The following letter has been received for publication by The Newtown Bee:

To Board of Education Chair Deborra Zukowski and members of the Board of Education:

How do you decide if a book is appropriate for your child to read? The first step is to read the book.

I was curious about the book Flamer, by Mike Curato; parents have described it as pornographic in their pleas to ban it from Newtown Middle and High Schools. I didn’t think that the school district’s Special Review Committee would recommend keeping the book in the school library if it were, in fact, pornographic, but I wanted to make my own decision.

By reading it, I learned that there is nothing even remotely pornographic in it. It’s a sweet coming of age story. I can see that it would be comforting to boys who have faced bullying and other struggles as they move into adolescence.

But I was surprised to discover that some of the contents that parents cited when they spoke to the Board of Education were not in the book at all! Maybe those parents read misleading posts on social media; if they had read the book, they would have seen their mistake.

Please don’t make that same mistake. You should not make a decision to ban a book based on what a small minority of parents are saying; read this book yourselves.

If you can’t get a copy, I would be happy to lend you mine. It’s a fast read. Banning a book is not a decision that should be made lightly; that’s why our Founding Fathers put freedom of speech, religion and the press as the very first amendment to the Constitution.

If after reading Flamer, a parent thinks it’s inappropriate for their own child, they can tell their child not to read it. It’s that simple. No one will stop them. However, they do not have the right to make that decision for other parents. That would be infringing on other people’s freedom.

April 24th was the American Library Association’s Right to Read Day. The ALA stresses that the freedom to read is essential to our democracy. Please don’t let a minority of parents censor what all children can read, especially based on things that aren’t even in the book. Please stand up for our country’s freedom to read. Please don’t ban Flamer, or any other books. Let our children read!

Thank you.

Betsy Litt

Newtown