Let’s say I had ranked all of the comics I’ve ever read based on the idea of “most likely to be banned from a school” to “least likely to be banned from a school”, Jeff Smith’s Bone would be at the bottom of the list or near the bottom (Preacher would probably be at the top, but it would never be in a school anyways). As Smith said himself, the book is about “courage, conviction, and loyalty”, and has been a sensation across the world amongst kids and school teachers.
To have heard that a mother in Apple Valley, Minnesota named Ramona DeLay was petitioning to get Bone banned from her local school district because the fact that “she took objection with the book’s portrayal of gambling, alcohol and tobacco use, and ‘sexual situations between characters.'”
Seriously.
If you’ve read Bone, you know that for the former three ideas, they are not used in a positive light nor are they glorified in any sort of way. The latter idea…that’s just absurd. The quest by this mother is at best misguided and at worst offensive and disheartening, but thankfully, there was proper resolution to the situation: the school district voted 10 to 1 yesterday to keep Bone in schools.
Anything else would have been appalling and drawn serious disdain from comic pundits worldwide.
Smith himself was very relieved by the verdict, and shared the letter he wrote to the school board in response to the allegations. All of what was contained in the letter could easily have been ascertained by anyone who actually read the book.
To Ramona DeLay, and any other evangelical book burner or censorship aficionado who may read this, please at least read the material you’re attempting to ban before going after it. I for one am excited about the opportunity to share the whole of Jeff Smith’s Bone with my theoretical kids some day. I’m sure if you gave it a shot, you’d agree with me as well.
