Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Some people have no sense of humor. Some people find obscenity where there is none. Case in point: Earlier this year, parents of a kindergarten student in the Annville-Cleona School District made a complaint about The Dirty Cowboy, a humorous picture book that their child brought home from the school library. The parents felt that Adam Rex’s illustrations of the cowboy’s partial nudity in the book were “pornographic” and wanted it banned. In April, the school board agreed with the parents and voted unanimously to remove the book from school libraries in the district.
Note: Before the school board’s vote, the district’s book review committee voted 5-1 to remove the book, with Cleona librarian Anita Mentzer voting against it. Other committee members included Annville-Cleona Superintendent Steven Houser, the assistant superintendent, the technology director, and Cleona Elementary’s principal. (School Library Journal)
There were protests against the banning of The Dirty Cowboy by free-speech organizations and an online petition in favor of repealing the ban that was signed by more than 300 people. The National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression sent a letter to the district asking that the book be returned to school library shelves.
An excerpt from the letter:
The practical effect of acceding to any request to restrict access to materials is to invite others to demand changes to reflect their beliefs, which would leave school officials vulnerable to multiple, possibly conflicting, demands, and leave the library in tatters. T he role of the library is to allow students and parents to make choices according to their own interests, experiences, and family values. No one has to read a book simply because it’s on the library shelf. We strongly urge you to keep The Dirty Cowboy in Annville-Cleona elementary school libraries. The decision to remove the book not only accedes to a specific viewpoint about the acceptability of nudity, but also deprives the entire student body of access to a highly praised book that many students, and their parents, would wish to read. Those who object to this book are entitled to their view, but they may not impose it on others. Any other decision threatens the principle that is essential to individual freedom, democracy, and a good education: the right to read, inquire, question, and think for ourselves.
Tim White reported in the Lebanon Daily News that despite outcry from the community, national media coverage, letters from the American Library Association and other organizations, and numerous pleas to reconsider, “the board refused to take up the matter again, citing concerns of causing a counter-controversy.” The board “stuck to its decision that the book was too dirty for young eyes.”
I’ll let you judge the book in question. Following is…
- A summary of The Dirty Cowboy taken from an article that appeared in School Library Journal
- a link to a Macmillan website where you can view illustrations in the book
- three videos on the subject of the book banning
- a list of honors and awards the book has received
Book Summary (SLJ)
The award-winning book tells the tale of a freckle-faced cowboy who decides to take his annual bath in a nearby river and asks his dog to guard his clothes. But the two get into fracas when the dog doesn’t recognize his fresh-smelling owner and refuses to hand over his clothes. The illustrations carefully conceal the cowboy’s private parts “while still keeping a G rating,” according to SLJ‘s review off the book.
The Dirty Cowboy illustrations
The Dirty Cowboy’s honors and awards include the following:
- Parents Choice Gold Medal
- Golden Kite Award (SCBWI – For Excellence in Picture Book Text)
- First Prize in the 2004 Marion Vannett Ridgway Awards
- International Reading Association 2004 Notable Book
- Bulletin Blue Ribbon (The Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books)
- Finalist for the Spur Award (Western Writers of America)
- Finalist for Southeast Booksellers Association 2004 Book Award
- Nominated for Georgia Picture Book Award
Comments made by Amy Timberlake, author of The Dirty Cowboy, during an interview with Blogging Censorship:
If one or two parents can get books removed from a public library, where will it stop? Will there be any books left in the library? I tell you, everybody has opinions about books, and everybody has gotten offended now and again by a book. (If you haven’t, you’re not a reader.) It doesn’t mean the book shouldn’t be on the shelves.
Anyway, this is one of the reasons we hire people with special training to care for our libraries. Librarians have a process for choosing and buying books for everybody (and in the case of schools, these books also support the teachers’ curriculum).
It’s one thing to free shelf space because a book is not being checked out, but it’s quite another to have a well-used book banned because of the objections of a few parents…
Some Questions
- Do you think the illustrations of the cowboy’s partial nudity border on obscenity?
- Do you think a book should be banned from a public school library because the parents of one child object to it?
- Do you think that one or two people or an organization should have the right to impose their views of literature and art on others who may have different perspectives from theirs?
