Libraries Should Use Book Looks Reviews to Guide Parents and Educators on Book Content

Library boards should use BookLooks.org to provide diversity in book ratings for parents and educators to consider for their children and students.  Unlike the other rating services, Book Looks zeroes in on the potential for inappropriate materials, providing both written and visual evidence.  Book Looks has been so successful in informing parents about book contents that American Library Association [ALA] copied the exact format when it created its own Book Résumés, although that site leaves out excepts and pictures and includes instead glowing reviews from ALA-approved book reviewers and a list of the various awards a book has attained, mainly from ALA itself.

Before ALA copied Book Looks there was a smear campaign against it.  Kelly Jensen of Book Riot, for example, attempting to tie Book Looks to Moms for Liberty, as if that were bad, by stating without evidence, "It is a tool developed by Moms For Liberty being used to push their agendas even further under the guise of protecting children."  Her support for this is only this conclusory statement, "Filed for an LLC in Florida on April 5, 2022, BookLooks is spearheaded by Moms For Liberty member Emily Maikisch, per filings."  What is not reported is that the creator of Books Looks was a former Moms for Liberty member.  There are over 130,000 Moms for Liberty members, compared with almost 50,000 ALA members.  Are we supposed to hold grudges against them and all former members too?  Kelly Jensen, who falsely claims Book Looks was "created, curated, and promoted by Moms For Liberty," also calls parents extremists, Christofascists, and white supremacists, so she's not trustworthy in the slightest.  She also smears the ratings efforts of other parental groups.

Others pick up on that theme and malign Book Looks accordingly.  A man in New Jersey named Guy Citron, for example, wrote a letter to the editor of a local media source saying, "'BookLooks' is for Book Haters."  "Florida-based BookLooks is also publicly tied to the state's local Moms for Liberty, a hyper-political book-banning movement."  No it's not.  He got that from Kelly Jensen who made it up out of thin air.  And there is no "book-banning movement," except that by ALA as mentioned below.  Guy Citron is just being intentionally inflammatory.  He supports his position by saying, "Next, there is no need for the Warren County Library to diminish its credibility by promoting such an unreliable source," and "Clearly, BookLooks and Commissioner Thomas have an agenda.  They want to spread hate about books and restrict their access, rather than understand and communicate their value objectively."

Contrast the smearing and the cries of spreading hate with no reliable sources being given with what I myself wrote to the Warren County Library Commission where I pointed out ALA has been working for decades to take rights away from parents and specifically has targeted ratings systems for censorship and blacklisting, and here they are again sending NJ school librarian Martha Hickson to enforce the Chicago Way and block the use of Book Looks:

Dear Warren County Library Commission,

I have learned from former school librarian Martha Hickson, indirectly, that you are considering using information from BookLooks.org for being an additional source to guide parents on book selection for their children.  I have learned she opposes using that source and claims it is an extremist position to use BookLooks, and anyone supporting that in the Warren County Library Commission is an extremist.

Setting aside that the recent national election proved the people calling parents extremists comprise only 14% of the population, I wish to speak in support of using BookLooks as an additional source for information, and to show that American Library Association from Chicago, IL, that Martha Hickson represents as an employee of ALA, has worked for about six decades to take away rights from parents, and specifically has worked repeatedly to keep parents in the dark about the contents of potentially inappropriate material.  This matter may be new to you, but it’s a long term suppression effort from the ALA.  I hope my information makes you aware of that and helps you vote accordingly—in favor of BookLooks.

BookLooks provides parents and others with accurate information about books and their content. Said information includes multiple exact quotes and multiple graphics. The resource is used extensively by parents, to my knowledge.  It is not connected with any political group, although it was founded by a former member of Moms for Liberty after she left Moms for Liberty.  It is smeared repeatedly by librarians precisely because it gives guidance on the contents of books, and librarians claim you can’t judge books by mere excerpts and pictures.  One particular librarian, Kelly Jensen, has worked for about four years to fabricate lies about BookLooks; she recently wrote that parents who challenge books are white supremacists.  Eventually, American Library Association, having tired of parents getting information from BookLooks, decided if you can’t beat them then you join them.  So ALA created its own book rating source for parents called Book Résumés.  The ALA source gives no excerpts and no pictures but it does give glowing reviews from approved reviewing sources, even its own Book List, and the various awards books have obtained, mainly from ALA sources.  So BookLooks is so effective that ALA was forced to copy it.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

So BookLooks is an excellent source for information, so much so ALA copied it.

