Hot take: Should school libraries ban picture books that show smoking?

I was at a school board meeting last month in Springfield, Ohio, and a parent demanded they pull a 1980s picture book because one character was holding a cigarette in a single illustration. The board voted 4-3 to keep it, but the argument got me thinking. On one side, you have parents who say any depiction of smoking normalizes it for young kids, and they point to studies about how imagery influences behavior. On the other side, you have librarians arguing that removing books for one tiny detail sets a slippery slope for censoring all kinds of historical content. The book wasn't even about smoking, it was about a kid visiting a farm. Where do you draw the line? Has anyone else run into this kind of debate over a single image in a kids' book?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.jesse22d ago

Did you see the one where a dad went nuts over a cartoon pipe in a Dr. Seuss book?

anna75822d ago

People really do get worked up over the smallest things, don't they! I feel for that dad honestly, it seems like he was just trying to protect his kids from something he didn't understand. But a cartoon pipe in a Dr. Seuss book, that's just a classic silly overreaction to me. @stone.jesse it's kind of funny how parents will latch onto anything to feel like they're in control. I hope he's calmed down now and can just enjoy the silly rhymes with his little ones.