Parents call cops on teen for giving away banned book; it backfires predictably

So, this happened: Someone called the cops on a teenager for giving away free books.

At—wait for it—a book giveaway event.

Illustration by Ellen Forney; photo by Aja Romano

Just last week, we wrote about the difficulties Sherman Alexie's acclaimed Young Adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, had faced during its four-year run as one of the most banned books in the U.S.

Two weeks ago, parents in the Idaho school district of Meridian successfully campaigned to remove Alexie's novel from its 10th grade reading curriculum and additional reading lists. A National Book Award winner, The Absolutely True Diary is a searing coming-of-age story about a Native American teenager who decides to attend an all-white high school outside of his reservation. It's a powerful narrative about modern race relations in the U.S. But the Meridian school board sided with parents who objected to its alleged sexual and anti-Christian content, along with, as noted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, other stuff:

[A]n adult named Lonnie Stiles complained that the Alexie novel contains language “we do not speak in our home.”

Apparently the adults who objected to the book weren't thinking about the teens living on Idaho's five Native American reservations. But the district's local teens fought back, organizing a petition to have the book reinstated. In response, Sara Baker and Jennifer Lott of Washington crowdfunded a $3,400 campaign to buy copies of the book for each of the 350 students who signed the petition.

In News by Alex Moore

Parents in Idaho called the cops last week on junior-high student Brady Kissel when she had the nerve to help distribute a book they’d succeeded in banning from the school curriculum.

The book in question was Sherman Alexie’s young adult novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.” Published in 2007, it won the National Book Award and has become popular with young teens, supposedly for its universal themes of fitting in, making sense of race, and sexual discovery.

The sex part (and let’s face it—probably the race part) led parents to lobby Junior Mountain High School to remove it from the syllabus, citing its sexual content (it discusses masturbation) and supposedly anti-Christian content.

Local teens then started a petition to have the book reinstated. They collected 350 signatures, which is an impressive number of kids to rally around a cause like reading.

In response, a local bookstore Rediscovered Books started a crowdfunding campaign to buy a book for each of the 350 kids who signed the petition. It worked—the campaign raised $3,400, enough for a book per kid.

Rediscovered Books worked with a student involved in the petition, Brady Kissel, to distribute the books on World Book Night, an initiative to turn reluctant young readers onto reading with free, super-readable books.

They distributed all but 20 books to kids who came in to claim them, but not before parents called the cops to shut down the operation. Police told local news channel KBOI they had been called by “someone concerned about teenagers picking up a copy of the book without having a parent’s permission.”

Even police seemed to have no idea what they were doing there, and let the book giveaway proceed as planned.

Not only did it go as planned, but when Alexie’s publisher Hachette got word of the incident, they sent Rediscovered an additional 350 copies on the house. So while the book may still be banned in the school curriculum, it’s available free of cost for any kid who wants to stop into Rediscovered and pick one up.

H/t: Daily Dot | Image: Instagram