An Alberta government order banning some books from school libraries doesn’t appear to be deterring people from reading them, say managers at several bookstores.
Kelly Dyer with Audreys Books in Edmonton said the store has noticed a jump in sales since July, when the province announced the ban on books with explicit sexual content.
“We’ve definitely seen a spike,” said Dyer. “Even book (sales) on book banning have spiked.”
Popular purchases, she said, include the four coming-of-age graphic novels that the government cited as cause for its order, as well as Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” — a title listed by Edmonton’s public school board as one to remove from its shelves.
“Many people respect Margaret Atwood and her writing and that sort of thing, and I think it’s just the pure curiosity as to why this book would end up on a list like this,” said Dyer.
Alberta’s education minister has said the order was needed so youth aren’t exposed to inappropriate sexual content in schools, and school boards were ordered to have them removed from libraries by Oct. 1.
Ahead of students returning to classes this week, Edmonton Public Schools said it planned to pull more than 200 titles meeting the government’s criteria, including “The Handmaid’s Tale” and other classics such as George Orwell’s “Nineteen-Eighty-Four” and Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
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The list sparked outcry from many, including Atwood, who wrote on social media that people should buy copies of “The Handmaid’s Tale” before “they have public book burnings of it.”
Premier Danielle Smith, who accused the school division of “vicious compliance,” announced Tuesday the order was being rewritten to restrict only books with sexually explicit images — not literary classics. The initial order has been paused.
Julie King-Yerex, co-owner of Magpie Books in Edmonton, said people have come into the shop “asking for our vicious compliance section.”
She lauded Edmonton Public Schools for the way it handled the government order, saying the list prompted the province to thoroughly read its restrictions while leading people to seek out the books.
“Censorship of any kind is a step towards fascism,” she said. “The vast majority of people who I’ve interacted with, at least, are very opposed to any sort of a book ban, and it makes people want to read what they’re being told they’re not allowed to.”
Laurel Dziuba, manager of Pages On Kensington in Calgary, said her store has noticed an increase in sales whenever there’s a discussion about banning books.
“Even when stuff happens in the U.S., we have people order the books.”
Dziuba said the province’s initial order was “profoundly confusing” and likely aimed at distracting Albertans from other issues.
She also said children who come to her store looking for books geared towards adults are given a heads-up on what to expect.
“I don’t think there’s any argument to be made for pro-censorship,” she said. “It, in practice, is actively doing the opposite, because it’s encouraging. People want to go buy these books to know what’s in them.”
She said if parents are worried about what their children are reading, they should read with them or seek advice from a bookseller.
Dyer said there’s “a degree of common sense” around books.
“Had these books been in an elementary (school), that’s not an appropriate age yet for those books,” said Dyer, who has a 15-year-old daughter.
“Schools need librarians to be able to monitor those sorts of things, so that the age-appropriate stuff is there. But in terms of censorship and book banning, no, it’s not a good thing.”
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