Taken off the Shelf

Recently there is a huge controversy over 3 children's books being taken off the shelves by our library following complaints raised by certain people that the books have same sex partners in their story. The National Library withdrew the books citing their 'pro-family' policy.

Now I recall during one of my story telling session reading a children book picked up from the library about a little girl preparing for a school project with the help of mum and her female friend who stays with them. There wasn't a father in the story. Halfway through the story I instinctively could feel the dynamics and was glad no parents rolled their eyes. Thinking about it now, is it really not appropriate for children to be exposed to the real world where some families consist of single parents and sometimes mum or dad has a good friend who stays in to help out? I am not sure how explicit the 3 hotly debated books are about same sex partners but in this one which I read it is really subtle and may not even have such implications depending on how one reads it. If children are too sheltered and unexposed will they become unsympathetic and prejudiced against peers from less than so called 'normal' families.

Another thought came to my mind. Often whilst choosing books for story telling, I come across many Children books with Christian settings and have to give them a miss respecting the varied religious background of the audience. Apart from the actual Bible stories, there are also many children books with Christmas and Easter as the backdrop. It is a marvel that nobody complains that the library is trying to convert our children into Christians with the disproportionately large collection of children books with Christian orientation. Indeed I have told a very touching story taken from a library book about a troll who plucked up enough courage to knock on the window of the village church whilst the villagers were having a service on Christmas Day. I remember how quiet and anxious the children looked as I narrated with exaggerated drama the troll's fears and how their faces subsequently lightened up when the villagers in the story embraced the troll.

Yes, this story irrespective of culture and religious orientation instills the virtue of acceptance, where humans being humans accept even a troll as one of them. Fortunately no one has asked this book to be taken off the shelf.