Children's Books

Concerned parents and conservative thinkers have for some time been expressing dismay at the sort of books that public schools are putting on their library shelves even at the elementary level. The books, they say, are pure pornography and have no place in a public school, and especially not in an elementary school.

Progressives, including the President, have criticized those who protest having their children exposed to such fare, calling them "book banners" and other taunts. When parents have gone to school board meetings to inform the board and the public what's actually in these books they've had their microphones cut off and have been otherwise prevented from quoting from the contents of these volumes.

The fact that no one is calling for the books to be "banned," rather merely not stocked in public schools, as was the practice in this country throughout our history until the day before yesterday, is a detail that the critics studiously ignore.

The fact that parents are prevented from reading from the books at school board meetings in a room full of adults because the books are too salacious for the ears of the adults is very strange since the school boards evidently have no problem with young children reading from them in their classrooms.

In any case, ignoring the parents' and others' concerns is getting more difficult. Aymann Ismail, a writer for the liberal online journal Slate decided to see for himself what some of those books actually contained. He was surprised.

He describes his experience with It's Perfectly Normal, a book recommended for ages 10 and up. Ismail considered himself pretty liberal about such matters, but even he admits to being shocked:

I felt sure that as a 34-year-old father of two there would be nothing in there that would offend my sensibilities. I’d heard nothing but glowing reviews from sex-ed pros about the child-friendly language in the book. But flipping through the book’s pages finally, I was a little shocked.

I had an involuntary reaction to seeing the nude cartoons, like I needed to make sure I was alone and hide the book. I skimmed ahead to look at the rest of the book briskly. On virtually every page I stopped to examine, I was confronted with detailed drawings of genitals.

It felt like every page had a cartoon of a naked body…

On Page 9, I came across the first illustration I recognized from the controversy. In the chapter “Making Love,” there are three graphic images that show adult bodies having sex. There is no visible penetration, but it’s still eye-popping.

I was sure I wouldn’t hand this book to my kids when they are 10. And I began to wonder if in my own allergy to the book-burning fervor, I had been a little too dismissive of the parents at the root of this fight…

It’s Perfectly Normal, more than any other frequently banned title I have flipped through, challenged my view. The images are not “pornographic,” and it’s obvious that anti-gay sentiment is partly fueling the objection to the book. But the images are graphic, and it’s startling to me to think they’re intended for kids who aren’t even in middle school yet.

It's Perfectly Normal is evidently not the worst book you might find in your child's school library.

Senator John Kennedy the other day read passages from a pair of commonly shelved books in a Senate hearing and caused something of a brouhaha among his colleagues.

You can watch Senator Kennedy's reading here if you're so inclined. I'm not going to put it up on VP because the excerpt he reads is too disgusting and vile.

Nevertheless, if shining a light on what public schools are exposing our children to forces the supporters of this stuff to have to publicly defend it he has performed a noble public service.