Guest Post: JJ, Clyde and the Banned Book
Written by Haley Land
If you thought book bans were found only in dusty chapters in the pages of history, you need simply examine today’s headlines. In a broad swath of American school districts, a political and social culture has grown into activist school boards brimming with intolerance and moral certitude, infecting school libraries and limiting children’s choice and curiosity. Restricting reading choices is a dangerous contradiction for educational institutions that block children’s exposure to ideas.
To bring us back to a healthier relationship with children’s freedom to choose their reading material, adults can’t be given credit for mere anti-book ban opinions. They must stand up, push back at school board meetings, as well as at the ballot box.
It is essential for adults to prosecute this battle. But that’s just half of the equation. How does a child react when a book ban comes for them? What is the child’s-eye view?
In large measure, that question was my starting point for writing JJ, Clyde and the Banned Book.
JJ and Clyde are best friends. They are the conventional, lovable stereotype of active all-American boys who love sports and don’t mind mud. They also happen to love an offbeat book, The Calming Adventures of Arthur and Gerard, about two unorthodox boys who serve “petite sandwiches” on the patio, mend each other’s clothes and take photos of butterflies. When the school board removes the book from JJ and Clyde’s library—because it is dangerous—the boys can’t understand the decision, except to assume it’s a ridiculous error. But what is wonderful is that rather than haplessly accepting their victimhood, they chart a brave course—which is to take on the adults with an earnest plan, and to confront the school board. The boys are clearly heroes.
It’s been asked, if the book were a page or two longer, what would JJ and Clyde have said to the school board. I don’t believe they would have offered profound oration or shouted demands at adults. They cleverly came to the meeting dressed in Arthur’s and Gerard’s signature style, and they would have given their youthful reasons why they loved The Calming Adventures of Arthur and Gerard and simply asked the board why such a clearly great book was banned. Far more significant would have been the school board’s discomfort and any lame explanation for their decision to ban. I think that is how most readers would imagine those extra pages; and I felt it was important to let readers think it through without me. I also wanted very much to keep the story’s adults in the background (literally, as made clear by my illustrations). This is a story conducted in JJ and Clyde’s world.
One thing we all can agree on is: kids hurt when they lose something they love. I hope my book compels disparate parties to keep that premise upper mind, and to believe in adult power to make the reforms we urgently need.
About Haley Land: I’m a retired ceramicist. Recently, I’ve fallen in love with block print patchmaking. It’s great. I now meet more young, excited, low-tech, guerilla-type artists than ever, as patches are a youth market. Once a week, I bring my patches—including anti-book ban patches—to the Pacific Northwest’s greatest crossroads for rich, poor, urban, rural, old, young, race, and gender—Seattle’s Pike Place Public Market. It’s not a misnomer to say The Market (as locals call it) is everything and everywhere all at once. Read more about the book here.
