1. “Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale” A 1976 Caldecott Medal winner by Verna Aardema, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon. Moms for Liberty’s complaint? “This is dark material for Kindergarten.”
2. “Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea”, by Chris Butterworth, illustrated by John Lawrence. @sljournal calls it “An accomplished entree to early science topics.” MFL complains it’s too sexy & “only male fish get pregnant”. Also there’s “bending, squeezing, & pushing” (???)
3. “What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?”, an interactive guessing book by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page. The @ALALibrary praised the book’s animated movie version. MFL complains about its “emphasis on scary & dangerous animals”, including “animals that kill humans”.
4. William Steig’s “Brave Irene”, about a dressmaker’s brave daughter. Steig is known more for his picture book “Shrek!” MFL says it’s too “scary”.
Bonus: TN’s own @algore reads “Brave Irene” here:
5. “Feelings” by writer/illustrator Aliki. This one took my breath—I remember @levarburton’s ice cream falling to the ground on the Reading Rainbow episode featuring “Feelings”. Moms 4 Liberty wants it banned from Williamson County Schools b/c “22 pages have negative emotions”.🙄
6. “The Rough-Face Girl” by Rafe Martin, illustrated by David Shannon—an Algonquin version of the Cinderella story. Buried w/in their summary of the book, Moms 4 Liberty are concerned about her “bathing topless w/ her hair covering her chest.” Do Moms 4 Liberty not wear bikinis?
7. “The Buffalo are Back” by Jean Craighead George, illustrations by Wendell Minor. Moms 4 Liberty says “Not historically accurate” b/c of “negative comments about the government” & b/c it “implies that the government hated Native Americans & killed the buffalo”. Where’s the lie?
8. “Journey of a Pioneer” by Patricia Murphy, a DK reader about a family’s epic journey on the Oregon Trail. Setting aside how many DK book parties I’ve been to for church friends, it’s weird to see M4L demand this book be banned for mentioning “drowning, death, & other tragedy”.
Recap: Thus far, the alarming content @MarshaBlackburn’s “security moms” Moms 4 Liberty insist be banned from schools includes:
9. “First Nations of North America: Plains Indians” by Andrew Sandella, a non-fiction book about culture & customs. @Moms4LibertyWC complains the book “paints white people in a negative light”.
Ah, now we’re getting specific. #BannedBooksWeek2021
10. “The Story of Johnny Appleseed” by Aliki. Moms for Liberty’s complaint? “Two pages of divisiveness” that include “He tried to make peace between the settlers & the Indians, for he believed that all men should live together as brothers.” #BannedBooksWeek2021
10+. I don’t think the book should be banned, but I find it problematic in a different direction. There’s good reason to teach that Johnny Appleseed co-opted the methods of Ohio Valley Indigenous farmers.
And we’re back!! Picking the 🧵 back up for the other 21 books @Moms4LibertyWC demanded Williamson County Schools ban, shortly before @MarshaBlackburn featured them as heroes!
11. “Johnny Appleseed”, written & illustrated by Steven Kellogg, is “the most accessible & entertaining one available for young children”, per @sljournal. According to Moms for Liberty, however, it should be banned b/c it’s “sad & dark”. #BannedBooksWeek2021
12. “Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation”, Mexican-American author @duncantonatiuh tells the story of the courageous Mendez family & their work to desegregate CA schools 7 years before Brown v Board of Ed. Moms 4 Liberty wants it banned.
12+. In addition to claiming that @duncantonatiuh’s book about the Mendez family is “hyper-focused on racial differences”, @Moms4LibertyWC ignorantly misunderstands how his illustrations are influenced by Pre-Columbian art. Here, he discusses his work. thebullhornblog.org/2018/02/21/dun…
12++ But the most grotesque part of the demand by @MarshaBlackburn’s “security moms” to ban @duncantonatiuh’s book? M4LWC accuses the *author* of being racist & stereotyping—b/c he tells the story compiled from court documents & interviews w/ Sylvia. nbcnews.com/news/latino/du…
13. “The Story of Ruby Bridges”, by Robert Coles. @BarackObama awarded Coles the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Coles, a neuropsychiatrist, worked w/ children living through the trauma of desegregation in the ‘60s. @Moms4LibertyWC says his book “instills shame in white children”.
