Libraries were once guarded by lions. They became known as librarians! They had the joyous job of story times, reading and recommending books to children, and adding wonderful books to their libraries. Then came the day Ms Millicent receives a letter. Ms Millicent headed straight to the office of the Mayor. He used words like controversial, inappropriate, and conservative. Ms Millicent replied with words like banning, censorship and accessibility. Ms Millicent did not win this battle of words and so on the next page we see the head librarian, Ms Millicent, pulling bundles and bundles of books off her library shelves.
Lions from earlier times knew how to roar if things were amiss in the library. Young Julius has been watching his mum pulling out his own favourite books.
"Julius got a funny feeling. He ran to the shelf where he kept his favourite books. He felt a rush of relief when he saw them, these stories that he loved so much. The one he had read thirty-three times. The one he was saving for the first day of summer. The special one he read with his grandmother."
What would happen if he couldn't read these books? Julius feels a rumble and the rumble turns into a ROAR! His mum feels the roar too and the roar spreads to book lovers everywhere.
At the end of this book the protesters win, and Julius and the other library patrons can read any book they like BUT as you probably know very sadly this is not actually the case in the US. The final pages of Roar for Reading have a set of four stepts - R Recognise book bans and censorship; O Organise and talk to other who see this as wrong A Act write letters, attend meetings and R respect everyone's right to read what interest them.
This book caught my eye because I saw the Australian illustrator Andrew Joyner. You may remember his books - The Swap, Flocked, The Terrible Plop or Too Many elephants in this House. I read all of these to hundreds of children in my former school library.
Beth Ferry is a famous author in the US - I wonder how Andrew Joyner came to illustrate her book. Andrew lives in South Australia. Beth Ferry is the author of Scarecrow illustrated by The Fan Brothers has been on my to buy/read list for many years - sadly though it is very expensive here in Australia. See her books here.
These are a very small sample of the picture books and middle grade books that have been banned in the US. These are all books I loved and continue to recommend:
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