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In Alice B. McGinty’s “Bathe the Cat,” a family’s attempt to clean the house before Grandma comes goes hilariously awry as the members of the family mix up their subjects and verbs — feed the fishes and wash the dishes becomes wash the fishes and feed the dishes.
At the Spanish Fort Public Library, patrons will need to be 18 or older to check out the book themselves, or have a parent approve them to have access to the entire adult collection.
There is zero mention of sex in the book, or even sexual orientation. But the illustrations depict the family as having two fathers.
“Bathe the Cat” is just one of 36 books moved by the library earlier this year in response to code changes at the Alabama Public Library Service. The code changes require libraries to implement policies restricting “sexually explicit” books from children and teen sections. The code does not address LGBTQ representation, but requires policies to restrict books “otherwise inappropriate for minors.”
APLS Chairman John Wahl told APR that could be interchangeable with the state’s definition of “harmful to minors,” which deals strictly with books meant to titillate readers.
Other LGBTQ+ children’s books that are now housed in the young adult collection include “Daddy, Papa and Me,” “Jacob’s New Dress,” “Mr. Watson’s Chickens,” and more.
It’s not just LGBTQ+ books that will require parental supervision or an adult library card to check out—popular youth titles such as the “Hunger Games” series is now inaccessible to teens as the Spanish Fort Public Library has determined the “young adult” section to mean “ages 18-25” rather than its traditional target audience of teenagers.
Because the young adult section is considered part of the adult department, only patrons with full-access library cards will be able to check out those books. Adults have full access and parents can voluntarily give their children full access to check out adult materials without them present.
Effectively, if a parent want’s their 14-year-old to be able to check out Hunger Games on their own, they must also give them access to more mature adult content available in the library.
The Spanish Fort Public Library board, which is just the Spanish Fort City Council, cemented the policy changes in a meeting Monday despite public comment primarily in opposition.
