Week 7 Prompt

I'm honestly not quite sure how I missed all of the controversy surrounding A Birthday Cake for George Washington, but somehow I did. After reading Ganeshram's (2016) article, many thoughts and other instances were swarming around in my head. Ganeshram brought up some fantastic points, and I'd like to address a few of them with further questions and examples.

First, the banning of books has always been a an interesting topic, and it's something that is always shifting. There's constantly a question, and honestly a tension, for most librarians, as to what books should be held within a library's collection, and which should not. We're the gatekeepers of books for certain communities, and that has impact. Maintaining a collection that only subscribes to our personal beliefs is wrong - but then at what point do we say a book has gone too far? I know I've heard countless stories of The Satanic Bible going missing from local rural libraries, where staff were convinced that it was actually another staff member that was removing the book. There are countless other examples, and recently, Milo Yiannopoulos' book deal that didn't last. At what point, though, is there a difference between the librarian who walks off with the library's copy of The Satanic Bible and the one who refused to buy Yiannopoulos' book, or even A Birthday Cake for George Washington? 

In her article, Ganeshram (2016) also discusses her work (or lack of) with her illustrator. This is something that I've also seen occurring most recently with a Facebook post by Terry Goodkind, mocking the cover art for his most recent book. The illustrator, Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme, was upset by Goodkin's post, and responded with his own post. There's been much back and forth between the author and the illustrator this weekend, and much discussion about it not just on Facebook, but also on Twitter and Reddit. In short, Goodkin, in an apology, stating that the art was fine, but the depictions of the characters were not in line with how they were represented in the book, and that is where he found fault with the cover. This wasn't discussed in his initial posting, leaving his opinion rather open for interpretation. This seems very similar to Ganeshram's issues with her illustrator - they weren't allowed input into how their words and works would be represented until the publisher had already made a decision. At what point will this be recognized as an issue and addressed? Is it truly difficult to have authors and illustrators - especially those of picture books - to communicate with one another?

Lastly, in my materials for youth class last year, we discussed Emily Jenkin's A Fine Dessert. Having only vague memories of this conversation, I thought we had discussed A Birthday Cake For George Washington, but when I reviewed the Amazon page for the book, I realized that I had the wrong book. We'd actually discussed A Fine Dessert, which hold similarities to the issues had by A Birthday Cake for George Washington. This article presents the issues well. And yet - this book was not banned as A Birthday Cake was. Why? Was it the way in which the issues were dealt with? It's interesting - and mildly frustrating - to compare and contrast the two. It again makes me question: at what point do we say a representation has gone too far, and at what point (is there ever a point?) is it okay to remove the book from publication, or our libraries?



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References

Barak, L. (2015, November 3). Emily Jenkins Apologizes for 'A Fine Dessert'. School Library Journal. Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/2015/11/industry-news/emily-jenkins-apologizes-for-a-fine-dessert/#_

Ganeshram, Ramin. (2016, February 11) Why the Banning of ‘A Birthday Cake for George Washington’ Really Matters. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ramin-ganeshram/why-banning-a-birthday-cake-george-washington_b_9210992.html.

Goodkind, T. [Terry Goodkind] (2018, February 23). SHROUD OF ETERNITY is a great book with a very bad cover. Laughably bad. So let's have some fun with it.  [Facebook Update]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10214444857609320&set=a.2863583142769.136893.1055443022&type=3&theater

Lecouffe-Deharme, B. [Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme] (2018, February 24). I am appaled by the unprofessional behavior of Terry Goodkind, who is publicly attacking the artwork I created for his own book [Facebook Update]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/terrygoodkind/photos/a.395754121821.178804.111426611821/10155072794701822/?type=3&theater