Librarians Celebrate Comics in the Face of Censorship

When Daviess County Citizens for Decency in Daviess County, Ky., demanded that Ryan Estrada and Hyun Sook Kim’s Banned Book Club be removed from the YA section of the local public library, Estrada attended the meeting of the Daviess County Fiscal Court and learned that same group had also tried to remove P.D. Eastman’s picture book Are You My Mother?, which the group’s members had confused with Alison Bechdel’s adult graphic memoir Are You My Mother?. Defensive strategy One strategy libraries can use to minimize problems is carefully curating their collections, according to Jeff Trexler, interim director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Is this what we want to do?’ And the answer is always resoundingly, ‘Yes, we obviously need these books.’ ” Colvin also says she would never tone down the content of a book because of potential challenges. Books like Flamer or Stage Dreams are particularly important for LGBTQ young people living in communities where they are not supported, Colvin notes.