Dan’s Dirty Books
I’m about to say a dirty word: Dan Patrick. Oh wait, that’s two.
I don’t think Dan and I would have much in common anyway, but he’s risen pretty high on the list of people I’d least like to hang out with thanks to his recent “We’re coming for the books” campaign.
In case you aren’t familiar with it, DP has pointed Texas schools toward a list of 2,100+ books from Recover America, and even though he says the list is just a guideline, he's threatened to drop schools a letter grade for keeping even one of them.
To be exceptionally clear, I don’t believe this is a liberal or conservative discussion. What our kids are reading is strictly a parent-teacher conference, and I cannot fathom why the government should have a spot at that table.
And because I am both extremely type A and also very into books, I went through the list.
It's a very long list.
Dan hasn't read the whole list. Recover America didn't even compile the whole list. They used crowdsourced review sites and AI to do broad keyword flagging.
And, y’all. I'd like to know what those keywords were.
Almost a quarter of the titles are categorized as general public or adult. It’s worth a reminder here that YA and Adult categorizations are marketing categories, not content warnings. They tell booksellers where a publisher thinks a book is most likely to sell, and industry professionals regularly discuss how kids like to read outside of those categories anyway.
Furthermore, nearly 10% of the titles are out of print or not easily available.
Then there are the books that made me full stop and stare.
Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation. All the Light We Cannot See. Night. Hatchet. The Handmaid’s Tale. Slaughterhouse-Five. The Picture of Dorian Gray.
These aren’t obscure books that naughty librarians are trying to surreptitiously add to the shelves. Many are classics and frequently appear on middle- and high-school reading lists. In fact, the Republican-led Texas State Board of Education recently approved Elie Wiesel’s Night as required reading for English I, effective July 2027. Now, how are we going to both fail a school and pass a student with the same book?
And a striking number of the books I reviewed feature characters who are African American, Latino, Jewish, Muslim, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse, and other historically underrepresented experiences.
Whatever you think belongs in your own child’s hands, this list is clearly about far more than “dirty, filthy, and vulgar” books.
And that’s where I have a problem.
I own a children’s bookstore. My literal job is books. I curate books for kids every single day, including thousands of titles for school book fairs. If there were a handful of books that met everyone’s interests and needs, whew! My job would be SO. MUCH. EASIER! Alas, there is no magical list of Books-That-Are-Appropriate-For-Children, or Books-That-All-Children-Will-Want-To-Read, or Books-That-All-Parents-Will-Find-Acceptable.
That’s okay.
Accessible doesn’t mean required.
Just because a book is in a library does not mean a child has to read it. Parents can decide what is appropriate for their family by talking to their children, teachers, and librarians. It may also be shocking to hear, but this is actually what the current law and our schools want you to do.
I said this when SB 13 was proposed: This is a slippery slope in handing away our rights.
That’s also why I don’t see this as particularly liberal or conservative. Liberals can reasonably care about freedom of expression. Conservatives can reasonably care about individual liberty and parental authority. We don't have to agree about why we don't agree with book banning in order to agree that families should have the final say in making personal choices.
I also have a hard time watching schools and librarians spend hours reviewing, cataloging, defending, removing, and debating books while salaries are slashed, positions eliminated, and public funding funneled to private resources. That is an entirely different rabbit hole, though.
Whatever, I am mad at Dan.
He worked hard a few weeks ago. He’s very passionate about protecting the ladies. He found a list of “filthy” books from a private religious organization, pointed Texas schools toward it, and here I am spending my time going through 2,100+ titles to make sure they're still available from bookstores, since apparently now that's the only way kids will get access to them.
At least one of us read the list.
For those that are interested, here is a link to the full list: https://recoveramerica.com/harmful-books
