Banning Brown Bear

A staple in the lives of the children who have grown up living or visiting in this house here in Meadows Place is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see?" by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle.  

So I read in the Huffington Post that this beloved children's book has been banned from time to time, as so many of my favorite books have been banned.

And I wondered why “Brown Bear”.

After all, an omniscient narrator asks a simple question:  “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?”

And Brown bear responds that he sees a red bird “looking at me.”

And the narrator asks the red bird who sees the blue horse who sees the green frog who sees the purple cat who sees the white dog who sees the black sheep who sees the gold fish who sees the teacher who sees the children who see the brown bear & the red bird & the blue horse & the green frog & the purple cat & the white dog & the black sheep & the teacher – all looking at “Me.”

I love this book – I love the memories of my mother reading it to my sons & nieces & nephew.

So I did a bit a research.

It seems that our Texas State of Board of Education, in its zeal to censor any provocative or creative thought provoking books for our children, mistook Bill Martin, Jr., the children’s author, for Bill Martin, the philosophy professor & author of “Ethical Marxism:  The Categorical Imperative of Liberation.”

I am still trying to make whatever connection the Board made between “Brown Bear” & Marxism.

And I am wondering, Texas State of Board of Education, what do YOU see?