Emma Straub got uninvited from reading to kids in Texas because of her “foul language” online.
Emma Straub—novelist, bookstore-owner, children’s book author, and all-round nice person—was uninvited from reading at Texas elementary schools because of her use of “foul language” on social media. In an email to parents, administrators from the Katy Independent School District (in the Houston suburbs) wrote:
It has been brought to our attention that this author has regularly used inappropriate and foul language on her social media platforms — specifically repeated use of the “F” word. This type of language, as you know, does not align with our school and community’s values.
This is just so monumentally dumb… though not entirely surprising in a state run by theocrats who’ve already banned the catch-all bogeyman of “Critical Race Theory,” along with a woman’s right to abortion, while at the same time letting unstable 18-year-olds buy assault rifles.
But really, bad language on the internet?
I can guarantee that over half the kids in those classrooms—who would have really enjoyed the reading!—hear their parents regularly say “fuck” during football games or while changing the oil or chopping onions… It’s just so dumb.
Anyway, you should all buy Emma Straub’s new kids’ book, Very Good Hats, which, as Straub says, only contains F words like “funny, feline, and feelings.”
