50 Comments
May 24, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Sensational post Liz. You do have 2 amazing parents! And amazing children! And you are equally amazing! I love you so much and I will get involved. I will share this magnificent and important writing!

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founding
May 24, 2023·edited May 24, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

First, this is a great post -- one of your best.

Second, we must have livd parallel lives! The rule in my family was, "You can read anything you want, listen to anything you want, and see anything you want. You just can't do anything." (That last bit may have been evaded.) My copy of Changing Bodies, Changing Lives (the teen-oriented version of Our Bodies, Ourselves) was read so thoroughly by my entire close friend group that the spine was broken in 4 or 5 places by the time I finished high school. The restricted book that my parents helped me fight for access to wasn't Forever, but Daddy Longlegs, which had been removed from my school library. The saga ended with me getting to meet Nat Hentoff and receiving a signed copy of his YA novel The Day They Came to Arrest the Book.

My BFF had a copy of Forever, which was also read by the whole friend group. I don't think that book fell apart, but we did crack the spine such that it automatically opened to page 151, the most exciting page in the edition.

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May 24, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Bravo, Liz…

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May 24, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Such a great post. I had to sneak read these books at friends’ but I spent most of my teen years in libraries making up for lost time.

Now where’s the fund to put The Hill We Climb on billboards all over Miami-Dade??

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May 24, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Brava! Brilliant, Liz. My mom let me read anything as well. Certainly there times when something may not have been age appropriate but that didn’t matter. I’d like to think that early exposure to the world beyond my tiny Midwest town in a flyover state helped me the open minded person I am today.

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I just read your post, and was about rant a bit about my mother whose efforts to get me reading and interested in books at age 5; we began, and ended, that adventure with my unable to concentrate or be interested in books - that one anyway. She wasn't alone in not noticing my ADHD; it took 65 years for that to unfold, but that's another story ...

while writing, a newswire item came across my screen

"Tina Turner died"

And in conclusion ... neither Ike Turner, Ron Desantis, Florida library complainants can stop women and girls (boys and me too), poets and novelists, everyone with a pen or a soapbox. Kids and grandkids NEED influences and guidance. That should be about how to read and think vs. what to read and 'think my way'. Parents, qualified or not, will guide their children. That's not going to change much very quickly, and we don't need to worry. Banning books is a failed and stupid way shield children at an impressionable age. They'll find what they need and want to find, online or in a musty box in a basement.

All these laws and regulation are not found in human DNA.

And laws can't stop a thought, a curiosity, or a dream.

R.I.P. Tina Turner

Long live Amanda Gorman!

Cheers,

Mark

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May 24, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

New reader here, and I LOVE this piece! I came from a similar family where my sisters and I read anything and everything we could get our hands on. I think part of what makes Gen X the way we are was our ability to jump from Are you There God, to Forever, to Flowers in the Attic, and back to Highlights magazines. I learned an appreciation for reading and discussed *most* things with my mom (and the rest with my older sisters). We all turned out okay. 🙂

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May 24, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

My parents had the same philosophy raising my brother and me. They wanted us to read, to love reading. Nothing was off limits. If we could read the words, we could read the book. Friends had to hide their copies of Sweet Valley High, VC Andrews and Stephen King. My mothers didn’t bat an eye. If I had questions I knew to ask her or look it up in another book.

I wonder how many of these people who want books banned read Flowers in the Attic with a flashlight under the covers so their parent wouldn’t know. I bet a few.

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May 24, 2023·edited May 24, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Important topic! I think context matters more than content. As a parent, that means having discussions that are nuanced. I have four kids and it is harder than I thought it’d be because each one is so different. I want to make information available, but I also don’t want to push stuff on them before they feel ready for it. And sometimes kids prefer information from someone other than the parent. I don’t take that personally. I just try to help them evaluate sources of information, make sure they know we’re available to talk, and periodically test the waters to see if they’re ready to discuss different topics.

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May 25, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

I love this so much! Kudos to your parents for not putting any limits on what you could read.

