Utah author’s children’s book about a kitten is being pulled from school libraries over claims it is ‘sexually suggestive’

Utah author Shannon Hales’ inspiration for her children’s book “Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn” was her children.

To illustrate her point, she projected several photographs of one of her kids dressed in a variety of costumes on a wall during a recent presentation at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library.

“Look how sweet she is,” said Hale, beaming with pride.

“What I’ve learned from being a parent is the same kid has a lot of different ways of being, a lot of different identities that they try on. Their favorite animal changes every week. Their favorite color changes every week. They can be complex and interesting,” said Hale, speaking during an event in observance of Banned Books Week.

“What this book is trying to say to those kids is ‘I see you’re changing all the time and that’s OK. I see where you are now and I love it. I love where you are.’ When we give kids that kind of love and acceptance then they have a space to grow into,” said Hale, a New York Times best-selling author and a Newbery Honor winner.

Earlier this year, a member of the Katy Independent School District board of education in Texas flagged the book as containing “sexually suggestive” material, deeming it out of compliance with Texas law HB900. The law prohibits possession, acquisition and purchase of books rated sexually explicit material by schools and permits their exclusion.

As questions about what is appropriate for students are raised around the country, lawmakers in Utah have passed legislation they say is intended to establish age-appropriate limitations for materials in school libraries.

The challenge against ‘Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn’

The children’s book, which Hale read to the audience at the U., is for children ages 3-5, according to Amazon.com. The website describes the book, published in 2021, as “a delightful kitty and unicorn story that celebrates the magic of friendship ― and being exactly who you want to be!”

“I’m not sure where the ‘suggestive’ part came in. I’ve never been able to get anybody to tell me what that was in reference to,” said Hale.

“Another thing they objected to was using ‘they’ as a singular pronoun, which is also not in the book. ‘They’ was only ever used for multiple characters, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it wasn’t there. So this was a misreading, somebody who has misread this book,” she said.

The school district responded to the school board member’s concerns by halting students’ access to all new library books for the 2023-24 school year until the district could develop a policy to implement the legislation.

Hale, who writes children’s books, graphic novels and some books for adults, said none of her books are on banned books lists but she has learned that some of her books have been quietly removed from circulation in school libraries.

“If that’s happening to me, I know that’s happening to a lot of other writers as well. What’s actually happening is much larger than the list that we’re actually seeing,” she said.

Hale said she believes the energy behind efforts to remove books from circulation in school libraries is fear based.

“I’ve been told the problem with it (‘Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn’) is it encourages children to be who they are,” said Hale, mother of four children.

“If you tell your child to be who they are, and you can’t control what they’re going to become, and that’s really scary,” she said.

The response to fear is control, Hale said, “and that’s what we’re seeing.”

Hale challenged the audience to consider how to “inject compassion into that fear because fear cannot exist when there’s compassion involved. As soon as we inject compassion into fear, the shell dissolves and what’s left is curiosity. When we’re curious about things, then we really make solutions, then we can really see what the problems are and we can problem solve.”

Hale said she wants to be “so compassionate with the parents who flagged this book, and the school board that stopped all of the buying because they are afraid, and that doesn’t feel good, and they need compassion, too.”

Managing sensitive materials in Utah school libraries

Nationally, book challenges and removals have increased nationwide over the past two years, which The New York Times reports came about with the rise of parents’ rights groups formed to challenge COVID-19 restrictions in schools during the pandemic now pivoting to examining school library collections and waging challenges.

One such group is Utah Parents United, which did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, sponsor of Utah’s sensitive materials legislation, HB374, said his intent was to establish age-appropriate limitations for materials in school libraries.

To the idea of a public school system with no limits on materials accessible to students grades K-12, Ivory said, “Well, any adult should reject such irresponsible notions out of hand.”

It’s not book banning, he said, but HB374 established a standard in state law for sensitive materials, which resulted in schools establishing processes to review and remove library materials that run afoul of state law.

Ivory said there continue to be issues with some school districts’ implementation of HB374 and he anticipates filing legislation in the Utah Legislature’s 2024 General Session to further clarify HB374.

Passed by Utah lawmakers in 2022, the law defines “sensitive material” as instructional materials that are pornographic or indecent, colloquially referred to as the “bright line rule” in state code. 

“We still have a number of schools that haven’t figured out how to administer the ‘bright line rule’ and yet they are the first ones to complain about the mental and behavioral health issues when it was the State Board of Education that made that direct connection” of the importance of protecting students from the harmful effects of pornography, Ivory said.

While the development of book challenge policies and book challenges themselves were the stuff of highly contentious school board meetings in Utah, that appears to have waned.

This past week, the Davis School District Board of Education ratified the recommendations of its board-level sensitive materials appeal committee to remove two books from school libraries.

Review committees had recommended retaining “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” and to retain in high school libraries only “The Poet X.” The board action overturned the initial review committees’ recommendations.

The New York Times best selling, award-winning “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo is about a young girl in Harlem who discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. 

“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” is about a social loner teenager in Pittsburgh, who navigates high school by becoming everyone’s acquaintance but not in a particular clique. His only real friend since childhood is Earl Jackson. When Greg’s mother tells him that his childhood friend, Rachel Kushner, has been diagnosed with leukemia, she urges him to rekindle their friendship and to help Rachel feel better, which alters the course of Greg’s life.

No one addressed the Davis School Board regarding either book and the ratification of the appeals committee’s recommendations were part of the board’s consent agenda, which was approved with no discussion.