SOURCES
PA School District Bans ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ for Partial Nudity (School Library Journal)
A-C board to vote tonight on book ban (Lebanon Daily News)
‘The Dirty Cowboy’ author: Book ban ‘ridiculous’ (Lebanon Daily News)
COLUMN: Book ban is not community’s desire (Lebanon Daily News)
A-C residents complain about ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ ban (Lebanon Daily News)
American Library Association opposes ban of ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ (Lebanon Daily News)
U.S. News: School District Bans ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ Book (Newsy)
School districts shouldn’t ban books (Partiot-News)
Annville-Cleona School Board stays strong on decision to ban ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ (Partiot-News)
‘The Dirty Cowboy’ mess is about a lot more than one book (Patriot-News)
Nancy Eshelman: ‘Dirty’ pictures lead to banning of book about a bath (Patriot-News)
Pa. school board, parents spar over banning of Dirty Cowboy (First Amendment Center)
The So-Not-Dirty Cowboy Author Speaks (Blogging Censorship/National Coalition Against Censorship)
Letter to Members of the School Board Annville-Cleona School District (National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Booksellers Foundation)
OTOTOT:
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers and grand fathers that frequent the blawg today 🙂
Elaine,
Great article. These book banners never learn!
Matt,
Nephew is all growed up now. He is teaching his younger brother about the importance of hygiene. Wonder if he threatens him with my “assistance.” : )
bettykath,
You go, girl! Glare at him if he needs it. You can win that way.
LeeJ and Gene, Now if that book is available in the public library (hope they have one!) it has probably already got a waiting list for checkout. Is it possible that the complainer is really closeted in wanting kids to read about what can happen if you take a bath?
My almost teen nephew resisted my suggestions that he take a shower. He was solidly built and taller than I but I was heavier with a lower center of gravity. After a semi-serious pushing match, I maneuvered him into the bathroom. He wisely decided that he could manage the shower on his own, rather than have me further help him. He never again balked at taking a shower at my suggestion. Good thing, too, he continued to grow and I wouldn’t have won another bout.
Elaine,
I have it on good authority that everyone is born naked. Banning this book as pornographic is ridiculous and puritanical. On the plus side, I know that I went out of my way to read books parents got upset about.
The prime question is how do you perform social eugenics in an acceptable form.
Or raise another question: Who decided that the librarian and the book committee should have their powers to select?
And who gave this protest such power? Political connections
Wonder if the librarian can keep the book in the main library or are all the kids who have heard about this ridiculous brouhaha – over what appears to be an excellent book (based on the awards and accolades cited) – running over there to take it out.
Silly parents. Nothing like the forbidden to arouse curiosity.
I am reminded of Sarah Palin’s flap with the librarian of the public library when she was mayor of Wasilla. She wanted two books banned and the librarian didn’t agree and the librarian, furthermore, resisted Palin’s incursion into decision-making that was not hers to exercise. Some citizens joined in to defend the librarian, whom Palin tried to fire. The end of the story is that the librarian and her citizen supporters prevailed but not before Palin tried to coerce and punish her for failing to immediately bow down to her own ridiculous censorship attempts.
Everything seems to depend upon whether or not a targeted victim gets the support and help needed from the community to resist the unlawful and immoral use of usurped power.
In general, in this country, we are losing the war in that respect.
The short answers: no, no and no.
The tl/dr version:
I encountered a similar situation in my kids’ elementary school approx. a decade ago. The school had a “birthday book club” – whereby kids could donate books to the library on their birthdays, and get official recognition (bulletin board announcement, coupons, stickers, etc.) for it. It was a feel good thing for the kids and parents, that also (not coincidentally) helped make up for cuts in the library budget to purchase new books.
On her birthday, the daughter of one of the PTO stalwarts (who also happened to be an RN) donated a Dorling-Kindersley kids’ book on the human body. DK makes absolutely gorgeous illustrated science books (and other media) for kids, and this one was no exception. But evidently one parent thought otherwise: because it had a cross section diagram of the male genitourinary system, she decided that she was shocked – shocked! – that her daughter might see… the inner structure of a penis and testicles.
I did not deal directly with the parent, so I don’t know who she was (although I had my suspicions…). But I was helping out in the library when the principal came in, and ordered the librarian to take it off the shelf… so I learned about it as it was happening in real time. So I counter-complained on the spot: but it was useless… the book came off the shelf. The principal knew which one of us parents would cause him the most grief, and it wasn’t me.
