Some stories get my goat, especially when it is about banning books. .

I wonder what people are thinking when they act out. I wonder if they even vetted the book they are trying to ban.

A few weeks ago I was watching Ari Velshi’s Banned Book Club on his Saturday morning show on MSNBC. And he began talking about the Girls Who Code series. It is aimed at middle school girls who are in a club to learn how to create code that can make new apps for computers or mobile devices.

Think of it as a new version of the Babysitter’s Club.

We have five girls who have become friends because of this club. Each girl has a separate interest outside of coding such as fashion, sports, and performing.

Each girl has a different ethnic identity. Christian, Jewish, Muslim. White, black, Hispanic, Afghanistan.

I read Spotlight on the Coding Club, book 4 in the series. In this book, the girls are getting a code together so their school’s Talent Show. Each act has to make a video of their performance and the coding club is developing an app so that students can vote on each act to determine the top three act.

Each book focuses on one of the girls; this time it is Erin who has a big secret. She has anxiety. And the thing she doesn’t want to mention to anyone is that she has had an anxiety attack in a long time – till just recently. She is worried about her father is on active duty somewhere in the middle east or central Asia or somewhere in the world.

While clubs have kept Erin busy in the past and able to control her anxiety, this time she is having a harder time. And her response is to take on more projects. Well, you can see where this is going. Each girl tries to have her own act, each girl tries to do something for the app but don’t have the time.

Luckily, Erin has good friends and parents who want the best for her. It takes her awhile to trust in them. But as you can imagine, all works out in the end. Does Erin’s entry win at the talent show? Well you’ll just have to read it to find out.

So what could groups such as Moms for Liberty find wrong in this book? I mean it’s about girls who like coding to create bits and pieces of programming for apps. Some people think its because the books give girls the idea that this could be a profession for them. Or it might be the acceptance of girls of all backgrounds. Or it could be that anyone who is different is not ostracized.

The girls like and appreciate their differences, even though their problems seem to transcend all of those factors. Each girl has a worry that any of have had or could have.

I think these groups focus on the fact that one of the girls is gay. In the book I read, it is not a focal point. What happens is our main character figures out that her friend has a crush on another girl and encourages her friend to talk to that person. And then it is pretty much done.

We go back to Erin’s anxiety and her role in the club and group of friends. And she is lucky to have friends who try to help her and support her as they learn about her issues. We get to enjoy all of these girls while learning that coding takes time and requires constant testing to make sure you get it right.

Perhaps Moms for Liberty don’t like this normalizing of the strange and different. Perhaps they fear their children will turn gay reading this. I have no idea what their beef if because they don’t share it or deny that they had anything to do with getting this book series banned. What I d know is that they sy they are for giving parents the right to choose what their children are reading.

But they want to determine what all kids read and my choices for my kids be damned. It doesn’t matter that I want my kids to read about different kids dealing with situations they are dealing with – peer pressure, new emotions (love), anxiety and worries, fitting in at school. I want my kids to know there are all sorts of people in this world. Just because those people are not straight, white, Christians doesn’t make them bad, it just makes them different from being straight, white christian individuals.

That strange thing is that we are seeing these banning efforts not taking hold. Fewer than 1% of parents in Florida have signed up for programs demanding their children NOT read certain books. In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin closed down his hotline for people to report incidents of CRT teaching because they were not getting calls about that.

It makes me wonder this: If so few people want to ban books or ban teachers from teaching various subjects, why are we allowing them to dominate the discussion?