ALA has worked for about 60 years to take away rights from parents and ensure via the Library Bill of Rights that children get and retain access to inappropriate material: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PZ2pDhKhRAtlNgR7gek_1kcdGFoskHpa/view?usp=sharing

Specifically as to book ratings, when ALA learned it had a subgroup using Common Sense Media to guide parents, where CSM was providing reviews of explicitness of the books, ALA censored CSM from its own web site, then ordered library school and state library associations to stop linking to CSM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8sytqvlo3asbint/YALSA-IFreportAug2013.pdf?dl=0

Analogous to books and how they are rated for explicitness, ALA ordered librarians to stop using MPAA movie ratings as authoritative: https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2011/06/keeping-r-rate-films-from-children-is.html

ALA ordered librarians to attempt to block the use of public meeting rooms for Kirk Cameron and his Brave Books, and generally the reading of Christian books in such rooms: https://www.kenningtonreport.com/p/alas-banned-books-and-censorship

ALA even ordered librarians to stop doing anything about patrons viewing child p r n: 

"A librarian is not a legal process. There is not librarian in the country — unless she or he is a lawyer — who is in the position to determine what he or she is looking at is indeed child p()rn()graphy."

"Libraries vs. Police in a Suit Sparked by P()rn; Kent Case Centers on People's Rights and Protections" by Jeffrey M. Barker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer (August 13, 2002).

Along comes Martha Hickson working for ALA to argue exactly what ALA has been arguing for decades, and enforcing deceptively, and she wants you not to use Book Looks.

So now is your chance to provide services for your community with diversity of opinion, or put on the Chicago ALA straight jacket and don’t trust parents to be evenly informed and to make up their own minds. 

We just had a national election showing 86% of the population opposes the people indoctrinating and s()xualizing children, now it's your turn to vote for a great resource for parents you serve or for the 14% indoctrinating and s()xualizing children, here represented by Chicago ALA’s Martha Hickson and her calling you extremists and idiots if you support diversity of opinion for your library patrons.

Thank you.

Dan Kleinman

SafeLibraries

So I provide cogent argument supporting diversity served by Book Looks, backed up with solid facts and reliable sources establishing a long term pattern of keeping parents in the dark, while those who oppose Book Looks have no reliable sources and instead use scare words like "book haters" and imply library leaders themselves would "lose credibility" if they chose to use Book Looks.

As ALA's point person in New Jersey Martha Hickson says via her @NHVfREADom account on X, smearing one of the library commissioners, "You know a public library is under attack when a library commissioner tries to force BookLooks into the system.  Support the professional staff at the Warren County Library https://www.tapinto.net/towns/phillipsburg/articles/booklooks-is-for-book-haters"  Source: https://x.com/NHVfREADom/status/1859297263576863077

That's projection.  It's the library commissioners and Book Looks under attack, by ALA and its acolytes if they dont bend to ALA's will, and ALA has been doing that nationwide for over half a century.  

It's time for libraries not to be bullied by community organizing efforts based in Chicago, IL, and instead use independent reviews like Book Looks to guide local parents and educators on book content.

Let's hope Warren County Library Commission votes to be inclusive and diverse and include book reviews by BookLooks.org.

