Book Trust

Libraries are the Wild West and Our Children the Prey

I have been enjoying re-reading Ray Bradbury’s iconic works these past few weeks - Fahrenheit 451, the Martian Chronicles, Dark Carnival. I find his writing utterly riveting. I share no identifiable characteristics with the protagonists or settings (which would be crazy as he is largely a science fiction writer) and yet there is something so satisfying and familiar with the way he uses language to construct a world around the reader. It is astounding to think that this extraordinary writer and thinker developed his whole body of work just by visiting his local library. Ray Bradbury did not go to university and yet has written 50 books and over 400 short stories .

“I’ve been a library person my whole life. I sold newspapers until I was twenty-two and had no money to attend college, but I spent three or four nights a week at the local library and fed on books over a long period of time…. there was nothing more exciting that running to the library every Monday night when I was eight, nine, twelve and fourteen, my brother always running ahead to win. Once inside, the old lady librarian (they were always old ladies in my childhood) weighed my books against my weight, and disapproving of the inequality (more books than boy) set me free to run home and lick the pages to turn them.”

-Ray Bradbury - Introduction to the 50th Anniversary Edition Fahrenheit 451

Libraries used to be magical spaces. No more.

I started noticing this trend when my son was small as I dug through the book crates at our local library. I noted there were a lot of what I termed ‘grocery store books’. These books were computer generated on some sort of algorithm, mass produced of very poor quality artistically and contextually. There were *some* lovely books in the mix. I luxuriated in the contemporary illustrations of Emily Gravett and the classics of Shirley Hughes, but overwhelmingly there was A LOT of crap.

The inimitable Shirley Hughes, gorgeous. These illustrations always make me smile

I grew up in a library loving household. We would trundle up to the Philadelphia library (fortunately on my corner), bringing home shopping bags of books and vinyl. Mrs. Barr, the librarian, would ignore ‘book limits’ as we stacked our ‘finds’ onto the counter. She let me sit in on the story time that was for older kids when I was a toddler as I would listen rapt with attention soaking in the stories.

When I struggled to read and write at the start of primary school my teacher tried to tell my parents I was ‘slow’. My mother could not believe a child who could recount in colourful detail books that had been read to her as ‘stupid’. Turns out I was dyslexic. My love of books (enhanced by my library visits) saved me.

I could see the shift of quality and content in libraries as if a cloud had gone over the sun as my son grew. This was heightened by the fact that my mother had a job in a University library which had a specialism in children’s literature. When my son and I would go and see her on holidays we had the glorious fortune of having access to the books in the collection. Oh my! It was a Narnia of books. The most beautiful, well written children’s literature of the past 100 years, like gems in a cave. The space itself was four times the size of the children’s section of our local library. A treasure trove.

As a teen my voracity for reading grew and I dove deeper into more challenging texts, conquering 1000 pages of Ayn Rand’s ‘Fountainhead’ when I was 14. Also books served as currency in my adolescent rites of passage such as ‘Are you there God it’s me Margaret’ -traded amongst my gal pals as we would discuss it’s innards with duvets wrapped around us, wide eyed and giggly.

Cover Art for The Fountainhead by Nick Gaetano

In truth libraries have always evolved with the changing of society and people. Early libraries were largely the result of collections of wealthy patrons. Before the printing press ‘public’ libraries, which date back thousands of years, were only for the ‘educated’ public or in private collections. The egalitarian sharing of knowledge Ray Bradbury (and myself) benefited from only dates some hundreds of years - which is a lot on the one hand, but quite small in the context of the history of the library itself. (for more fascinating history do read ‘The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur Der Weduwen). Add in overall literacy rates for our nation in the past hundred years, and it’s a much smaller story.

Of course nowadays anyone can see the dramatic shift (with computers) away from them being ‘book-centred’ spaces. Most if not all libraries now dedicate a significant amount of space that was previously dedicated to books to computer workstations. My local library gives out free condoms and lube (including posters advertising the fact AND samples to be collected in the publics lavatories… freely available to children…).

Did you think I was joking?

