Melissa by Alex Gino is currently one of the most frequently complained about and banned books in US libraries (American Library Association [ALA], n.d.). The book tells the story of a young transgender girl who wants to play the part of Charlotte in her school’s production of Charlotte’s Web. I decided to read the book after reading an interview that the author gave as part of Banned Books Week several years ago.
Reading Melissa taught me about how resistance to portrayals of diversity in children’s books is ultimately about some groups in the community attempting to exclude others. As Melissa becomes more confident and begins to express her gender identity, she receives mixed reactions from her peers, teachers, friends, and family. By the end of the book some of these people do not fully accept her. Most complaints about Melissa relate to its sympathetic portrayal of a transgender child (Price, 2021). Put simply, there are some groups that do not accept the basic premise of Melissa: that a person’s gender identity does not always match their biological sex. This is reflected in the diverse reactions of the characters.
As Price (2021) puts it, libraries serve the whole community; when one group tries to prevent the entire community from accessing certain subjects, librarians have a responsibility to resist. Overt censorship of children’s books in libraries is certainly an issue in the United States (ALA, n.d.). Despite the fact that books are rarely banned outright in Australia, pressure from some parts of the community to restrict children’s access to certain topics is still an issue; Toowoomba local councillor Tim McMahon recently called for children’s books on gender identity and anti-racism to be removed from libraries, arguing that ratepayers should not be funding what he saw as the indoctrination of children (Chen, 2021). After reading Melissa, I have a greater appreciation for the role librarians play in ensuring freedom of access. Steele (2021) points out that librarians act as gatekeepers to information resources, as decision that they make about whether to add or remove items from the collection influence whether the community will be able to access that resource. Further, Steele contends that covert censorship can arise when librarians are not mindful of their own personal biases. Covert censorship may also occur when librarians avoid making certain books available due to fear of backlash from the community (Jamison, 2018).
Much of the professional and scholarly literature about this issue focuses on the United States. I believe that increasing my understanding of how challenges to books are addressed by libraries would help me to identify and resist censorship in my professional practice. Sadly, I was unable to find any current research or reports relating to complaints about children’s books in Australian libraries. Another way of addressing this gap in my knowledge would be to participate in this year’s Banned Books Week at my local public library.
Note: Melissa was originally published under the title George.
Featured image “Bokmässan 2016. Alex Gino” by Bokmässan i Göteborg is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.
References
American Library Association. (n.d.). Top 100 most banned and challenged books: 2010-2019. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2019
Chen, D. (2021, November 2). Toowoomba councillor calls for review of children’s books about racism, gender identity. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-02/toowoomba-councillor-wants-review-of-books-about-racism-gender-i/100586814
Jamison, A. (2018, May 8). Librarians beware: Self-censorship. Intellectual Freedom Blog. https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/librarians-beware-self-censorship/
Price, R. (2021, November 10). Appeasing censors doesn’t work. Adventures in Censorship. https://adventuresincensorship.com/blog/2021/11/8/appeasing-censors-doesnt-work
Steele, J. E. (2018). Censorship of library collections: An analysis using gatekeeping theory. Collection Management, 43(4), 229-248. https://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2018.1512917