NOTE ADDED 22 NOVEMBER 2024:

THE BELOW RESOLUTION HAS PASSED 3-2 IN WARREN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY @WarrenCountyNJ. @ALALibrary got a lot of people to show up but the board supported diversity and inclusion so BOOK LOOKS is staying. Congratulations #parents!#parenting #moms #dads pic.twitter.com/vTukzpVQ9q

— Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries® (@SexHarassed) November 21, 2024

—

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'No Go Zones' Censored; Banned Books Week Hoax Strikes Again

Banned Books Week is a hoax.  The latest example is the censorship—by public librarians—of yet another book the American Library Association will never list on its annual "banned books" list. I have proven in the past:

• ALA's annual "banned books" list is literally faked as admitted by an awarded author, and it thereby harms the LGBT community, and that 
• libraries ban even kids books by Rush Limbaugh, even during Banned Books Week.  I even proved 
• ALA plagiarized its book censorship map from a student who admitted it was poorly constructed just to play with mapping software, etc., 

but let's look at the current incident, another in a long string.

"No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You" is a book by Raheem Kassam, Editor at Breitbart London, published a few weeks ago on 14 August 2017.  It is the Amazon #1 Best Seller for Islamic Law.  It is on Publisher's Weekly's Top 25 Hardcover Nonfiction list.  Libraries are now beginning to stock it.

Not so fast.

Rebecca Eaton, Adult Services Librarian at Warren County Public Library District, Monmouth, IL, has chosen not only to censor the book, but also to brag about the censorship to tens of thousands of other ALA librarians on an open Facebook group.  And notice the mocking of her own community:

Ok, guys. Liberal librarian in a rural community here. My heart is really hurting today. I am in charge of acquisitions for our adult collection, and I saw this book on Publisher's Weekly's Top 25 Hardcover Nonfiction list. I know that I need to be aware of my bias and not censor information, but it honestly brings tears to my eyes to think that I should probably purchase this for our patrons. Has anyone else had to purchase a book for your library that makes you want to cringe or hide in a corner to cry? 

UPDATE: I decided against purchasing it, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that no one requests it. And if someone does request it, the answer is no; I cannot argue with them about whether or not the library should own it. I must honor my patron's request. But I will do so with an eye twitch as I awkwardly smile and comply. The eye twitch counts for something, right? 😅

SOURCE: Rebecca Eaton, ALA Think Tank, 5 September 2017,  https://www.facebook.com/groups/ALAthinkTANK/permalink/1663140620425418/ archived at http://tinyurl.com/NoGoZonesCensorship

She goes on:

Our patrons love political nonfiction and often eat up conservative titles :( I've been trying my best to create a balance between my liberal and conservative choices, but some of the new releases are rather upsetting. If I don't order this, past experience tells me that a patron is going to request it anyways :/

And on:

Usually if someone requests a book like this, I smile and remain silent, and make a mental note to never engage with this person in public.

And on:

I decided against purchasing it, but it was some sort of Fox News recommendation 🙄 Meaning that if one of our several patrons who get their political insights from Fox News happens to come across it, then...it will come to my desk as a request 😞

Meanwhile, many other librarians piled on, against the author, again the book, against other authors, including Milo Yiannopoulos, and even against "Islamophobia," like this former University of Iowa librarian:

This book is based on lies and the idea of no-go zones has been debunked by the governments of the nations that right-wingers claim have them. Keeping in in the library would be a mistake, and a cave-in to hatred and xenophobia and Islamophobia. If a Nazi wants the book, let him buy it himself and not use taxpayer dollars for it.

Notice that all readers of conservative books are Nazis: "If a Nazi wants the book, let him buy it himself and not use taxpayer dollars for it."

But they loved Antifa books: "You should get this as an opportunity view. Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook."

These are the people in charge of your public libraries.  These are your official government censors. They appear as helpful librarians.  But they mentally sidestep censorship by calling it "selection" from approved lists.

Even Judith Krug, the creator of Banned Books Week, said:

Another thing we have to be real careful about is that even though the materials that come out initially aren’t wonderful, it’s still incumbent upon us to have that voice represented in the collection. This was exactly what happened in the early days of the women’s movement, and as the black community became more visible and began to demand more materials that fulfilled their particular information needs. We can’t sit back and say, “Well, they’re not the high-quality materials I’m used to buying.” They’re probably not, but if they are the only thing available, then I believe we have to get them into the library.

