When book bans go bad

A mix-up by the Texas state board of education bans one of America's most beloved childrens' books
by: Richard Adams

Walk into just about any US bookstore or library and you'll find a copy of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See. It was first published in 1967, and illustrated by Eric Carle – who also gave us the equally famous The Very Hungry Caterpillar – and written by Bill Martin Jr.

As books go, Brown Bear couldn't be any more harmless – but that didn't stop the Texas state board of education from renoving it from a list of approved books for schools - because of a book entitled Ethical Marxism, written by an entirely different Bill Martin.The Fort Worth Star-Telegraph reports:

"In its haste to sort out the state's social studies curriculum standards this month, the State Board of Education tossed children's author Martin, who died in 2004, from a proposal for the third-grade section. Board member Pat Hardy, R-Weatherford, who made the motion, cited books he had written for adults that contain "very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system."

"Trouble is, the Bill Martin Jr who wrote the Brown Bear series never wrote anything political, unless you count a book that taught kids how to say the Pledge of Allegiance, his friends said. The book on Marxism was written by Bill Martin, a philosophy professor at DePaul University in Chicago."

Still safe for now are Goodnight Moon, although The Little Engine That Could has some clearly subversive messages. In the meantime, here's Bill Martin Jr – the non-Marxist one – giving a stirring rendition of Brown Bear, Brown Bear:

from: The Guardian