Our Donors and The Latest

Getting BRAVE Books donated and approved for placement, our benefactors, the petition and comments, our most recent ask, and our next event. An update for those who don't follow Facebook or Instagram.

Brave Books donated for the Libraries!

What amazing month we’ve had!  You can read the story in more detail in a story done by the Shenandoah Sentinel here:  https://shenandoahnews.com/brave-books-now-in-county-libraries-thanks-to-local-mom-and-county-officials/

Here are our benefactors.  We are so thankful for them, their generosity, and their commitment to our children and their future!  From left to right: Cooper Bell, Head of Sales at BRAVE Books; District Attorney Brett Ligon; (I’m in the middle), Judge Mark Keough; First Assistant Count Attorney Amy Davidson (standing in for County Attorney B.D. Griffin); and Trent Talbot, BRAVE Books CEO.  These heroes personally financed the donation of BRAVE Books so all of the children in Montgomery County could have access to these wonderful books.  

We have heard from residents wanting to place a hold on Brave Books right away.  The books have been donated and received by the library administration; however, they are not in the system yet, and we do not know when they will be. We assume it will take several weeks at least before they are ready to be delivered to the various locations to be placed on the shelves.

The Petition

We started the petition before we were told donated BRAVE Books would be placed in the libraries.  I spent some time negotiating with the library director making our case.  She was kind and thoughtful as I made my requests.  It is library policy that donated books are not typically placed for library circulation unless they meet all the criteria for materials selection.  Even then, the majority of books donated are sold at the Friends of the Library Bookstores, and the funds raised are used to purchase new books or for library programs.  (If you are a frequent visitor of the library like our family, you know the programs they provide are unbelievable.  Last summer my son dissected an octopus!)  

My argument was that our first story hour (incredible showing of the public, not everyone fit in the room) alone was evidence of “significant public interest.”  I did not mention the petition because I was attempting to get our library director to let me know how she defines, “significant public interest.”  This would give me an idea of how many signatures we might need to make a difference.  

I never got an answer to that question, BUT to my astonishment, the director did send me an email one day with the list of Christian books she had recently placed and ordered (found on this substack post) and in that email she wrote that she would GLADLY place BRAVE Books in the libraries if they are donated.  This was music to my ears!

What about the petition?  Do we continue?  We did because BRAVE Books were not the only conservative books we requested.  We also requested Tuttle Twins Books in the petition.  Tuttle Twins books teach free market economics and critical thinking to children.   We continued our quest with the petition and received 441 signatures!!   

Block Walking

While we were working to get the word out about the petition, I began block walking.  Block walking is a little risky because I went without a “list of friendlies.” I had no idea whose door I was knocking on much of the time.  (If you are familiar with block walking for political candidates, we usually are provided a list of neighbors who typically vote in the Republican primaries.  These people are typically already friendly.  My knock wouldn’t be a surprise to them.)

I live in what is possibly the most liberal area in Montgomery County, and still, the majority of my neighbors were interested in my petition.  Even those who don’t follow Jesus or hold more progressive views, believe these books have a place in the public libraries.  

What was interesting about this exercise was that of the few who were not interested in my petition, a few of these neighbors were inordinately angry about it.  Which is interesting because here is how I typically began:  “Hello, my name is….and I have a petition here to get more Christian and conservative books into the public libraries.  Does this interest you?”  Then I would wait for a response, most would be interested, some would not be interested.  Every once in awhile I would receive yelling and the slamming of a door.  “Your books should be banned from the library.”  Interesting.  “Don’t you ever come to my door with something like this again.”  Vehement anger.  It seems that conservatives and Christians (which are not one in the same) have been demonized and dehumanized in the culture, the news, and (surprise!) in our library books.  (More coming on that in a book report post.) This is concerning.

I am convinced that we could get thousands of signatures if we had the time to block walk the county with teams of supporters.  Few have time for things like this, and without a list of friendlies, like with political candidates, it is a daunting and scary task. I am so thankful to all who helped, and I am saddened by friends’ stories of being yelled at also. (Eventually I started picking houses mostly by patriotic décor, usually the flying of the American flag.  Even if they weren’t interested, they were nice about it.)  We wish we had more time, but we believe the numbers we got are significant, and we continue to meet more and more supporters who are interested in working with us to Make Libraries Great Again!

Comments:

As you know, we had a paper petition and an online petition.  Our online petition had a comments section, and we wanted to share them here.  So many great points and suggestions were made.  I tabbed every comment on the petition copies that went to Judge Keough and the commissioners so they could easily find and read them.  

“My kids would love to read these!”

“Our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence said all men are created equal, and our creator has blessed them with rights that cannot be denied.  The life & universe around us is evidence of the creator, God, however, the religion of atheism has faith that science someday will have all the answers to the life and universe around us.  Religious freedom is a constitutional right and suppressing one while promoting the other is a constitutional violation, so having books about that promote creationism also.”  -local precinct chair

This comment was a common one I heard while block walking.  Parents want more options for their kids including creation science.  Creationism is a valid belief that should be represented in our libraries.  There are many excellent creation books that could be made available.

