A badass librarian and a literary queen

My sister Kathy and I walked around Milwaukee Monday evening like a couple of A-list celebrities, high-fiving strangers, waving magnanimously to excited fans and accepting the shouted compliments of a passing, well-bearded Harley driver.

My sister, a badass librarian, earned all this adulation honestly. I just wore the T-shirt. But we both reveled in the enthusiasm of a diverse community heaping such earnest appreciation on what our T-shirts said. “America Needs More Librarians.”

We wore them because we believe in the power of written words and the necessity of fair access to them. We also wore them because we were on our way to see a literary queen, Jodi Picoult.

Picoult has written 29 novels and Kathy and I have read nearly all of them.

Her books are fiction, but Picoult researches her topics so well that I always learn something from them. I learned about gray wolves and family dynamics in Lone Wolf; the Amish community in Plain Truth , Midwifery (and racism) in Small Great Things, humpback whales and the way they (and humans) communicate in Songs of the Humpback Whale.

In her latest novel, By Any Other Name, I will get to learn about Emilia Bassano, the first female published poet in England. An actual historical figure with a fascinating and troubled life, Emilia is one of the main characters in Picoult’s most recent novels.

We caught Picoult on a book tour in support of that novel and she gave a fascinating talk about Bassano, her life and her likely job as a ghostwriter for William Shaespeare.

In recent years, Picoult has also become an outspoken advocate for free speech. Her excellent books have been banned from several high school libraries, including Menomonee Falls, where a library media specialist I know fought back. Kathy attended the school board meeting at which members voted to ban Picoult’s novel about a school shooting, Nineteen Minutes, among many other books.

Nineteen Minutes debuted at No, 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. It offers critical perspective on unintentional lapses that can lead to such profound tragedy. The night of the Menomonee Falls school board meeting, a fatal active shooter situation developed at Kennedy Middle School in Germantown, right down the street.

Kathy followed up her appearance at that meeting with a letter to the school board.

“I am sure that I’m not the first person to point out the irony of people arguing over the number of swear words in a book – or the appropriateness of Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes – while in the district next door, students and staff were hiding from a shooter on the roof of their school,” Kathy wrote.

“Many of the speakers Monday night were confused about the books being purchased with their tax dollars.  I served as District Library Media Department Manager for 13 years so I can speak to this issue.  I am sure you are aware that library materials are purchased with Common School Funds.  The Wisconsin Common School Fund was created in 1848 to support school libraries.  Each year it distributes funds to school libraries on a per-pupil basis.  We used those funds to purchase reading materials for all school libraries.  At no time was District money used to purchase books.”

Picoult mentioned Menomonee Falls in her book talk Monday night. She said she had tried eight times to speak directly with Menomonee Falls Superintendent David Muñoz and School Board President Nina Christensen but neither would return her calls.

“The number of people who want to ban books is very small, they just happen to be very loud” she said Monday night. “The more we speak out the more we stand a chance of ending this craziness.”

We really enjoyed our evening with Ms. Picoult and we’re looking forward to reading her book. I just hope everyone else who wants to read it gets a chance to as well.