Elizabeth Reviews: George

So, that being said: Why, exactly, is George so regularly challenged? To better understand this, let’s first consider what a challenge consists of and who is presenting these challenges. According to the ALA and the Office of Intellectual Freedom, a challenge is “an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group” (source). If you look at the breakdown the ALA provides: most challenges come from parents, and are attempts to remove books from public libraries, schools, and school libraries. (See the infographic below for details.) The ALA also tracks the reasons given for challenging a book–what, exactly, those objections are that the person or group issuing the challenge gives as a justification for removing or restricting access to it. What reasons have been given for George? Let’s take a look (source):

• 2016: The year after its publication, George was #3 on the ALA Most Challenged Books list.
  • ​Reasons: challenged because it includes a transgender child, and the “sexuality was not appropriate at elementary levels”

• 2017: It came in #5 on the list, and “was challenged and banned because it includes a transgender child.”
• 2018: #1 Most Challenged Book
  • Reasons: banned, challenged, and relocated because it was believed to encourage children to clear browser history and change their bodies using hormones, and for mentioning “dirty magazines,” describing male anatomy, “creating confusion,” and including a transgender character
• 2019: George remains at the #1 Most Challenged spot
  • Reasons: challenged, banned, restricted, and hidden to avoid controversy; for LGBTQIA+ content and a transgender character; because schools and libraries should not “put books in a child’s hand that require discussion”; for sexual references; and for conflicting with a religious viewpoint and “traditional family structure”
• 2020: Still the #1 Most Challenged Book
  • Reasons: Challenged, banned, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting “the values of our community”​
    

As someone who has actually read the book, here is my takeaway of these reasons presented as justification for removing and limiting access to George: Each and every objection, at core, comes down to objecting to the very idea of any book–especially a children’s book–containing a transgender character at all. Each and every objection to George comes from a place of transphobia. There is no sexual content in George; there is very age-appropriate discussion of gender identity, but George is no more sexual than the book Melissa’s class reads and acts out within the book, Charlotte’s Web. Yes, there is some reference to “dirty magazines” and to male anatomy, but Gino is very careful with their words, and there is nothing about how either topic is addressed that wouldn’t be appropriate for a child to read.

What actually isn’t appropriate?

• Keeping a book from children because it contains a transgender (or any LGBTQIA+) character.
  • ​While we’re at it: Finding the very existence of a transgender child to be “sexual content” is an incredibly problematic and concerning response. The very existence of a child of any gender is not ever inherently sexual.
• Dictating that children only have access, whether in public libraries or in school, to books that match with whatever your particular religious viewpoint might be (and note, too, that there religion is not even a topic of discussion within George at all).
• Arguing that schools and libraries should not “put books in a child’s hand that require discussion.” What is school for, if not presenting children with information that requires discussion, and then also actually discussing it with them? That’s a fundamental aspect of education. Furthermore, it’s a fundamental part of being a child: anything and everything could “require discussion” for a child.