Acclaimed graphic novelist and Central Arkansas native Nate Powell got smacked early by the recent book banning wave. In 2014, a school librarian passed on buying his National Book Award winner “March” out of fear that parents would complain.
That Indiana middle school librarian’s reticence over a book about the universally beloved John Lewis clued Powell in to what’s become a raging national debate over what materials students should have access to in schools.
Powell chronicles some of his adventures in fighting for truth on The Nib today, with a short comic called “Shelf It.”
A progressive dad of two who explores in pictures and prose the challenges of raising junior resisters, Powell holds his nose at the strong whiff of fascism he sees in the current book banning fad.
He announced his new work on his website today: “My new comic is up at The Nib: some early warning signs of this wave of book bans and intimidation while making March back in 2014, with comics as an easy target to remove truthful historical accounts from the classroom.
The drumbeat to ban books has only grown louder since those rumblings in 2014. In Arkansas, a number of new groups are attacking public libraries and pressuring schools to scrub their shelves of content on sexual development, LGBTQ issues, racism and gender identity.