My most recent work, Burning Books, is my response to the removal of certain books from US schools. Any books that test the social norms are targeted. The censoring of these books by our government is usually referred to as the “removal” of the books. However, in my mind, I see it as burning them. My thoughts flash back to historical images of huge piles of burning books in the streets of 1930s Germany, Austria, and beyond. “The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as standing for ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, half-Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist, liberal, pacifist, and sexologist authors, among others.” (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
PEN America provides insight into book banning in The Normalization of Book Banning. The article states: “Two things help us make sense of the world – information and stories. Both explain, describe, and give language to the world we encounter. It is not a surprise, then, that banning books is a way of erasing stories, identities, experiences, and reshaping understandings of the past.” Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop provides insight in the PEN article: “When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part.” During the 2024-2025 school year, PEN America recorded 6,870 instances of book bans across 23 states and 87 public school districts.”
PEN America provides insight into book banning in The Normalization of Book Banning. The article states: “Two things help us make sense of the world – information and stories. Both explain, describe, and give language to the world we encounter. It is not a surprise, then, that banning books is a way of erasing stories, identities, experiences, and reshaping understandings of the past.” Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop provides insight in the PEN article: “When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part.” During the 2024-2025 school year, PEN America recorded 6,870 instances of book bans across 23 states and 87 public school districts.”