Angel studios has also produced a creation science nature documentary series called The Riot and the Dance.

“We LOVE BRAVE Books and their mission.  Please put them in the library, so those that cannot afford them or would not seek them out will have the opportunity to check them out.  Also, we need to spread Christian values and patriotic beliefs and protect our youth from lies and predators in this fallen world.”

“I have been extremely disheartened by the inappropriate books. I’ve found in the library and hope the library administration will take this very seriously.”

This was what we heard most often.  People like the idea of conservative books going in, but are concerned about what is available, especially in the Young Adult section.  Our focus is on the children’s section, but would love to see others take up the cause of the Young adult section.  The Young Adult section is for children ages 13 and up.  Many pornographic books are in this section, and many more are just plain inappropriate.  I will not allow my teenager to go up there at all anymore, and we simply put books on hold, picking them up at the front desk.  

It is important for Christians and conservatives to use and be involved with the libraries because as library users, our voices and concerns are heard more clearly.  Look for a future substack post about ways to use the library and recommended book lists so you can find good books with confidence.  While we had difficulty finding Christian books in the children’s section when we first started this journey, this was not the case with the Young Adult Section.  There are some excellent YA Christian books that you could place on hold and conveniently pick up at the front desk.   When you check out these books, this helps show public interest for more books of that genre.  

“We would love to have these precious and heartfelt books in our Montgomery County library system.  The topics are foundational and wholesome for children and adults as well as a springboard for great conversations.  Please consider these books for circulation.  Thank you!”

“I believe these books will be a great addition to our libraries giving children interesting and encouraging reading material.  I think there is a severe lack of this type of reading n our libraries and thus would be a great step in rectifying this lack.”

“Brave Books and Tuttle Twins books are taking the country by storm and they should be available to those who may not be able to afford them.”

“These books provide so much and accommodate a large breadth in our community.”

“We homeschool our 7 kids but have avoided the library for several years now and would love to see more books that align with our family values and those of the large majority of this country.  We are also Roman Catholic and would love to see books about church history, saints, etc.  Thank You!”

While I am not Roman Catholic, I would love to check out these books about catholic history and saints as well!  What an excellent resource for homeschoolers these books would be!  Also, I have heard from countless Montgomery County Residents who stopped going to the library since 2020.  It does seem that this was the year when the more concerning books started showing up.  

“Excellent books like these should be available for children to check out & read.”

“My grandchildren go to the library.”

We spoke to countless grandparents who wanted to see conservative options available for their grandkids.  

“This 10000% needs to happen!”

“Thank you for your consideration.  We want to help raise conservative children in Montgomery Co.”

“As my nieces and nephews get older and start visiting the library, I’d like them to be able to find more books that are not only appropriate for children, but also in line with my family and moral beliefs.”

Our Most Recent Ask

We included letters with the petition requesting permission to place the Tuttle Twins books if donated and turned in copies of the petition to the Library Director, County Judge and Commissioners on Thursday, May 4th.  Ideally, we would like the publishers to be made approved vendors, but we are honestly not sure if this is a decision made directly by the commissioners or by the library board.  We need to hear from the Library Director or the commissioners that they will place the books if donated.  As soon as we have confirmation that they will accept the books for circulation, we can work on getting the books donated, which we believe can be taken care of very quickly. 

One of our concerns is we do not want to appear ungrateful for what the commissioners court have already done for us.  I wish placing the Brave Books was enough to balance the library, but unfortunately, we cannot overstate how slanted the books being published are.  Even various fictional chapter books like mysteries are full of politically charged plot lines.  To show this reality, we plan to begin publishing book reports about books that seem unreasonable.

Our Next Event

We are so excited about our next event this month, Thursday May 25th @ 10am.  We hope to have something for the whole family this May. In addition to stories and coloring, the story hour will be a celebration of what God has done over the past five months. It has been an amazing journey!!

We are so fortunate to have local author Cecil Stokes joining us May 25th at 10am!!!

He will be reading his book, I Love you to the Sun and Beyond.

He will also read the very important Brave Book, Little Lives Matter, by Elizabeth Johnson.

These heartwarming, life affirming books show the love between a parent and his/her child. They show children they are valued and precious as God designed.

After our reading, your children can ask Cecil questions about his book, about writing and publishing, or whatever your kids come up with! Cecil will also be available to sign your copy of his book! We are not able to sell anything at the library, so if you would like Cecil to sign your book, please order it on Amazon prior to the event and bring it with you! It is BEAUTIFUL, you will love it!

Cecil also was a writer and producer on the movie, October Baby! I am watching it with my teenager prior to the event. Perhaps your teenager would like to ask Cecil about his experience working on this movie!

After Cecil’s readings, we have a musician friend, Brian Turner, who is a children’s music teacher, coming to sing a few songs with the children. Brian plans to play The Crawdad Song and He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands for the children to sing along to. We are thrilled to have him!

A few other activities we will have:

Coloring pages and word searches: Last time it was quieter than the first event and the kids connected while coloring with each other. It was a very sweet time.

A Library Scavenger Hunt: Go into the library with your list (provided) and earn a prize! Included in the hunt, we will have a list of recently placed books, so you can check one out!