Watson’s Chickens is a story about a loving couple who have a huge chicken problem. Tsurumi: “Racism, homophobia, transphobia-all kinds of structural oppression-are trying to redefine who can openly be a human being, and who has to hide. The folks who are doing the projecting need to do soul searching in terms of where there’s a problem, because it’s not in the books.” When they project onto something that’s meant for very little children, panic ensues. Children view things in terms of story and character and plot and whether it’s any good or any fun adults do a lot of projecting. Though there are excellent titles with LGBTQ content in the picture book world, the number is woefully few. Nelson.ĭapier: “I dream of living in a world where I’m not asked about why I created a loving same-sex couple because it’s so normalized in literature. Watson’s Chickens (Chronicle, ages 3–5), a lively readaloud starring Mr. Jarrett Dapier and Andrea Tsurumi are, respectively, the author and illustrator of the 2021 picture book Mr.
PW spoke with Johnson, Dapier, and other authors and illustrators about their challenged titles, the importance of writing books with LGBTQ themes, and how they and others in the publishing ecosystem can best serve readers. The presentation was rescheduled, the author says, after the school agreed to his terms: he insisted that the principal not send the opt-out letter, and that “teachers would not change their approach to the book or point out the characters’ relationship in anything but a positive, normal light, if they did at all.” The principal then suggested offering parents the choice to opt out of the event, which Dapier found unacceptable. Watson’s Chickens cancelled when the school librarian told the principal that the story features a gay couple.
“It only makes me want to create more stories in the world-find newer, cooler mediums to tell my stories.”Īnother author, Jarrett Dapier, had a virtual presentation of his picture book Mr. “It’s never easy to wake up to Google alerts mischaracterizing your work as something that it isn’t or seeing it used as a pawn for political partisanship,” Johnson says. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue, a YA essay collection revolving around themes of identity and family, was, according to the ALA, the third most challenged book of 2021 it was cited for LGBTQ content, profanity, and because it was considered sexually explicit. Caught in the middle are the people who create the books. The recent spate of challenges to books with LGBTQ content has been met with equally vocal resistance from booksellers, librarians, parents, and other advocates.