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A review by jennifermreads
Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
5.0
When this beautifully illustrated picture book was initially published, I glanced at it and thought, because of the library setting AND the Japanese internment camp pieces, I’d eventually read it. The book moved up on my TBR—and got purchased for my personal library—because, prior to offering the book for sale at their fairs, Scholastic asked the author to make a change to her author’s note. The author said “No thank you” and wrote a response piece about the request. Then, after Scholastic backpedaled and recanted, she wrote a second blog post about why the answer was still “no”.
I am glad the author stood her ground and protected her product. Scholastic’s concern was with wording in the author’s note. Those challenging the book have cited the same wording. Removing access to a book is banning. Asking for changes to an author’s chosen words is censorship. Readers have every right to choose not to read a book, or to make that choice for their family. They do not have the right to tell me, or my children if I had them, that they cannot read the book.
Those who are concerned about the author’s note, please tell me, honestly, when was the last time your four- or five-year-old read an author’s note in a book? Or asked you to read it to them? I did not read author’s notes until high school. Prior to that time, the “extra part at the end” seemed unimportant to me. It was only with maturity that I learned that those notes contained valuable insight into the author’s mindset, historical context, and/or separating the fiction from the fact.
So, if you skip the author’s note here, what your young reader will get is the story of two adults who fell in love while at a library in an internment camp during World War II. Yes, there is mention of the internment camps being prisons and life being difficult. But the focus is on the love story, the author’s maternal grandparents meeting & falling in love during a dark period of US history. The wording is gracious and fully expresses the love & pride the author feels for her grandparents. The artwork conveys the prison the Japanese citizens were placed in during the war while also showing life within the fences and the sparks of love between the two adults. It is a fantastic introduction to this part of American history that needs to be learned so that it is never repeated.
I am glad the author stood her ground and protected her product. Scholastic’s concern was with wording in the author’s note. Those challenging the book have cited the same wording. Removing access to a book is banning. Asking for changes to an author’s chosen words is censorship. Readers have every right to choose not to read a book, or to make that choice for their family. They do not have the right to tell me, or my children if I had them, that they cannot read the book.
Those who are concerned about the author’s note, please tell me, honestly, when was the last time your four- or five-year-old read an author’s note in a book? Or asked you to read it to them? I did not read author’s notes until high school. Prior to that time, the “extra part at the end” seemed unimportant to me. It was only with maturity that I learned that those notes contained valuable insight into the author’s mindset, historical context, and/or separating the fiction from the fact.
So, if you skip the author’s note here, what your young reader will get is the story of two adults who fell in love while at a library in an internment camp during World War II. Yes, there is mention of the internment camps being prisons and life being difficult. But the focus is on the love story, the author’s maternal grandparents meeting & falling in love during a dark period of US history. The wording is gracious and fully expresses the love & pride the author feels for her grandparents. The artwork conveys the prison the Japanese citizens were placed in during the war while also showing life within the fences and the sparks of love between the two adults. It is a fantastic introduction to this part of American history that needs to be learned so that it is never repeated.