Mom Wants Children’s Book Banned Six-Year-Old Daughter’s Reaction To ‘Zoo’ Prompts Parent’s Request To School District
The parent of a kindergartner wants an award-winning children’s book removed from Spokane School District libraries because she believes it promotes lying and cruelty.
A district committee will meet today to review the request.
“Zoo” by Anthony Browne, published in 1992, won the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustrations from the British Library Association. Reviewers praised the book’s sly humor in comparing humans to animals.
In the book, a family visits the zoo, where the father tries to get a break on the ticket price by lying about one son’s age. Later, the sons get bored, fight with each other and bang on the orangutan’s cage.
A closer look at the pictures reveals that some of the humans have tails, beaks and horns.
Debbie McSpadden read the book with her daughter, 6-year-old Kelsey, after the girl brought it home from the Franklin Elementary library.
The book’s irony was lost on her daughter, McSpadden said.
“She looked at me and said, ‘Mommy, this isn’t a very nice book.”’ McSpadden, a homemaker and part-time house-cleaner with two other children, decided to fill out a form asking the district to withdraw the book.
“Kids don’t need to read that,” she said. “There’s enough negativity. We try to promote good family values.”
Franklin Elementary librarian Dinah Coble said most children enjoy Browne’s books, which include “Gorilla,” “Changes” and “Piggybook.”
Browne’s surrealistic, colorful illustrations often depict animals. He squeezes a gorilla into almost all his books.
“He tends to be a little sophisticated in his humor,” Coble said. “The jokes tend to be things adults get and children don’t.”
Parents should help their children choose books, but should not force their choices on other families, said Allen Kopf, co-chairman of the Washington Library Media Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee.
Kopf criticized the Spokane parent who challenged “Zoo.”
“She’s determining her values should be the values of everyone else in the community,” said Kopf, who is Walla Walla School District’s library director.
One other book challenge has been filed in Spokane School District so far this school year. In September, the district removed “Tintin in America” from school libraries because of its stereotypical portrayal of American Indians. That action was prompted by an Indian staff member’s complaint.
Last school year, the district received challenges to six books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The district kept four of those books without restrictions, decided to write guidelines for teaching “Mockingbird” and restricted the poetry book “Halloween ABC” to older children.
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