I grew up in Iran but went to an American school up until 3rd grade so English was my first written language. After the revolution when they closed all the American schools, my parents were dead set on making sure that I didn't forget my English, so I had private tutors and access to any English book I wanted to read (bought from super sketchy underground bookstores). Funny thing was my dad heavily monitored any Farsi book that I read, but never bothered about English books, which meant that I read some really wild books at a pretty young age (I'm looking at you Harold Robbins) 😂

I don't have kids but I feel very strongly that kids should have access to any book that they want to read, and these book bans in the US are a terrifying parallel to what most super conservative religious regimes across the world have done and are continuing to do.

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May 25, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

I am de-lurking to tell you how much I love this post. It also feels fair to tell youbI found your Instagram through @Blurb and I love the pics of your life, so I kept coming back. And now I read your Substack. Thank you for writing this. I, too, grew up in a house where I was allowed to read anything I wanted to. Never had to ask, never had to explain. Judy Blume was and is one of literary heroes. I live in Florida, and the things going on here regarding schools and books is heartbreaking. I think it's important to have every type of reading material available to students, for lots of reasons, but 2 main ones:

1. I work with foster and adoptive families. It horrifies me to think that there are kids out there whose only exposure to books is what they come across in school. I would imagine for kids that are experiencing some pretty awful things at home, books might be an escape for some of those kids, in addition to showing so many different lives than the one they are living.

2. I think reading seriously impacts ignorance, and I don't mean that in a negative way. There are so many things we are innocently ignorant about: how other cultures live, what families of races other than our own go through, even the mundane stuff that we may have never thought of had it not been for reading (ironing a shirt: sprinkle some water in it, stick it in the fridge for roughly an hour, then iron. Learned that from a Robert Fulgum book). Whole entire worlds, right there at our fingertips!

3. Okay, I thought of a good last point: quick brag moment-in 1st grade, I had a 12th grade reading level. I DID NOT want to only read Dr. Seuss. I wanted ALL the words, and had it not been for our very well stocked public library, I may have become a very discouraged reader.

Thank you again for your words. I think you are amazing, and thank you for sharing your pictures of Brooklyn to this woman living in almost-rural Florida!

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I used to run up from my spooky basement too. The act of book banning gives a similar chill up my spine. It’s fear-based avoidance at its worst.

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This post is, great 👍 and with cancel culture running amok these crazy days, also brave! As with your childhood, I was also allowed to READ anything that I could get my hands on (albeit if it involved a little help from an adult! 🤭) And if I got my hands on something I didn't comprehend, I had full access to the worn dictionary on my Mother's desk! I feel this was the single most important and helpful thing my parent's did for a maturing me. Not only intellectually (nothing builds vocabulary, comprehension or memory retention like reading, and starting YOUNG, as I'm sure you know), but also in assistance to the character building of the woman I am still becoming today. I am thankful to report that I am not "one of the sheeple" (as my amazing husband would say), and that through letting me read at my own discretion, my parent's gave me the avenue through which I eventually learned one of the top 3 that I have been terrified of figuring out how to teach my OWN SON since, well, conception.... How to trust in the basic goodness of humanity, yet still possessing the discernment to question everything and everyone. Awesome post, thanks again!!

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Oct 2, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

brilliant, just brilliant.

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Oct 3, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Sally J Freedman was my favorite Judy Blume! My parents had the same policy on reading. The only objections they ever had were to The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High (haha)--they thought they were too formulaic. But even then, they still let me read them. I probably read things "too old" for me, but I learned so much from the books and from my parents when I had to ask questions. I'm still grateful this was their policy. So many of those books are some of my favorite memories of being young and of being a reader.

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Oct 9, 2023Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Wow what a story! I am amazed by all the comments as well!

I had a somewhat similar experience with access to the public library and any book being ok to read. I think it’s probably because my immigrant mom and dad trusted the public library and books more than what TV or other media impressed upon kids of my generation in the 80s and 90s.

My parents got us a set of encyclopedias (not Brittanica) and of course I’d open the S volume and try to see what SEX IS! It wasn’t helpful at all. It came with a dictionary, the complete Shakespeare, Ben Franklin Autobiography, Arabian Nights, which I would like to say I read but was way too hard and dry. With it we also got a set of books “understating human behavior: an illustrated guide to successful human relationships.” Google image search first result for the cover of volume 1 of 20 something.

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