13+ @MarshaBlackburn’s “security moms” aren’t just mad at @BarackObama’s Medal of Freedom honoree for *writing* about Ruby Bridges. They want to ban George Ford’s illustrations, too, for being “highly inflammatory & divisive”. More on Ford’s legacy: hbook.com/?detailStory=a…
14. “Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story”, by Ruby Bridges. @Moms4LibertyWC wants Ruby’s autobiography banned from schools b/c of “Highly inflammatory racist remarks on images that are not age appropriate...Author’s narratives is reducing people down to their race.”
14+. @Moms4LibertyWC demanded Williamson Co ban Ruby Bridges’s own autobiography b/c she “demonizes whites”. @MarshaBlackburn, whose MS school district wasn’t integrated until she was almost out of high school, praised M4L *a MONTH later*.
15. “Martin Luther King, Jr., and the March on Washington”, by Frances Ruffin, illustrated by Stephen Marchesi. Moms for Liberty wants this book banned b/c of “photographs of political violence”. #BannedBooksWeek2021
16. “When Peace Met Power”, by Laura Helweg. This is an article, but I’m counting it in #BannedBooksWeek2021 b/c Moms 4 Liberty wants it banned for showing a “negative view of firemen & police”. Hellweg is an editor for Christian publisher Thomas Nelson. laurahelweg.com
17. “Amos & Boris”, written & illustrated by William Steig. Moms for Liberty wants this tale of unlikely friends banned b/c the mouse’s fear during his adventure on the high seas is “suicidal ideation”. What’s more, Amos’s “rage” when Boris “accidentally throws him” is a problem.
18. “Shark Attack!” by Cathy East Dubowski. Dubowski’s book, written for newly independent readers, blends story elements w/ facts, winning 3rd grade hearts everywhere. But Moms for Liberty says it must join #BannedBooksWeek2021 b/c the stories “are kind of scary.”
19. “Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei”, by Peter Sis—a 1997 @ALALibrary Caldecott Honor Book. Moms 4 Liberty wants it banned b/c it’s “anti church”. “Where is the HERO of the church?” they cry.
Galileo says, “If they had seen what we see, they would have judged as we judge.”
20. “Coming to America” by Betsy Maestro, illus. by Susannah Ryan, tells how ppl came here via the Bering Strait, slavery, & immigration. @MarshaBlackburn’s “security moms” want it banned for discussing “slavery & Indian conflicts without...actual US history”.#BannedBooksWeek
21. “Love that Dog” by @ciaobellacreech. I *love* this book-it’s so faithful to the way children work up to talking about trauma & loss. @Moms4LibertyWC demands it be banned for containing “death, childhood insecurity”. “It’s like broken English”, they whine.#BannedBooksWeek2021
22. “Hatchet”, by Gary Paulsen, a 3-time winner of the @ALALibrary ALSC’s Newbery Medal, is on Moms for Liberty’s ban list b/c there’s “too much detail” about his “mother having an affair” & b/c of his “suicide attempt”. #BannedBooksWeek2021
23. “George vs. George: The American Revolution As Seen from Both Sides”, by Rosalyn Schanzer. @Moms4LibertyWC wants this American Revolution book banned b/c it has “hanging, burning houses...murder, rape, torture, scalping, cannibalism...leggings made from skin”#BannedBooksWeek
25. “Understanding Greek Myths”, by @nataliehyde. It’s not the gods & goddesses that make @Moms4LibertyWC want this book banned from Williamson Co. Schools. It’s the “details about eating children”. #BannedBooksWeek2021
27. “Gifts from the Gods: Ancient Words & Wisdom from Greek & Roman Mythology” by Lise @LungeLarsen, illustrated by @garethhinds. @Moms4LibertyWC wants this book banned b/c of “very dark, somewhat scary” stories & “scary” illustrations (nekkid Venus p 37!!). #BannedBooksWeek2021
28. “Thunder Rolling in the Mountains” by Scott O’Dell & Elizabeth Hall, about the US Army’s defeat of Nez Perce Indians. Moms 4 Liberty wants it banned b/c of “Violent, graphic killing, dark & sad...overall dark & dismal”.
Which is also how the Nez Perce felt. #BannedBooksWeek
29. “The River Between Us” by Richard Peck. Like O’Dell & Hall, Peck draws M4L ire b/c his book “painted white ppl as ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ or ‘couldn’t be trusted’”. They also want the book banned for “out of marriage families btwn white men & black women”.#BannedBooksWeek2021
Last, you don’t have to take my word for it. Read Moms for Liberty’s reviews yourself. Go to this link & scroll down to select the “K-5 Book Reviews V2 (CAO 23 June 21)” tab. It will open up the spreadsheet.
