Central York's ban brings community the 'silver lining' of thousands of books
Shelly StallsmithHannah Shipley has had strangers in her house for hours every night this week.
Others will be there this weekend.
They answered her plea for volunteers to help open boxes, then sort and stack the thousands of books she has received this week.
People were responding to a video she put on TikTok about Central York’s list of banned books. In the video, she asked for two copies each of the more than 270 books written about or by people of color that are on the district’s list.
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“That Monday night we went to the protest, and I thought, ‘how else can I help?’” Shipley said of the gathering before the Sept. 13 school board meeting, when members said they wouldn't reverse the ban. “I didn’t know the students were protesting before school, so I made a TikTok about it and tagged some [big names] and teachers.”
Then she spent four hours putting together an Amazon wish list for each of the books on Central’s list.
She didn’t know what kind of response to expect. But she readily admits she wasn’t prepared for this.
Help from an author
Shipley, of West York, got 50 books. Then it was up to 150. And then she heard from Brad Metzler, author of “I am Rosa Parks.”
His book is on the list.
He wanted to make a statement.
“He contacted me and told me to change my wish list to 10 copies of each book, and 2,500 copies of his book,” Shipley said Wednesday. “He said he was going to put it on his Twitter and Facebook accounts.”
And Metzler did.
On Sept. 17, the New York Times best-selling author encouraged his social media followers – 66,600 on Twitter and 168,000 on Facebook – to purchase books on Shipley’s wish list, or one through bookshop.org that was organized by JJ Sheffer.
And the public responded. By Wednesday afternoon, more than 4,500 copies had been purchased on the wish list.
That includes Amazon’s current stock of “I am Rosa Parks.” All 600 copies.
Sheffer, a Central York graduate who still lives in the district, has a Little Free Library in front of her house. It holds about 250 books and are free to anyone who wants one. So far, she has received more than 400 books from people she likely doesn’t know.
“I was over 100 boxes in before I saw a name I recognized,” Sheffer said of the deliveries. “Bookshop.org works a bit slower than Amazon’s wish list, so I think I’ll keep getting them for weeks. I can’t look it up and see how many were purchased.”
The 'silver lining'
It’s the response she and Shipley are getting that Sheffer calls “the silver lining” to the ban, which was ultimately lifted by the school board at a meeting this past Monday after drawing largely negative attention from across the US.
She learned book shops across the country are posting Sheffer’s address and paying to ship all listed books to her Haybrook Little Free Library.
The Los Angeles Little Free Library association is using the list to make sure every book on the list is in their libraries.
Sheffer knows of one man who is having 50 books delivered to her.
Shipley said an anonymous benefactor purchased two of the Little Free Library structures and had them sent to her.
“I’ve wanted to get one, so I’ll be the steward of one, and I have a Central York teacher who wants to be the other steward,” Shipley said.
Little Free Libraries in the school district, and then elsewhere in York County, will benefit from the generosity of others. So will children who attend events Sheffer and Shipley have planned for next week.
That is their start toward distributing the books that continue to pour in.
The Central York school board voted unanimously on Monday to “immediately release the [banned book] list until this review process can be coordinated with our incoming superintendent,” in a statement from board president Jane Johnson.
The list of books, given to the school board by the diversity committee as a list of resources, was initially banned because the school board said it didn't have time to vet them.
Johnson said in a Sept. 10 release the materials were banned because of concerns from parents, the retirement of longstanding Supt. Michael Snell and the shelving of a social studies program that focused on Black Lives Matter and other racial justice material.
New superintendent Dr. Peter Aiken, who was approved by the board on Sept. 13, is slated to begin in mid-November.
After Aiken and the board review the list, Central York diversity specialist Delma Rivera-Lytle said it’s possible some or all of the books could once again be banned.
“I don’t think it will be all of them, but I think there will be some,” Rivera-Lytle said.
Giving them away
The board’s temporary reversal doesn’t change anything for Sheffer and Shipley. They are going to distribute whatever they receive.
“I was already planning to celebrate Banned Books Week [Sept. 26 to Oct. 2],” Sheffer said. “It’s something I started celebrating when I worked at Martin Library.”
Shipley, a 2012 Dallastown graduate, knows all about book bans. Schools and some libraries around the world banned her favorite series when she was in school.
"I was on the edge of knowing about the ban of 'Harry Potter' books and the protests," she said. "But bans do the opposite for me. The second they ban a book, I want to read it. I'm a little more interested."
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in “response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries,” its website states. It’s an annual event that celebrates the freedom to read.
Sheffer is going to start the week off with story time in her front yard at 131 Haybrook Drive on Sunday, Sept. 26.
Beginning with Rep. Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia, at 10 a.m. and ending with former Revs player Corey Thurman at 1:15 p.m., Sheffer is going to have members of the BIPOC (Black and indigenous people of color) and LGBTQ communities reading from books on the list.
The other readers, in reading order, are Rosa Catterall, Ophelia Chambliss, Victoria Kagen, Randy Freedman, Courtney Lewis, Rabiya Khan, Rivera-Lytle, Maria McCargo Gable, Debbie Gable, Carla Wilson, Roth Preap and Rep. Carol Hill-Evans. The readers will change every 15 minutes.
The public is welcome, and Sheffer will have a table set up so kids and families can take books.
Shipley will hold a book distribution event at Cousler Park in Manchester Township in the middle of Banned Books Week. It begins at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Pavilion E, where the park’s Little Free Library is located.
“If you roll up and have a kid with you, I’ll give you a book,” Shipley said. “The idea is to get the books in the hands of the kids.”
Rivera-Lytle will also be at this event. As a member of the Pennsylvania Commission on Latino Affairs, she and other members of the Latino community will hand out books written in Spanish.
Shipley has also reached out to teachers in Central’s district, telling them to please “shop” at her house for any books on the list.
Shipley and Sheffer have fielded requests from teachers and parents around the county who would like copies of the books. Both said their first priority is to the kids living in Central York School District.
“We are going to book bomb Little Free Libraries in the district first, then go around the county,” Sheffer said.
The women expect the deliveries to slow after Monday’s decision, but it might take some time.
Until then, Shipley will wait to get her packages.
“Our mail carrier does her whole route, then goes back to the office and loads her truck, and sometimes another, and comes back to the house,” Shipley said. “At first I was getting one book per box, but they have finally started to package them together.”
On Tuesday, two postal trucks pulled up and the carriers filled Shipley’s porch and beyond with boxes of books.
And a few hours later, strangers unpacked, sorted and stacked the generosity of still more strangers.
Shelly Stallsmith is a trends reporter for the York Daily Record. She can be reached at mstallsmith@ydr.com or followed on Twitter at @ShelStallsmith.