My cartoon for the Guardian Books autumn reading special.

I told @mistresskabooms over and over again that she could come to me about anything, and I'd still love her tomorrow.

So... she did.

She asked me about what the words "wage gap" meant when she heard them on the news. She told me when her friends in elementary school were "pretending to be mean to their imaginary girlfriends," and she asked me if she'd done the right thing by leaving "and taking their girlfriends with me." She told me when the kids on the bus started calling her a faggot. She talked to me when she read Night in school.

And she told me she's a girl.

If kids don't feel safe coming to you about everything, they won't come to you about anything. Not anything that matters, anyway, because they won't be sure that the thing they're coming to you about won't get them into trouble.

But, of course, that's exactly the point here. These things - we know this, right? - aren't about "keeping kids safe." They're about control, and they're about keeping kids ignorant and - most of all - afraid.

If you are afraid of being contaminated mentally, of being accidentally ruined, of seeing something Bad and becoming Bad yourself, you become easier to control. If you understand that reading about something doesn't mean you agree with it, and that words and ideas may be scary but that simply knowing that an idea exists, or reading about a thing, does not make you that thing, you become much harder to control. You become harder to control because you become more able to test the things you think that you know against new ideas, things like "are gay people Bad, actually?" and "what if a pregnant person could have more legal rights than a corpse?" and "what did the water and sky look like before the EPA?" or "wouldn't ranked choice voting be neat?"

Just for starters.

The idea of "mental contamination" is big in Evangelical circles, but that ain't the only place, not by far. If you're thinking, "Man, that idea sounds like a concept that shows up a lot in leftist spaces and on Tumblr," you are correct.

This concept is a concept of control. It does not exist to make you stronger. It exists to make you afraid and to keep you from questioning yourself and the world around you. This lack of questioning becomes like wearing a cast around your leg forever. Technically, yes, it keeps your ankle safe, but in the process, the lack of exercise withers your calf muscle.

This leaves you with a worldview that cannot stand up to any kind of meaningful stress or challenge. Things are right because they're right, not because you can defend why they're right. These kind of default beliefs are fragile, soft, and easily shattered or shredded.

This shit doesn't protect kids. It makes them fragile and weak, unable to formulate worldviews they understand well enough to defend and worldviews strong enough to hold up to the rigors and stresses of life.

The shocking truth of what is going on in our public libraries! (My latest Guardian Books cartoon)

Can everyone who reads this PLEASE reblog it?!?!?  Libraries literally saved my life as a child!

Being abused at home, bullied at school and lost in the world, the library and all the books I could escape to the most amazing worlds, kept me alive!

I would walk to the library, and spend all day, from 10 am to 9 pm reading there!! I got special awards for how many books I read, I wrote little blurbs on why i loved the books (probably why I love to BETA and do ARCs) 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Just hit the green arrows and the reblog!!!

As a 50 year old woman, the library offers me so much. Digital art pads to borrow, 3D printing, book clubs that are face to face (yeah, the introvert likes face to face because a moderator will stomp on anyone getting snarky)

New books in LARGE PRINT! I’m visually challenged and as much as I love my kindle, The feel of a real book in my hands will always be a beloved feeling!

Our library also has quarterly books sales of almost free books!! For 5$USD we get in a day early and can buy as many as we want. Anyone else has to wait and there is a limit for the first 2 days.

Also many, many libraries have inter library loan(it may be called something different). This means if they don’t have the item you want, they can get it for you. This may include photocopy/pdf of articles. This can also include along with books and DVDs, microfilm/fiche which is also a huge resource. Check around for libraries that are listed as depositories if you want to look at government documents.

Remember that many colleges and universities have open stacks for the public. You will likely have to pay a membership fee but you will get to stuff.

I love the library ☺

The library was one of my favorite places to go as a kid and I still live to go and just. Sit and read. Or do homework. The university I’m at has a massive 8-story one I love to just wonder around in~ Great places

Libraries are amazing places, we need to protect them to ensure their continued existence.

~ Mermaids & Books - Strategic Mariners

Constantly.

Neil Gaiman on Libraries and Librarians.

Sooooooo much truth here

Books are important. Libraries are important. Dedicated bookstores are important. Librarians are important.

<3 LIBRARIANS ARE HEROES <3

Sings "Librarian Girls" to the tune of Michael Jackson's "Liberian Girl".

Banned Books Week!

I put together a display for Banned Books Week, which starts today; unfortunately I was told by my administrators that I can’t do a lesson on it, because the English department is teaching a new curriculum this year and they’re worried about fidelity and a BBW lesson “distracting” from the regular unit… So this is the closest I can get. But hopefully it’ll at least inspire some discussion.

"Distracting"? <cough>Bullshit!</cough>

Have you ever wondered where books come from?

Well then, let me show you, because that’s what I do for a living.

Right now, it’s this time of the year, and the little ones have just freshly hatched:

You’ll notice they’re still blind and naked when they hatch. So I make them little coats to keep them warm during their first winter:

See how they happily line up to put them on:

See? Better. Now they’re ready to go and explore the world.

And if they make it through the winter and we take good care of them, they will grow up to be strong and wise like their older fellows:

So, in case you were ever wondering, now you know.

As a Publishing Professional I can say that this is 10000% accurate, and I am a little concerned you’re just giving away all of our industry secrets on Tumblr.

I believe this with all of my heart.

An image I made to go on a tote bag for my publisher Drawn and Quarterly.

Also, I am talking and signing at the Edinburgh Book Festival with Stephen Collins on Saturday 24th August. Tickets are here.