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Jewish Kids Author De-Shelved in Utah

Patricia Polacco Draws Us a Map

by
Dan Klein
May 31, 2012
"A blood-curdling horror ride into the heart of the American dream" -Anchorage Book Review(Patricia Polacco)
"A blood-curdling horror ride into the heart of the American dream" -Anchorage Book Review(Patricia Polacco)

When did Jewish authors stop being the cool kids that your mom didn’t want you hanging out with? Between the 1990s and 2010 Jews went from dominating the list of banned/challenged books to barely scrambling by with a single entry on the charts. Now, it wasn’t that I like books being banned, but I did like the idea of Jews pushing those cultural buttons.

Thank goodness for Patricia Polacco, the author of books like Tikvah Means Hope and Mrs. Katz and Tush whose blood-soaked 2009 book In Our Mothers’ House has been “placed behind the counter” at a Utah library for depicting children being raised by ladies. (Side fact that I love: the dissenting vote against de-shelving the book was the librarian.)

This, as you might imagine, isn’t the first time a Polacco book has been placed into solitary—given the state of most kids books these days, probably for their own protection—but I hope Jewish authors will look to Polacco for the can-do spirit that they need to get back their place on the black lists.