As if book bans weren’t enough, conservatives have now advanced to banning and censoring book awards at the local and state levels.
This is not the first time that conservative book-banning efforts have extended to anything remotely related to books. While it is bad enough that many of these conservative parents and politicians are already removing books from school libraries, Moms for Liberty decided to take it a step further last year and began advocating to ban book fairs from schools, too. Conservative groups essentially decided that children should be denied the right to so much as browse a collection of books or purchase a book with their own money or parents’ approval.
Now, conservatives have decided that children also shouldn’t be allowed the option to participate in local or state-level book awards.
Conservatives set their sights on book awards
Most are familiar with the major book awards, such as the Michael L. Printz, Pulitzer Prize, or Nebula Award. However, there are countless smaller book awards across the country within individual states or school districts. Some of the most unique competitions are those that are children’s choice awards.
Book awards like the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award in Illinois or The Nebraska Golden Sower Children’s Choice Award allow young readers to choose the winners. Not only does it encourage children to read, but it is also an important insight into what children really want from books. A major problem plaguing Young Adult literature is that adult readers are more vocal than young readers, meaning many books are being tailored to adults rather than children. The Caudill Award and Sower Award are very important in giving a voice to those whom the books are actually intended for.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the book banners got wind of these awards ceremonies. Recently, the Caudill Awards were canceled in one Illinois district due to conservatives being offended by the nominees. The ceremony has been held in Illinois school districts for 36 years, but this year, students in the Millburn district were blocked from participating. Every year, the Caudill Awards committee puts together a “master list” of 20 children’s books based on their literary merit and then allows participating fourth through eighth graders to vote on one of these books to be the winner.
However, at a recent school board meeting for Millburn, school board member John Ruggles began questioning whether the master list was “left leaning.” He revealed that of all 20 books on the list, he had only read Stamped: (For Kids) Racism, Antiracism, and You and was offended by it. He then suggested that books should only be celebrated if they’re “neutral.” At the next meeting, numerous teachers, community members, and students attended and gave comments in support of keeping the awards program while illustrating its positive impact on young readers. Not one person spoke out against the program at that meeting. Still, a vote was made to determine if the Caudill Awards should be held, and the board voted to discontinue it. The excuse was that there was “no proof the list wasn’t political.”
One resident has already started a petition calling for the reinstallment of the ceremony at the school district, which has gained 1,254 signatures. It remains to be seen if the petition will be heeded, but it is outrageous for four board members to deny an entire school district participation in an annual awards ceremony simply because they perceived a single book on the list as “left leaning.” Since conservatives consider any book that features a BIPOC or LGBTQ+ character or acknowledges history and racism “left leaning,” it’s hard to imagine that the annual master list will ever gain their approval.
The incident is similar to the 2022–2023 Golden Sower Awards when offended conservatives successfully censored the list of nominees. For this awards ceremony, a committee of librarians and educators work together to compile a list of nominees for children to vote on. The majority of the committee enthusiastically chose The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead for consideration for the award. However, a single committee member objected because of its LGBTQ+ representation. When the rest of the committee disagreed with her, she instantly went to the book-banning Facebook group “Protect Nebraska Children” to raise hysteria over the nominee. When the nominee list was released later, committee members were shocked to see Stead’s book had been quietly and inexplicably removed and replaced with a different book.
It is anticipated that instances like these will continue occurring as book banning gains momentum. It should be noted that children were not required to participate in these programs or read every title on the nominee lists. The children had free will to participate and read several titles of their choosing. Meanwhile, to claim that the ceremonies are biased or “left leaning” because one person disagreed with one book on a list of 10 – 20 other titles is absurd. Also, since when do fictional books have to be “neutral” to be considered for awards? The best books are those that explore important themes, broach new concepts, and provide critical commentary. A book’s purpose is not to be whitewashed, censored, and devoid of any meaning or depth whatsoever.
As conservatives attack book awards at the statewide and local levels, it raises concerns their efforts may soon expand to major book awards. The recent Hugo Awards censorship scandal demonstrated that it is absolutely possible for bias and quiet censorship to sneak into national awards. Imagine if a major ceremony is held in a right-wing state or features a far-right committee member. How many books would quietly disappear from the nominee lists? For book banners to declare that books cannot be recognized or celebrated for excellence and literary merit unless they meet the right-wing agenda is deeply concerning for the future of book award ceremonies.
(featured image: Sukma Rizqi / Getty)
