More Book Banning in Italy?

What is happening to children's literature in Italy, particularly in Venice?  Luigi Brugnaro took over as mayor of Venice in June, many people thought his priorities might clean up corruption that rocked Venice with over-funded protective floodgates.

Instead, Brugnaro focused on cleaning up the city's primary schools, namely 49 so-called "dirty books" touching on issues such as non-traditional families and gender issues.

The banned books are among 1,098 new books for children that the Venice school district paid some €10,000 for in 2014. The blacklist includes titles from award-winning Italian and international children’s authors like Leo Leonni, whose book Little Blue and Little Yellow tells a fictional tale of two genderless circles that hug so hard they become green.

Another banned book—called What’s Dad’s Secret?—tells a tale of a divorced father whose children worry he has a terminal disease when he starts acting strange around them, only to be overjoyed to learn that instead he has simply fallen in love with his male friend, Luca.

And there’s I’m Not Like The Others by French author Janik Coat, which is about animals that are different from their traditional species, which is as much about physical and religious differences as it is about sexuality.

Public pressure could have an influence on the book ban. Last week, 263 Italian and foreign authors whose books are in Venice schools sent a letter to the mayor asking that their books also be removed from schools as a show of solidarity with the banned authors.

Venetian residents are also holding Flashmob-style read-ins of the books in public venues, and they have started a Facebook page called “Free our Books” where they post pictures of children reading the banned books.

As a personal aside, this blogger has just returned from two weeks in Rome, Ravenna, and Loro Piceno.  Democracy was palpable, as was thoughtfulness, and an aura of judiciousness.  One can only hope the honorable mayor of Venice will reconnect with the Italian citizens who protest his outrageous actions.

New LGBT Kids' Book Talks about 'Large Fears'

Not everyone decides to revisit and rewrite his or her own childhood then retell it as an adventure filled with a trip to Mars. But 24-year-old author, Myles Johnson and 27-year-old illustrator, Kendrick Daye have done just that.

Their new children's book, "Large Fears," is inspired by their own experience of feeling invisible due to their sexuality and gender identity. The pair decided to create a storybook featuring a "queer" boy of color named Jeremiah Nebula as the protagonist. In the book Jeremiah must learn to conquer self-doubt in order to find the courage to believe in himself.

Johnson and Daye want to share that message with the world in a Kickstarter campaign aimed at increasing the diversity within children's literature.

A recent study by the Cooperative Children's Book Center found that of the 3,200 children's books published in 2013 only 253 (about 8 percent) were about children of color. This percentage represents a decrease since 2002 when 415 (about 13 percent) of the 3,150 books published were about children of color. The numbers become even smaller when you consider how many of those picture books with children of color are LGBT-inclusive.

Johnson and Daye took time to speak with NBCBLK contributor, Souleo about their own coming out journey, why they believe censorship of LGBT friendly children's books is unacceptable, their decision to self-publish, and the lack of diversity in the publishing industry.

Myles Johnson: 

The fact that Jeremiah is scared connects to me when I was younger because I was scared too. I didn't have that bravery that kids normally have because of my gender identity and sexuality. I wanted to create a character that learned the lessons it took me over 20 years to learn about not being a slave to fears at an early age.

Samantha Newark Lends Her Voice to LGBT-Themed Kids' Book

Samantha Newark

Samantha Newark, the original speaking voice of Jem from the beloved 1980s cartoon series Jem and the Holograms, is lending her voice to raise awareness of a new LGBT-themed children’s book that teaches acceptance.

The actor and recording artist has recorded an audio book to support the Kickstarter campaign for Square Zair Pair, a story set in the magical land of Hanamandoo, occupied by creatures called Zairs. Zairs do everything in pairs — one round and one square. But one day two square Zairs pair for the first time, and their fellow Zairs reject them — until they learn a lesson of acceptance and strength in diversity.

The Kickstarter campaign for the book, written by Jase Peeples (who happens to be The Advocate’s entertainment editor) and illustrated by former Disney artist Christine Knopp, seeks to raise $10,000 in the next month to cover costs of illustration, printing, and shipping for the book’s initial print run. Publication is expected by September.

The audio book by Newark is offered as one of several rewards available to those who back the project.

“The story came to me years ago, after a friend told me he and his husband were having trouble finding many children’s picture books with positive LGBT themes they could share with their daughter,” Peeples says.

 “I wanted to help by creating a new, unique tale for families that might be looking for just such stories, and so I sat down to write Square Zair Pair.”

Children's Classic UK Ladybird Publishing Drops Gender Branding

Children's publisher Ladybird BG will be dropping gender branding from its books after almost 100 years and will not publish anymore books labelled for girls or boys.  It does not want to be seen "limiting children" in any way.

Its current gendered titles include Favourite Fairy Tales for Girls, which has the tales of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, and Favourite Stories for Boys, which has the stories of Jack and the Beanstalk and the Three Little Pigs.

It is the seventh publisher to commit to the Let Books Be Books campaign which is urging 'boys' and 'girls' labels to be removed to enable youngsters to choose freely what kinds of stories and activity books interest them.

Ladybird, which is part of the Penguin Random House Children’s division, said it had been in discussions with campaigners as part of its decision.

The campaign group, which believes gender titling is "limiting and restrictive", has gathered thousands of signatures on a petition to challenge publishers to remove their labelling.

It says that titles like "The Beautiful Girls' Book of Colouring" or "Illustrated Classics for Boys" sends the message that certain books are off-limits for girls or for boys, and promote limiting gender stereotypes.

Children’s publishing should always aim to open up new worlds for children. But telling children which stories and activities are 'for them' based on their gender closes down whole worlds of interest.

In March publisher Parragon confirmed it would support the campaign.

In response to the petition, it posted on Twitter: "Feedback on gender-specific titles is important to us. We have no plans to create new titles referring to boy/girl in the UK."

It has received support from publishers Miles Kelly, Chad Valley, Usborne, Waterstones and Dorling Kindersley.

The former UK children's laureate Anne Fine has described gender labelling as "exasperating."

New Initiative Could Help Bring More Diversity to Children's Books

You have read this author's thoughts on more diversity needed in children's books. There has been a groundswell on Twitter and Tumblr, leading to a new We Need Diverse Books Campaign. 

Everyone agrees: all kids need to be able to see themselves reflected in the books they read. Here is an organization that's putting its money where its mouth is as the old saying goes.

Now, a kids' literacy group thinks it's found a way to help that happen: First Book is a non-profit organization that gets books to kids in need. "There's been a growing recognition that there's a disconnect between children's books that are available and the diversity of the market," First Book CEO Kyle Zimmer tells NPR's Lynn Neary. And, she says, the statistics don't look good. "It's worse than you would guess."

After all these decades you would hope that we might have made more progress than we've made. So if you look at it, the number of — and these are statistics from a study out of the University of Wisconsin — the number of books by and about African American kids is about 1.3%. Books by and about Latino is about 3.3%. So the disconnect is profound.

The data from First Book, overwhelmingly report that in excess of 90% report that when kids see themselves in books, they are far more likely to become enthusiastic readers. But we also know that this isn't just about kids seeing themselves in books, this is also about kids seeing other kids in books, and other cultures in books

Publishers will be stronger in their response, they will produce more books with diverse content if they're sure that the market is there. So First Book stepped out with a campaign called Stories for All, where they have guaranteed to buy 10,000 copies of the titles selected that show a great commitment to diversity. And what that means for publishers is that there's a market there.