The right-wing noise machine is all atwitter about the decision by the Dr. Seuss estate to stop selling six books that it decided included racial and ethnic stereotypes that are “hurtful and wrong.” It’s all part of the ginned up outrage over so-called “cancel culture.”
But over the years, it’s been right-wing zealots who have tried to ban some of the most popular books for children and young adults. Here are some examples:
THE HARRY POTTER SERIES
Some of the most prominent right-wing evangelicals __ including Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell _ attacked J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books because of the references to magic and witchcraft, curses and spells and characters using “nefarious means” to attain their goals.
Some Christian fundamentalists tried to ban the books from public schools and libraries. In December 2001, the pastor of Christ Community Church in Alamogordo, New Mexico, denounced Rowling’s works as a “masterpiece of Satanic deception” as parishioners burned dozens of Harry Potter books and other literature they found offensive.
”A WRINKLE IN TIME”
Madeleine L’Engle’s book has been frequently challenged by religious conservatives. In 1985, a parents’ group at an elementary school in Polk City, Florida, tried but failed to get the book banned on the grounds that it “opposes Christian beliefs and teaches occult practices.
In an interview with the New York Times in 2001, L’Engle said, “It seems people are willing to damn the book without reading it. Nonsense about witchcraft and fantasy. First I felt horror, then anger, and finally I said, ‘Ah the hell with it.’ It’s great publicity, really.”
”THE LORAX” by DR. SEUSS
Did you think the right would give Dr. Seuss a pass? In 1989, a public school in Laytonville, California, banned “The Lorax” after a group of parents bought a newspaper ad to complain that teachers were brainwashing their children with the Dr. Seuss book to think negatively about mass logging.
The National Wood Flooring Manufacturers’ Association actually put out an illustrated parody of “The Lorax” titled “The Truax” in an effort to show children the need for foresting.
”CHARLOTTE’S WEB” and “WINNIE THE POOH”
A parent’s group in Kansas in 2005-2006 tried to get both “Charlotte’s Web” and “Winnie the Pooh” banned because they considered the talking animals in both books to be a religious abomination, an “insult to God.”
”AND TANGO MAKES THREE”
Christian conservatives have called for the banning of any children’s book considered to have LGBTQ content, such as “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo” and “I Am Jazz.”
The American Library Association said that from 2006 to 2010, the most frequently challenged book was “And Tango Makes Three,” a 2005 children’s picture book written by a gay couple Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole.
It’s based on a true story about two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who are given an egg which they help hatch and then together raise the female chick named Tango. It stirred outrage among the religious right in culture war debates over same-sex marriage, adoption and homosexuality in animals.
Focus on the Family education analyst Candi Cushman denounced the penguin love story: “It’s very misleading, and it’s a very disingenuous, inaccurate way to promote a political agenda to little kids.”
“ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL”
Surprisingly the poignant diary of a young Jewish girl who spent two years hiding from the Nazis with her family and others in a cramped secret annex in an Amsterdam office building often shows up on banned book lists. A Virginia school banned the diary because of its “sexual content and homosexual themes.” In 1983, four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee called for the book's rejection because it is "a real downer."
”WHERE’S WALDO?”
According to the American Library Association, “Where’s Waldo” was one of the most frequently challenged books in the 1990s. So what was the problem? The original 1987 edition was actually banned in some places because of a topless female sunbather in the beach scene. The side of her breast measuring 1/16 of an inch could be seen. In later editions of the book, the sunbather was given a bathing suit top.
”BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR, WHAT DO YOU SEE?
Only in Texas. The Texas State Board of Education briefly banned this classic illustrated children’s book in 2010 because of a case of mistaken identity. It confused its author, Bill Martin Jr., with philospher Bill Martin, author of such books as “Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation.” The two Martins were not related.
For more information on banned and challenged books, check out this link to a website from the American Library Association.