Children’s Books in the News

Posted by Valerie on February 17, 2009

Imagine watching this video with the words “HAZARDOUS MATERIAL” stamped on every one of those beautiful children’s books.

I recently heard it said that as long as new books are still made, we don’t need old ones.

When I called Senator Herb Kohl’s office, I was told that CPSIA isn’t content supervision: “It’s just based on date, so it’s not censorship.”

Content that can’t pass a temporal barrier won’t be reached. Maybe the purpose is different, but the effect is the same, and it’s our children’s loss, our grandchildren’s loss. Thrift stores and libraries cannot afford to warehouse books in the small hope that a year will bring with it more wisdom and greater appreciation for our literary past. Books that can’t be sold today are being lost forever as particular copies. For each loss, what’s gone is gone.

I’m seeing hard-working heroes pressing for the preservation of our literary heritage against a tide of disinterest. See “The New Book Banning” by Walter Olson, City Journal. (As long as the lips of the major news outlets are sealed, it’s up to us to make the news that parents and teachers need to hear. A link to City Journal and another link to Overlawyered.com can help.)

Not until 1985 did it become unlawful to use lead pigments in the inks, dyes, and paints used in children’s books. Before then—and perhaps particularly in the great age of children’s-book illustration that lasted through the early twentieth century—the use of such pigments was not uncommon, and testing can still detect lead residues in books today.
. . . . .
Jacobsen also worries that any temporary forbearance on the part of the CPSC, which has said that it does not plan a reseller crackdown any time soon in the absence of evidence of risk, could be abrogated without notice in the future.
. . . . .
Whatever the future of new media may hold, ours will be a poorer world if we begin to lose (or “sequester” from children) the millions of books published before our own era. They serve as a path into history, literature, and imagination for kids everywhere. They link the generations by enabling parents to pass on the stories and discoveries in which they delighted as children. Their illustrations open up worlds far removed from what kids are likely to see on the video or TV screen. Could we really be on the verge of losing all of this? And if this is what government protection of our kids means, shouldn’t we be thinking instead about protecting our kids from the government?

Also check out–

• Rush Limbaugh’s Radio Show on Tuesday, February 17th. He’s promised to address CPSIA today.
• Headmistress at the Common Room shows pictures of what we are losing, forever.
• Nora O’Neill at The Bookshop Blog shows pictures of the devastation at her store and offers a free printable bookstore sign for labeling empty shelves.
• Dewey’s Treehouse, Love2Learn and Distinctly Different show more heart-wrenching pictures.

If you have even once looked up from a very old book into the eyes of a captivated child, you know what CPSIA means. Let this liberty go–and which one will you be willing to defend?

“TV.  If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they’ll have with twenty-six.  Open your child’s imagination.  Open a book. ”–Author Unknown