This board book from the Mudpuppy toys and games company isn’t about book banning per se—instead, it aims to “Provide young children with a captivating and engaging way to learn key lessons from infamous classic banned books,” by offering short, one-line summaries of a number of books that have been banned in some places (though it doesn’t say why or where).
Each featured book within it, however, is described with a single sentence so oversimplified that it arguably misses the point of many of the books: The line for The Handmaid’s Tale is “My Voice Matters”; Maus is “I speak up when someone is in trouble,” The Absolutely True Diary of a part-Time Indian is “I will follow my heart,” etc. There’s a final spread for adult readers that goes into only a little more detail (two to three sentences) about the plots.
The publisher says the book is aimed at children 0-5, though it’s a board book, which to me says 0-3—but its content is about books that children likely won’t be reading until much later—their teens, in several cases. That feels mismatched to me; I doubt very young children will really find much interest in learning about books they may not read for years. It’s not that the content here, in its vastly reduced form, is inappropriate for younger ages; it just doesn’t feel relevant or particularly useful.
The publisher’s statement that “the book provides a valuable tool for parents to engage their children in important conversations about freedom of expression and intellect” seems overblown, since such conversations are well beyond most kids of board-book age. Also, parents who don’t already know why these books were banned or what it means to ban a book will be lost, since there’s nothing to guide them here. It’s not even clear that all of the LGBTQ-inclusive titles (including Melissa and The Perks of Being a Wallflower) are LGBTQ inclusive.
Additionally, one of the featured books is Harry Potter (though that’s really a series), with the summary line, “There is magic inside all of us”–which feels hypocritical, given author J.K. Rowling’s transphobia. I think many LGBTQ folks will be put off by that. Overall, the whole books feels like part of a trend I’ve noticed of trying to oversimplify complex topics and make board books out of them. Seriously: There are board books about quantum physics and neural networks, but they feel more like novelties for parents and other adults rather than useful books for kids. Put this one in the same category.
