Is Anne Frank's Diary being banned?

Well, yes - and no.

There is a story that those mean old straight-laced baddies in TX were banning the diary of Anne Frank. Even Snopes had to agree that the story was FALSE.

The ‘book’ that is being removed from some school library shelves is a Graphic Novel - graphic in both senses of the word. The shelves are mostly Elementary libraries, where the librarians are expected to exercise some discretion about books containing graphic sexual or violent content. Families often moderate what their children read, and, given their greater responsibility for that purpose, should have weight given to their preferences.

Those parents that favor exposing their own children to that content are welcome to buy or borrow the book from a public library, and introduce their Little Dumpling to that content - at home.

However, that book - and a LOT of others written before 2008 - ARE being pulled from the shelves of libraries. The full story is here.

There are newer versions of the Diary; they have returned material that was omitted from the original book. That material was, in the opinion of Anne Frank’s father, too explicit sexually to be in that book.

Otto Frank was astute; he realized that to give the book the widest audience, including teens of the same age as his Anne, he would need to soft-pedal references to homosexuality, graphic descriptions of bodies, and similar content. That’s consistent with other materials for children. We don’t insist upon gore or coarse words or very detailed descriptions of sex for reading by young people (particularly in schools or libraries). Parents may CHOOSE to have their children read those materials. But, they cannot insist on the public paying for access to materials that many parents would not want their children exposed to.

The book that many in the pro-early sex introduction corner would like to substitute is the graphic version of Anne Frank’s diary.

A VERY graphic version - I include the link here. None of the questionable passages are shown, which might lead parents to believe that concerns are unfounded.

BTW, if you DON’T exercise some control over the content that is coming into your home under the guise of “The News”, you might want to consider doing so for those children younger than middle school. There is a huge difference between hearing about a war, atrocity, or disaster, and seeing graphic pictures and video of those events. Perhaps let them listen to the news on podcasts?