PS-I linked the wrong Breitbart article as the source of Sen Marsha Blackburn’s “security moms”. *That* article has Franklin’s own @SenJohnson backing this censorship nonsense. *Here’s* Marsha’s article, in which she describes this as a war.
Make no mistake. When @nytdavidbrooks says “Somehow [God] seems to want Trump elected, because there’s just been this string of events,” he knows *exactly* who he’s playing to. This is the language of white Christian nationalism. It’s infected @nytimes. Democracy is on the line.
Pay attention at 10:15. @nytdavidbrooks starts, “God is good, omniscient, omnipotent…but He seems to want Trump re-elected” & lists a series of events. He knows it connects with people who see declaration of God’s power as the beginning of a prophecy. 2/ to.pbs.org/3WmH8xB
@nytdavidbrooks How do I know this about @nytdavidbrooks’ words? I grew up in a nondenominational charismatic church started by a Pentecostal pastor in the 70s. I was “anointed” as having the “gift of prophecy,” in 7th grade—elders spoke it on me when I was 12. It’s a formula David leverages. /3
Since David French is trending, a reminder he wrote an op-ed in @nytimes directly quoting from a private vigil for our friends killed in #CovenantSchool shooting, despite many signs posted that said no press allowed & security stationed at the doors. Everyone else honored it.
Instead, let us turn our thoughts today to the prophetic witness of Rev James Lawson, who urged anyone who would listen of the #NonviolentMovementOfAmerica.
Look here, @CommunityNotes. French says in *his* NYT piece he went to a vigil at Christ Presbyterian Church Tuesday 3/28/23, a day after the Covenant shooting. If his wife insists he went to one Monday 3/27, the day of the shooting, I’m not the one lying. nytimes.com/2023/03/29/opi…
You want the origin story for @GovBillLee’s voucher scam? Reconstructionist Rushdooney & Christian leaders met with President Reagan’s Edwin Meese. Rushdooney & Tim LaHaye were furious Reagan would remove tax-exempt status from private schools that segregated on race. 1/
RJ Rushdooney was a reformed Presbyterian (@GovBillLee & @MarshaBlackburn sent their kids to a Presbyterian school), a pioneer of Christian Reconstructionism & the homeschool movement who believed government should be under the lordship of Jesus. 2/ en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian…
@GovBillLee @MarshaBlackburn @brmorris mentions the argument Rushdooney & his friends gave Reagan’s Chief of Staff Ed Meese for their right to discriminate in their private schools—it’s their religious freedom!! We’ve seen this argument again & again since then. 3/
@DPCassidyTKC Intersectionality isn’t a cult, David. When I started advocating for adoptees, intersectionality was the word I learned from Dr Karyn Purvis of TCU, which describes the way different facets of a child’s (or adult’s) live cross one another to create unique & complex needs. 1/
@DPCassidyTKC For my sons, that means that I need to respect that they’ve lost birth family, heritage, language, food, all because of disability; that disability presents unique learning challenges; that the surgeries in their early years carry trauma & anesthesia issues…2/
@DPCassidyTKC Each of those strands intersect to create complex challenges that love or prayer alone can engage. The author of the universe has given us so much; the least we can do is honor God’s own image in one another & why our neighbor’s needs might not be the same as our own. 3/
👀 on @GovBillLee’s Tennessee, y’all! In a Civil Justice Hearing of the #SpecialSession that was *supposed* to focus on gun reform after #CovenantSchool shooting, State Troopers are seizing anything that can be construed as a sign from citizens. Crushing freedom of speech!
And State Troopers were ordered to remove #CovenantSchool parents from the room because even after signs were banned, Tennessee citizens are not allowed to clap in the People’s House.
What’s that, you say? Why yes, the #CovenantSchool parents removed from the room included Katy Dieckhaus, whose 9yo daughter was killed, and @SarahShoop33.
h/t @rhonda_harbison
Here’s the link. (h/t @K12ssdb) I’m not combing through this entire thing today, but because @TNGOP Executive Committee did their little pro-murdering children resolution telling @GovBillLee to end Special Session, this can’t wait. 2/
Here’s a graph of TN school shootings in the last 25 years (since 98/99). The Comptroller includes in the definition any time that a gun is brandished or shots fired on school property & shootings that happen at school sponsored events off campus. (details in report footnotes) 3/