Consultations are currently underway across the whole British Isles as to ‘shape the future of library services’ as seen in these consultations in Birmingham, Enfield and Chesire. (there are dozens online at the moment if you google ‘library consultations uk’ etc) Here

Claire Fox

makes an impassioned speech about the importance of libraries as centres of learning, as we see a dramatic move away from core purpose of libraries being a repository of books, to taking on the role of ‘glorified community hubs’.

Although the latest iteration is nothing new in the changing landscape of these ‘book spaces’ being co-opted across history, I still mourn what my child does not have. And I am concerned with what libraries are becoming specifically regarding child safeguarding (not least that any toddler can grab the free lube toilets…).

I speak frequently about our obligations (as adults) to children. This includes shielding them from harm, including from materials that are deemed ‘too mature’ for them to handle. We restrict children from driving cars, doing heart surgery and drinking alcohol because allowing a child to partake would not only endanger their lives, but potentially others too. We put age ratings on films because we judge (rightfully) that some content is too mature for them to handle.

What is a little known fact, is that there are no age ratings for children’s books. When books are called ‘junior fiction’, ‘early years’ etc…. it is referring to the reading comprehension, not the content of the books.

What that means is there is no content control for children’s books, unlike films. Which clearly is a wide gaping hole for predators to take aim. (again)

What is also a little known fact is that (at least in Glasgow, and I can assume in other council areas) is that librarians no longer curate the collections in their own libraries. In Glasgow 70% of books are chosen by the book supplier. I have to wonder what this contract the local authority has with these book suppliers looks like? What I would assume is that the book supplier’s main intent is to keep profit margins up, which would explain the mass produced tat I referred to at the start of this essay. (also that one year they got in a massive crate of books on goat herding - true story! Very valuable for the city of Glasgow residents…)

It is also likely - given by what we know of the publishing industry (not least the ‘hounding’ of

Jenny Lindsay

(buy her book 11 October!) is that they have very specific ideological drivers. And these book suppliers and publishers will not face the negative implications of their profit driven and ideological decisions as our children are brought to harm. What’s more our taxes are being used for something we have absolutely no say over. Another public/private partnership loophole seems to be exploited for someone else’s gain and no accountability.

Inclusion and ‘access’ are hot topics in education but what is often forgotten that ‘excluding’ and ‘restricting’ things for children is not only common but necessary.

Now unlike council libraries who have largely handed over autonomy to outside agencies, school libraries and librarians do curate what is in their schools. Which begs the question how did this book end up in Kinlochbervie High School….

Book discovered on display at Kinlochbervie High School, Scotland

As reported in

Scottish Union for Education

Newsletter #78

“…the Scottish Family Party produced a video highlighting the fact that Kinlochbervie High School has been promoting sexually explicit books and transgender literature including Queer:A graphic history in the school library.”

There are dozens of ‘red flags’ in this particular book which (potentially) children from the age of 11 will see. This particular book draws extra heat this week- as reported in the Daily Mail- a child has been led to believe he is a wolf. We do not know what school this child is from, but if such a book was in library in the Highlands, one could surmise it could be anywhere. Could such a book which validates the idea of a person being trans-species groom a child to believe they are a wolf?

There is a dark world of adults identifying as animals called ‘Furries’. Superficially harmless (just people dressing up!) it actually literally masks a sexually deviant community who host many online forums.

Malcolm Richard Clark

did a deep dive (so we don’t have to thank you very much Malcolm) into this very dodgy and dark world.

Like with the hyper sexualised Scottish Sex Ed curriculum -which serves to normalise kids talking about sex and their intimate body parts to just about anyone from a young age- here we see an erasing of boundaries between adults and children. And we should all be wary of that.

Here Jim Gamble a child safeguarding expert outlines the dangers of kids being groomed in these furry online communities .

“…children dressing up and creating make-believe personas is not the issue. The problem lies, he says, if the interest develops into a fixation or when it invariably moves online where anonymous contact is made with others claiming to be furries offering mutual interest and trust.”

