The Rainbow Book Bus

Posted on Thursday, 8th February, 2024

I am pleased to announce that I’m teaming up with The Rainbow Book Bus.

Their mission:

The Rainbow Book Bus distributes diverse books to communities with reduced access to them, both in LA County and across the country.  We aim to support and amplify organizations that oppose censorship, promote literacy or empower historically underrepresented storytellers. We work towards educational freedom by fighting existing censorship and reacting to future attacks aimed to reduce access to inclusive stories for young people.

I’ve donated copies of Almost Perfect to give away in areas where book censorship is prevalent. As both an author and a librarian, I can’t overstate how much I support this mission.

Follow them on Instagram at @rainbowbookbus

And if you’d like to donate to them, click here.

The Tulane Hullabaloo

Posted on Wednesday, 7th February, 2024

An excellent op-ed piece in the Tulane Hullabaloo about the book censorship hullabaloo. Almost Perfect is mentioned.

The Pavement Education Project (North Carolina)

Posted on Tuesday, 6th February, 2024

A reader in North Carolina informs me that the Pavement Education Project now has Almost Perfect in their crosshairs in the McDowell County School system, and probably others. They’ve kindly created their own Index Librorum Prohibitorum of books they want pulled from libraries (Almost Perfect is right at the top of the page) and have even gone so far as to release a list of every salty word or questionable scene in the book (note to censors, Sage is a transgender FEMALE, not male). Apparently they also protest ‘near’ schools.

Of course they’re banning books for the sake of those poor, innocent high school students:

These books have sexually inappropriate or confusing gender concepts or content, some including self harm, suicide, violence, and/or racism.

Because it’s their job–not the librarians’ and certainly not the parents’–to decide what every child in that district should read. And shouldn’t racism be something people read about? Like, a lot?

It always cracks me up to read the titles these people are afraid your children will read: Brave New World. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The Bluest Eye (the only time I’m ever included on a list with Toni Morrison is when we’ve made the same people angry).

If you don’t want your children reading books, that’s your prerogative as a parent. Contact the school, contact the library and tell them that you don’t want your child reading about certain topics. As a school librarian myself, I deal with that frequently (mostly with families who do not celebrate secular holidays). But that is where your rights as a parent and citizen end. You are not the arbiter of what MY child gets to read.

It’s a common internet trope, but a true one: Book censors are never on the right side of history. I can’t think of a single incident when a body, be it a government, a church, or an organization successfully lobbied to pull books from a collection, and history looked kindly on them.

As a librarian, I include books for all stakeholders, not simply those whose world views are in line with mine. No one is forcing your child to read those specific titles, but you feel you have the right to force other people’s children not to.

Happy Yule!

Posted on Thursday, 28th December, 2023

My sister ordered me an ornament full of banned and challenged books, and ALMOST PERFECT was one of them!

Library Freedom

Posted on Tuesday, 10th October, 2023

The great thing about a library is that patrons do not need to make themselves vulnerable by asking for a book on an embarrassing subject. They can just look at the books on the shelves. When we start putting books in restricted areas, or request only, we take that anonymity away. It’s just censorship under another name.

Banned Book Week

Posted on Thursday, 5th October, 2023

Online review of ALMOST PERFECT. They didn’t read it, they just want to ban it.

Ste. Genevieve County Democratic Club

Posted on Sunday, 1st October, 2023

I had a wonderful time today.

Central Bucks Engage

Posted on Tuesday, 8th August, 2023

Read an op-ed about book censorship I wrote for Central Bucks Engage.

Phobia Film Fest

Posted on Friday, 4th August, 2023

Come join me at the Phobia Film Fest, September 8-9, at the historic 4th Street Theater in Moberly! View some short independent horror films as well as some classics! #phobiafilmfest

‘Understanding Gender Dysphoria’ by Tammy Gagne

Posted on Tuesday, 18th July, 2023

The Moberly Public Schools school board voted to remove this book from the high school library. Read a statement here.

Read a rebuttal from the publisher here.