So Raheem Kassam's book gets criticized for the very things BBW's creator said libraries must include anyway.  Yet his book gets censored.  For example, one librarian said, "I got a patron request for a similar title a few weeks ago and I was able to say no because of a lack of professional reviews."  That librarian is obviously oblivious to what ALA's Judith Krug said, but it's a convenient excuse to censor books librarians personally oppose.

The point here is Banned Books Week is proven to be a hoax yet again.  It won't list "No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You" as a banned book.  It certainly won't list that librarians banned the book and bragged about such censorship to each other.  Banned Books Weeks is this very month and there will be zero mention that Rebecca Eaton, Adult Services Librarian at Warren County Public Library District, Monmouth, IL, banned the book, bragged about the censorship, and many other librarians piled on.

Anyway, the book is now a "banned book" officially censored from at least one public library.  So I'm going to go buy it, and I hope my readers do as well.  Sometimes fighting censorship is easy.  In this case, buy "No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You."  Your librarian doesn't want you to read it.  Find out why.  Then recommend your library carry the book.

Here is the entire Facebook conversation to date, http://tinyurl.com/NoGoZonesCensorship, since ALA makes it a regular practice to delete—or censor—conversations they don't want the public to see.

Finally, here's a list of banned authors, according to that ALA censorship brag:

• Raheem Kassam: "It's a horrid piece of (breitbart) investigative propaganda and fear mongering."
• Bill O'Reilly: "Every single Bill O'Reilly book has been a painful purchase." 
• Dinesh D'Souza: "I literally have to hold my nose when cataloging anything by Dinesh D'Souza. And I was very glad to see his recent Hillary-bashing book withdrawn from our collection for low demand."
• Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins: "Every book from the Left Behind series."
• Milo Yiannopoulos: "Pictured: me, when patrons request 'that book by Milo with the Greek last name'," "Milo attacked my friend by name, fuck that guy."
• Irshad Manji: "Usually if someone requests a book like this, I smile and remain silent, and make a mental note to never engage with this person in public."
• H. W. Crocker III: "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War. I wanted to burn it, but added it and shelved it properly 😩."
• Regnery Press: "Regnery Press? Before you buy one of their books, read up on their history. This is a family business which has supported white nationalism for decades."

—


NOTE ADDED SAME DAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2017, ONLY LATER IN THE EVENING:

The trigger finger on censorship fires again, from the nation's self-arrogated censorship police.  Did you notice I archived the Facebook page in question at http://tinyurl.com/NoGoZonesCensorship?

Did you see I said, "Here is the entire Facebook conversation to date, http://tinyurl.com/NoGoZonesCensorship, since ALA makes it a regular practice to delete—or censor—conversations they don't want the public to see."?

And ALA deleted the page—on the same day I published this reportage.

Was I right or was I right?

I suspected ALA would be embarrassed by this public exposure of how it practices censorship of conservative authors (and promotes Antifa fascism) on a daily basis, especially in the weeks before the annual Banned Books Week hoax begins.  And sure enough, this very same day that I published the post, the Facebook admission of censorship has itself been censored.  Completely removed.

Here's how it looks now:

"This post has been removed or could not be loaded."

Banned Books Week truly means absolutely nothing to the people who created the hoax week.  They are censorship experts!  They practice censorship every single day!  

Diversity of thought?  Perish the thought!

They will continue to censor conservatives and conservative thought and conservative books daily (just like they never invite conservative speakers to any ALA conventions), they just won't be so stupid/oblivious as to brag about it in public then be forced to censor themselves.  After all, Rebecca Eaton is a newbie, having just been hired just two or three months ago in June or July 2017.  This censorship will help her and other librarians learn they should not speak publicly how they regularly censor political topics and people they oppose politically.  The ends justifies the means!  "Libraries Are Not Neutral Spaces"!

URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2017/09/no-go-zones-censored-banned-books-week.html

On Twitter: 
@BillOReilly @BreitbartNews @DineshDSouza @Dr_Tim_LaHaye @IrshadManji @JerryBJenkins @RaheemKassam @Regnery

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