And whilst The Gay Times can report that there is ‘censorship of LGBTQI+ books in UK Libraries’ we have to wonder if it’s the book above that promotes trans species identities (and being part of the ‘furry community’) or perhaps one of the dozens of books Womens Rights Network Dorset and Surrey pulled up that were wholly developmentally inappropriate for children (which ‘slipped’ in).

Their report is well worth a read, I would assume every single red flag they raise could be applied to every local authority library in the UK.

….some of these books are included in the Reading Agency’s national Reading Well for Teens collection, a scheme that:

“supports the mental health and wellbeing of teenagers, providing information, advice and support to help teens better understand their feelings, handle difficult experiences and boost confidence. The books included are quality assured and chosen by experts including doctors and other health professionals.”

Which rather begs the questions; what expertise do these doctors and health professionals have and why are they recommending books that, amongst a host of other concerns: 

●       signpost children to Mermaids, the charity that is under investigation by the Charity Commission for safeguarding failures (Coming Out Stories);

●       encourage the kind of extreme dieting that results in eating disorders (Welcome To St Hell).

We’d like to know why our libraries promote children’s books that 

●       normalise anal sex for heterosexual couples (This Book Is Gay);

●       describe how to make your own breast binders (Trans Mission).  

And yet when adults try and address these damaging materials that are getting into the hands of children words like ‘censorship’ and ‘book banning’ get bandied about. Not unlike the trans nursery teacher debacle, our inherent good nature is being weaponised and blinding us to harms. Here we see an American librarian who has gone so far as to write a book about it. How appropriate.

*readers are children. Again the obfuscation between adult and child. Remember there are no age ratings on books like films.

I wonder if Amanda Jones thinks ‘Grandad’s Pride’ is a ‘good book’ to show to small children. ‘Grandad’s Pride’ features a Grandad in fetish gear, a female with no shirt with mastectomy scars (normalising mutilation and wrong body ideology), and visual references to ‘MAPS’ which some are suggesting is a hidden message pointing to ‘minor attracted persons’ (ie. paedophiles). These books are are not only in the toddler and young child section of libraries and in schools they have also been shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards, and won a prize from Waterstones.

@blablafishcakes thread goes into more detail.

As well as being promoted by the Edinburgh Book Festival…..

Prof Diane Rasmussen McAdie

, is a UK Column journalist, an academic and qualified librarian since 2001. She writes in the

Scottish Union for Education

about being a librarian in the early days of the World Wide Web and how there was an understanding that children should be kept from ‘harmful content’. At the same time she (and other librarians) were trying to be egalitarian as stewards of reading, and not pass judgement on what people wanted to read. We can all empathise with that, these are not easy lines to traverse. She speaks candidly about the ideological capture of library associations (as evidenced in Amanda Jones book) which are having a profound influence on library content and our children’s lives.

Add to this very complex mix of ideological driven materials and the (largely parents) fighting back we have language itself being weaponised. Scotland will shortly be ‘celebrating’ Hate Crime Week here in Scotland wherein children are taught to ‘mind their words’. In a previous substack I wrote ‘Crime and Punishment’ I say

‘…words have become politicised by our political and educational establishments.  Words are to be feared.  Wrong words, right words, turn the wrong way with your language and you may be accused of racism, homophobia, hate crimes.  I have seen Scottish High School handbooks stating that should a hate crime be committed the offending individual is to be reported immediately to the police.  (let that sink in, a child is to be reported to the police for saying the wrong words)’.

It’s a funny old place. Libraries are simultaneously feeding children a diet of unhealthy and ideologically fuelled content screaming ‘no to censorship!’ at the same time they are part of the cohort limiting what children can say. It’s clear that libraries are no longer safe or inclusive spaces for our children.

All is not lost though as I do believe true genius, like dandelions growing in between the stones will always find a way to thrive. And we parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles can be part of the grassroots, cultivating those ‘in between spaces’ to allow our children to flourish. I leave you with the extraordinary book list cultivated by

Fotini Hamplová

and written about in the

Scottish Union for Education

newsletter 52, ‘Search Good Books’, enjoy!

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