{"id":44864,"date":"2025-11-03T11:43:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=44864"},"modified":"2025-11-03T11:43:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:43:29","slug":"authors-visiting-bay-area-to-promote-kids-book-about-banned-books-told-not-to-discuss-banned-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/11\/03\/authors-visiting-bay-area-to-promote-kids-book-about-banned-books-told-not-to-discuss-banned-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Authors Visiting Bay Area to Promote Kids\u2019 Book About Banned Books Told Not to Discuss Banned Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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2 November 2025\/Arts & Entertainment<\/a>\/Leanne Maxwell<\/a> (SFist.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an ironic twist indicative of our times, authors Joanna Ho and Caroline Kusin-Pritchard were about to go on stage to discuss their new kids\u2019 book The Day the Books Disappeared<\/a> <\/em>at a San Ramon elementary school when they were told not to mention banned or queer books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As KRON4 reports<\/a>, the authors say their visit to Country Club Elementary School in the East Bay city of San Ramon on October 17 was cut short when they were told at the last minute by school officials that they couldn\u2019t talk about certain themes in their presentation, <\/em>which addressed scenarios surrounding the banning of books, including \u201cuncomfortable historical truths, race or racism, and diverse family structures.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the site Book Riot explains<\/a>, the authors frame the concept of book-banning in an age-appropriate manner in the book using individual preferences as an example. The main character uses his newfound ability at making books disappear to get rid of books on topics he doesn\u2019t find interesting, and before he knows it, even the books he likes start disappearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Per Book Riot, the authors\u2019 presentation consisted of 45 slides that mainly featured pages from the book along with a few informational graphics about books that have been banned nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the authors refused to censor their presentation, they were asked to leave. \u200b\u200b\u201cOur book was literally written because of book banning; we could not leave that out of our presentation,\u201d Ho told KRON4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school district released a statement saying the students who were attending the program \u2014 ages four to nine \u2014 were too young to understand the concept of book-banning. Per KRON4, the district claims that they contacted the authors\u2019 management with the request in advance, which the authors dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were not asked to adjust for younger audiences despite what the district statement says. They told us not to talk about book bans or mention queer books. We did not choose to leave, we were told to leave when we wouldn\u2019t agree not to talk about book bans or mention gay books,\u201d said Ho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCaroline was like this is completely out of our integrity like, we won\u2019t be changing our presentation if we\u2019re giving the presentation,\u201d Ho added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book Riot notes that there\u2019s an active chapter of Moms For Liberty<\/a> in Contra Costa County where San Ramon is located, which puts political pressure on public schools and libraries to censor topics on race, sexuality, and gender. The outlet also writes that in 2023, a high school in San Ramon received backlash for including in its library the book Gender Queer<\/em><\/a> <\/em>and other LGBTQ+ themed books, along with various books by and about Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, which SFist covered<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBook banning is real, it\u2019s happening everywhere, it\u2019s happening in California,\u201d Kusin-Pritchard told KRON4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image: <\/em>\u2018The Day the Books Disappeared<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Related:<\/strong> San Ramon Parents Want To Jump On The Public School Book-Banning Bandwagon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 November 2025\/Arts & Entertainment\/Leanne Maxwell (SFist.com) In an ironic twist indicative of our times, authors Joanna Ho and Caroline Kusin-Pritchard were about to go on stage to discuss their new kids\u2019 book The Day the Books Disappeared at a San Ramon elementary school when they were told not to mention banned… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44864"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44866,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44864\/revisions\/44866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}