A children’s book with an illustration of hugging sea horses is too hot to handle for kids and should be banned from elementary schools in Williamson County, Tennessee, a chapter of the conservative group Moms for Liberty insists.
“Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea” includes such steamy passages as: “They twist their tails together and twirl gently around, changing color until they match. ... The two of them dance until sunset and then she puts her eggs into his pouch.”
Moms for Liberty also wants public schools in the county, just outside of Nashville, to ditch a tale about Johnny Appleseed because it’s “dark,” and is opposed to a book about hurricanes because “first grade is too young to hear about possible devastating effects of hurricanes.” A book about Martin Luther King Jr. is too divisive, the moms complained in an 11-page letter earlier this year to the state’s Board of Education, Reuters reported. The head of the local chapter has no children in public schools.
There are 31 books the group in Williamson County objects to.
“Some books should be removed entirely,” a representative of Moms for Liberty wrote in an email to the Daily Beast. “Some books are objectionable only because of how they are presented via the accompanying teacher’s manual. ... Some books would be better suited to a higher grade level due to their age inappropriate content.”
The sea horse book could be appropriate for eighth graders, she noted.