online for free. Publishers do provide electronic copies of books, but purchase/licensing is required. Even if one is reading books via a libraries electronic services, it is necessary to understand that those books have been paid for/licensed. And when books are challenged in any library, removal of the electronic version is also applicable. You certainly aren’t encouraging your children to access materials in violation of copyright law, are you?
Second: it’s interesting that in that bastion of liberal thinking-Florida-Mr. Bruce Friedman’s efforts to spam school libraries with hundreds of requests to ban books attracted the attention of everyone’s favorite left-wing superhero, Ron DeSantis, who was forced to introduce legislation to limit the number of requests that can be made:
https://www.clayviews.com/p/governor-signs-bill-limiting-book
He’s also grown so infamous he appeared on the Daily Show:
“Well, in the last two years, I’ve challenged more than one book every calendar day,” responded Bruce Friedman, a conservative activist who says he’s filed more than 900 objections in Clay County.
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/education/2024/12/09/clay-county-florida-book-ban-ringleader-bruce-friedman-daily-show-spotlight/76827654007/
FYI: one of the books that Mr. Friedman is so proud of removing from the hands of children is THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, a book that he, himself, claims was eye-opening to him when he read it as a child:
https://www.jta.org/2023/10/06/united-states/this-jewish-dad-got-a-version-of-anne-franks-diary-removed-from-his-florida-school-district
Aaaand the “Data” he provides a weblink for (wethepeople2.us) has no identifying information provided to any Education expert, research, studies, or even a name or identifying information as to who is providing the information. Fortunately, it’s easily searched:
https://www.whois.com/whois/wethepeople2.us
Ronald Bouchard, who registered that site is a failed school board candidate in MA. Interestingly, he ran on a platform of “transparency,” though he provides none on his website.
Finally, it is decidedly NOT disengenuous to say that “book challenges unfairly target issues of race or sexuality (or religion.)” It is the subject of multiple, actual, research studies of which this is only one:
https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/6/pgae197/7689238
And has been covered in MULTIPLE news articles such as this one:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/conservative-activists-want-ban-400-books-library-arent-even-shelves-rcna44026
Which suggests that enemies of the First Amendment such as Mr. Friedman and Stefanie Boone are working from master lists of documents of books they have not bothered to read, while somehow judging them as inappropriate for children other than their own.
(I mean, if we’re assigning political agenda to librarians, why isn’t it ok to assign the same agenda to their opponents?)
By all means, Mr. Friedman–you should control what your children wish to read. Family control of content is important and necessary. It is the job of librarians to represent everybody–even those we disagree with.
as Ms. Picoult says: “Make no mistake —what children are being exposed to are ideas and lives different from their own, which creates compassion and empathy. Or, in some cases, children are being exposed to ideas and lives EXACTLY like their own, which provides representation and validity and a sense of belonging.”
And we know why you think that’s scary.
And THAT’S what’s actually scary.
Thank you for your explanation and references! I felt that this may be the case.
To say it is unfair that book bans target books written by and or about marginalized people and people of color absolutely proves you haven’t looked at the list of books that have been banned in the U.S. The woman in question who is causing trouble in Lowell doesn’t even live in Lowell but sent her child there so he could participate in sports. This exceedingly narrow-minded person thrives on the drama she creates, and her attention-seeking behavior constantly wastes time when she shows up at school board meetings. She wants everyone to follow her small-minded rules and throws tantrums when she doesn’t.
Why do I have a gut feeling that if any one of the other perpetually offended special interest identity groups were offended by something at LHS, the Lowell Area Schools would be more than willing to accommodate them?
So yes I’ve been reading about whats been going on in my old hometown. Yes I’ve left a few comments too. So yes I’m a conservative to a point. Now when I say to a point I mean I wouldn’t go around bashing LAS or making threats to certain people or making an ass of myself at LAS board meetings regularly, or taking a tour of the newly remodeled LHS Media Center and yes making yet again, making an ass of myself yet again. If we are talking about the same person, and I know we are. Also, why can’t Stefanie Boone be trespassed from LAS until her lawsuit pending against the district is settled? She sounds like she would burn books sometime in the 1930s Germany. Has Boone read the book Fahrenheit 451? I do think people should have beliefs but peoples beliefs shouldn’t be dangerous and out to hurt others because that is a crime.
Interesting that an author has become aware of the situation here & feels compelled to write her opinion. Isn’t it interesting that the person stands alont but wouldn’t be interesting to see exactly who stands along side her. Moosst of them do not want their names to be published. ?Bullies? Receiving threats is not acceptable.
Beautifully said. At the age of 14, my dad died suddenly. I took great solace in books with characters that were also going through significant loss, there is healing that happens in the safe place of a book. I think the parent mentioned in the article, is a menace to the community with the constant hate and vitriol she spreads, hurting good people in the process.
Well done! The foundation and constitution of the United States is first and foremost comprised of a concrete conviction that each and every citizen is entitled to read, write and freely express matters of past, present and perceived future of our great country. Accordingly, all components of American history must be made available within our public schools.