Move To Ban Graphic Novels In Missouri Library

The Blog At Newsarama has a brief article on the effort to remove two adult-themed graphic novels from the Marshall, MO public library. The two books in question are Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Craig Thompson's Blankets. We are not familiar with the later, but we are currently reading Bechdel's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which follows a family where the father is a closet homosexual, who is alleged to have committed sex acts with a teen boy, and then kills himself. We are about halfway through it and are amazed at how well done it is. Stories that involve themes of child sexual abuse (and the fallout on loved ones) should not be banned as they are sadly part of the human condition. We won't go on a harangue about the evils of censorship, but we will say that any responsible parent who cares so much about their child's media consumption, only need to read the jacket cover to realize that perhaps - just perhaps - that even though there are pictures, this is not the most appropriate book for a 9 year old. We're just saying ...