Keeping books on library shelves

Re: Kids’ book pulled from division shelves over map illustration (Mar. 6)

I love children’s picture books: good books that connect kids to others who share their life experiences and that connect kids to people and places and times outside of their own experiences.

I love kids’ books that tell stories through beautifully crafted art and rich melodic language.

I love kids’ books that give children opportunities to be curious and at times confused; books that make them giggle and sometimes cry; books that stimulate their hunger to understand themselves and their world; that provide them with opportunities to grapple with the complexities of their world.

I love reading picture books to adults as well as to kids. And yes, I make sure everyone sees the illustrations.

So I was gobsmacked to read that the Louis Riel School Division had taken Maysa Odeh’s expansively warm picture book Upside-Down Iftar off their library shelves.

And so relieved that, as a result of public outcry, it has been returned to the shelves.

There’s much I could say in response to the rationale for the initial removal; in particular the fact that the complainant “felt unsafe” because the book contains an image of a map that reflects Palestinians’ understanding of their land with its many Arabic-named landmarks.

But perhaps it’s sufficient to propose that the depiction of this map offers opportunities for educators and other mentors to engage children in conversations about history and culture and identity in safe and compassionate ways; to nurture questioning and curiosity rather than certainty in children’s hearts and minds.

I imagine some Free Press readers might insist that such a conversation is beyond the capacities of young children. To which I would suggest that we are prone to underestimating our children’s abilities. And prone to underestimating our own ability to learn how to frame difficult conversations in ways that are in keeping with children’s stages of development.

In one of my favourite picture books, When We Were Alone, author David Robertson and illustrator Julie Flett tell a story about a loving, life-filled Cree grandmother who shares her residential school experiences with her beloved granddaughter.

While not shying away from the hard truth of those experiences, this picture book reminds all readers — kids and adults alike — that resistance and resilience can live in the most oppressive of circumstances, even within young children. What an empowering and hope-filled teaching.

The censoring of good children and youth literature is a frightening reality at this time. Challenges to the appropriateness of Upside Down Iftar go well beyond the Louis Riel School Division. At least 14 instances were reported by the Pembina Trails School Division last year.

And of course there are many examples of banned children and young adult literature to be found in our neighbour to the South, including the banning in a Kansas school district of the well-loved classic Charlotte’s Web.

Hard to believe, isn’t it? Apparently talking animals violate religious convictions about the natural order. That and the presumed inadvisability of confronting children with the reality of death — in this case the death of spider Charlotte.

Thankfully we are not there yet. Upside Down Iftar has been returned to the shelves. But it behooves us to remain vigilant. And to offer our gratitude to the folks who raised their voices to ensure this outcome.

And boy oh boy I’d love to sit down and celebrate Upside Down Iftar with a big upside-down platter of makloubeh.

Frances Ravinsky writes from Winnipeg.