Happy Banned Book Week

Happy Banned Books Week, I got you a rant. Yesterday I was at a book event and a person got up, walked over to one of the authors, took their mic and then spoke for several minutes without stopping. The gist of what he said was, he wanted more kids books for Filipino kids. Now this is a delightful wish. And not about banning. But the energy of taking the mic from the person speaking and then declaring there are no kids books for Filipino kids and that these five on the panel should personally fix this is the same kind of energy we get from book banners. Yes, I'm being a little mean about someone who wanted to help kids. But here's the thing. There are kids books for Filipino kids. This panel (which was not about kids books, to be clear) had two authors who have also written YA. This person could have asked the panel if they knew any kids books, and maybe learned about Newberry Award Winner Erin Entrada Kelly. A librarian (did I mention we were in a library) could have told home about…