As a kid, I loved going to the public library every week and I was lucky enough to have stacks of books in my bedroom to enjoy at all hours of the day. I spent countless hours at our neighborhood library with my own kids, both of whom were voracious readers from an early age.
For the past three years, I've been culling children's books from the dozens of Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood and using these to restock the Little Free Library in front of a nearby transitional housing facility for families. It's a task that kept me from being bored to tears walking the same streets over and over during that first year of the pandemic plus it gave me some satisfaction that the children stuck between their old living situations and the promise of something permanent could experience the joy of books on a regular basis.
Over the months of foraging and restocking, I've learned a few things about what moves and what doesn't at the Little Free. Picture books and board books fly out of the box, including titles from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, and anything with super heroes or characters from Disney's Frozen. For slightly older readers, Captain Underpants is always a hit as are the Magic Tree House and Geronimo Stilton series. Books with dated cover art can sit for weeks although Good Night Moon always disappears in a snap even though nothing has changed since it was published in 1947. Since most of the kids staying at the facility are Black or Latino, I am always on the lookout for titles featuring children of color and these go quickly as well.
Mrs. Gingrich's book series were New York Times best sellers so I figured I should take a look inside before passing judgment.
Judgment passed. These engagingly designed books are nothing but right wing whitewashing of America's past. Every Native American is a happy one; the westward expansion is all progress without consequence. Andrew Jackson is a hero. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves but otherwise Black people get no mention (except for one image of Barack Obama among recent presidents and a mention of LBJ's role in enacting civil rights legislation). Christianity is revered as a unifying force in American life. And women feature only as First Ladies.
Admittedly, picture books are a tough format for nuance and hat's off to other children's authors who've combined love of country with calls for us to do more to advance the American ideals of democracy and justice As for the Gingrich books, I'm going to recycle them back from whence they came. Kids who are experiencing homelessness deserve reading material that gives them hope for the future, rather than a regressive window into the past.
