Banned Books - Another Frontier Breached?

/

Yes, that is a picture of Barnes and Noble on our website.

Like many of you, we have watched with horror the sharp uptick in book challenges and bannings that have been hitting school and public libraries around the country.  At Skylark we’ve responded with the following actions:

  1. We’ve highlighted and celebrated challenged/banned books within the shop; 

  2. We’ve sold many copies of the 2021 most contested title Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe in support of eir recent appearance at the Unbound Book Festival; 

  3. We’ve launched our challenged/banned books subscription, which includes a donated portion to EyeSeeMe to provide free challenged/banned books. 

But now there’s a new worry.

A few days ago two Virginia Republicans requested a restraining order that would prevent Barnes & Noble from selling two books–Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas-– to minors (in addition to libraries loaning them), based on an obscure Virginia law granting standing to any citizen to ask a court to address whether a book is obscene.  

Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, and the U.S. Department of Justice offers a useful summary of obscenity law.  And we should point out that this case appears to rest on a law specific to Virginia.  

However, the purpose of this post is not to debate the legal merits of this particular case. We really wanted to raise awareness that people who are intent on removing books from readers’ hands have discovered an additional tactic to employ - one that (unlike school challenges) is designed to impact on what private businesses like bookstores are able to sell. For that reason it feels like yet another dangerous frontier is being breached.

At Skylark Bookshop we support a parent’s right to discuss with their own child what is best for them, including whether a book is appropriate for them to read.  We do not support any attempts by some people to determine for all children what is and isn’t appropriate for them to read.

What do you think? What actions will you take?