Deal is, school administrators are risk averse and the book banners are relentless. It’s easier to give in to them, since those of us opposed to censorship will give up and move on once we lose (which is what I did… sigh!). But book banners are like punching bag clowns – no matter how hard you smack them down, they roll right back up in your face, unfazed by the previous blows. It’s a simple calculation on the part of administrators: “who is going to make my life more miserable?”
My nephew thought this book was hilarious, which may be the crux of the problem. It’s an appealing starter book that may lead our innocent children down the path to the hard stuff.
Elaine,
Yes, I realized that I knew the answer to that question as soon as I posted it.
We have a problem with our local school board – community apathy. There were 4 open seats and 2 candidates. So both candidates won, regardless of qualification (they each only needed their own vote) and there are 2 open seats. I haven’t checked the turnout. Guess I’m part of the problem.
bettykath,
“I wonder if the members of the school board are as ignorant as those who complain.”
Evidently, the school board members are as ignorant–or maybe they just wanted to make the “complainers” go away. I think school boards such as this one can open a whole can of worms for a community when they ban books from school libraries because a couple of parents don’t approve of them. Why should a couple of complainers hold sway over school boards and impose their will on the majority of parents who disagree with them?
I wonder if the children of the complainers bathe. I wonder if they do bathe, do they do it with their clothes on. Same for the adult. Do they bathe? Do they do it with their clothes on? Do they recognize that people smell differently when they are dirty than when they are clean? I wonder if the members of the school board are as ignorant as those who complain.
Nowax,
Can you buy a diamond ring for $30?
I was expecting to see nudity in those pictures. What I saw was nothing more than what you see on a beach. I am flabbergasted that this book would even be considered for censorship. We have lost all common sense in this country. And those people on that board need psychological help. They have some serious psychological issues regarding the human body.
Dirty Cowboys! What are you talking about about? Don’t make Woody Harrelson mad. Especially if he has his banjo. And I don’t want any goddamn snowcones. Twinkies are better. Don’t compare me to Woody Harrelson. Wait for the amusement park ride.
I think they all need a bath……
‘A young man, freshly graduated from college, went to see the wisest rabbi in the city. When the rabbi answered his knock, the young man said, “Rabbi, I want you to teach me. I want to learn the wisdom of our people.”
The rabbi smiled and said, “You’re much too young for that. Come back in ten years and maybe then we can begin.”
But the young man was not about to wait. He said, “Give me a chance. I’ve studied hermeneutics and semiotics, deconstructionism and symbolic logic. I can do this. Test me.”
“All right, all right,” said the rabbi, who grudgingly admired the youth’s determination. “Come in and sit down, and I’ll ask you a question.” The young man did, and this is the question he was asked:
Two men climb down a chimney. At the bottom one man has soot on his face, the other doesn’t; one man washes his face, the other doesn’t. Tell me, which man washes his face?
The young man’s face brightened, and he said at once, “The man with the soot on his face!”
The rabbi shook his head. “No, no. It was the man without the soot on his face. He saw the soot on his friend’s face, and assumed that he must be dirty also, so he went and washed. Now run along and come back in ten years.”
“You can’t send me away after just one question,” said the young man. “I was just warming up. Ask me another.”
“Very well,” said the rabbi, and this is the second question he asked the youth:
Two men climb down a chimney. At the bottom one man has soot on his face, the other doesn’t; one man washes his face, the other doesn’t. Tell me, which man washes his face?
The young man paused a moment, then said, “The man without the soot on his face.”
The rabbi frowned a bit. “Don’t try to be clever. No, it was the man with the soot on his face. He could taste it on his lips, and feel it in his eyes, so he went and washed.”
“Okay, okay,” said the young man, putting up a brave front, “I got the hang of this now. Just one more question, please.”
The rabbi sighed. “As you wish. Here’s your third question:”
Two men climb down a chimney. At the bottom one man has soot on his face, the other doesn’t; one man washes his face, the other doesn’t. Tell me, which man washes his face?
There was a long pause, while the youth furrowed his brow and made inarticulate sounds of frustration. Finally, in a voice robbed of all its former confidence, he said, “The man without the soot on his face…but for a different reason…?”
The rabbi strode to the door and opened it. “Go away, go away, will you? No, they both washed their face. How can you climb down a chimney and not get soot on your face?”’
…and so it goes…..
Answers to your questions: *No, *No and *Absolutely not.
Great going! I hadn’t heard of this gem, and will now add this book to my collection.