Many (dare I say most?) of us in the kidlit writing community agree that banning books is wrong, especially when books are being banned because of their representation of marginalized communities. We agree it's important that all kids see themselves reflected on the page. Every kid deserves to read books in which someone who looks like them, sounds like them, thinks like them, feels like them, is front-and-center in the story. Every kid deserves to feel seen.
Most of us also agree that authors from marginalized groups deserve to write stories that reflect their communities, backgrounds, and personal histories. So, we can easily see that book banning harms both readers and authors in marginalized communities. This is the most important reason for fighting book bans. We should not erase or ignore voices just because they don't reflect the reality of those in power.
But sometimes we think about book bans as only truly affecting people in marginalized groups, and we forget one very important point: all kids need and deserve to see not only themselves, but the world around them reflected in books.
Reading a book from a perspective other than our own increases empathy and understanding. It helps us become a better citizen of the world. And we can only learn from history if we actually know it. Taking these books away from kids hurts everyone, not just those who are losing representation.
A Personal Story
My son is adopted from Haiti. I always knew it was important for him to see himself on the page, through Haitian voices, Black voices, adoptee voices, disability voices, etc. His national heritage, his skin color, the way he came into our family, his cognitive disability--these were all things I could easily see, things I knew about from the time he was adopted, things I could prepare for. What I didn't know until much later is that he would also have a transgender sister (who was also undiagnosed on the autism spectrum). I didn't know, when my kids were very young, how helpful seeking out LGBTQA books would have been for them. Unfortunately, these stories were fewer and farther between when my kids were little (they're in their twenties today), and queer characters didn't appear in books nearly as often as they do now. And while my kids read widely, I don't think they read their first book with a trans main character until after we knew my daughter was trans. I often wonder if it would have been easier for everyone if it had been the other way around. The same goes for reading books with autistic main characters.
We don't always know ahead of time what type of representation our kids need to see, not just to be better citizens of the world, but to understand themselves or someone they have a personal relationship with better. We don't know who our kids' eventual neighbors will be--or their teachers, teammates, bosses, coworkers, in-laws, partners... the list goes on.
I've been so happy to see more and more diverse representation on the shelves (at any random bookstore!) over the past ten years or so. I hate to think we might go back to a time when readers had to "seek out" diverse books to see themselves and those they love on the page. We can't let that happen.
Marginalized readers aren't the only ones who lose when their stories are banned.
