Opinion: January 2025 Book Appeals 1

Teo's Tutu by Maryann Jacob Macias

Since the current book appeals are for 6 books, I will do a separate post for each book. This one will be in regards to the picture book - Teo’s Tutu. I will highlight exactly what Mrs. Bence said during her 15+ minute appeal speech at the 2/12/2025 Columbia County Library Advisory Board meeting while she appealed the decisions of the new Columbia County Library Manager, Keisha Evans. Mrs. Bence also spoke for 5 minutes during public participation.

Téo’s Tutu by Maryann Jacob Macias and illustrated by Alex Mailey

Current placement: Picture Books

Librarian Recommendation: Remain in Picture Books

Mrs. Bence’s preferred placement: Adult

Publisher’s age range recommendation: Ages 3-5 years old

My summary: This is a cute book with beautiful illustrations about a young boy who loves to dance. He usually dances to Colombian music with his family. However, his family watched a performance of Swan Lake and he decided he wanted to learn ballet. He begins ballet lessons and also prefers to wear a tutu.

Mrs. Bence (transcript):

You can be any gender you want to be….. Subtle message couched in sophisticated ballet terms and frequent French words, which add to that feeling that the one talking to us is more educated than we are. Alienating the average reader. Me, severely alienating the average six year old. We're supposed to be so impressed by the vocabulary, the artwork, the inclusivity of a boy who wants to be a girl in the ballet program that we forget what children are learning at that age. 2, 3, and 4 year olds are learning what gender they are. That's one of the things they learn. Sex education of a child at that age is to learn what boys and girls do and men and women. Most children enjoy crossing over to the other side. As far as gender roles. There's no place for a book that then glorifes that person, staying in that role. And that's what this book does. Evidently, I would be a man now, for example, because I was a tomboy. My sex education was alive and well. At age 6, I watched my mother breastfeed the other seven kids. So did some of the neighbor kids. But to start sex education in 2 and 3 and 4 and telling kids they need to decide what gender they are, that's a little much, no? They put a girl's costume on this little boy and made him feel like he wanted to be a girl. They finally let him be a girl. They, the parents, and the whole community finally accepted you as a girl. This book makes a point to make us feel like dummies because we don't feel like smiling, like the teacher does, like the class does, like the bumpy decorations do. It's total acceptance through the Artwork and script for Téo to act like a girl, dress like a girl and become a hero. And the performance as a star performer, the ballet. That's it. I just think it ought to be under adult Supervision for Children 2 and 3 and 4 to be reading it.

The foreign words in the book include the Colombian words referencing Colombian music and dancing - cumbia and bhangra. On one page, it says “Amma knelt down. ‘These are the ways we must be brave sometimes.’ Papí put his arms around Téo. ‘Tú eres valiente.’” The Spanish phrase here is “You are brave.” The French terms included in the book reference the following ballet terms: grand jeté, relevé, arabesque, and fouettés. I’m not sure why Mrs. Bence seems to have such an aversion to foreign languages. It is completely normal in the United States for a bilingual family to speak both English and their native tongue, in this case Spanish. It’s also perfectly acceptable for a ballet student or for anyone to learn the french terms for the various ballet moves. That’s not elitist - it’s just information. It’s quite a ridiculous claim that a book is trying to alienate readers by simply including terms that are relevant to the story. If Mrs. Bence feels alienated with the inclusion of these terms, that sounds like her personal issue that she’s projecting onto this book and is hardly relevant to the question of if the book belongs in the children’s section of the Columbia County Public Library.

The rest of Mrs. Bence’s comments center on the assumption that Téo is transgender just because he prefers to dance in a tutu. He doesn’t say anywhere in the book that he’s a girl. Nobody calls him a girl. It’s simply a boy who prefers to wear a tutu. Mrs. Bence states that she was a tomboy as a child and she claims she would be labeled as trans now. That is not what this book is saying and probably reflects more of her personal fears and/or projections. In fact, she hurts her own argument by stating her own inclinations when she was a child. She is claiming that Téo is transgender because he wants to wear a tutu, while at the same time stating that she was not transgender for enjoying more stereotypical masculine activities and perhaps clothing, when she was a child. If she wasn’t transgender as a child for being a so-called “tomboy”, Téo is also not transgender just for wanting to wear a tutu. However, even if Téo is transgender, would the book need to move based on the guidelines? Is the mere presence of a transgender character considered “content of a sexual nature”?

Although Ms. Evans recommended the book remain in Picture Books, she stated under the portion of the form for concerns containing “Sexual Content/Sexuality” that this books “explores themes of gender expression.” Gender expression is a fairly wide category that could mean anything from what toys a preschooler plays with to which clothes or hairstyle they prefer. I’m not sure I would file that under sexuality or sexual content, but she’s the Library Manager so it’s her prerogative. The Reconsideration Process before 12/10/2024 was that there would be a committee of 3 librarians weighing-in however I only see 1 form from the new manager. I’m not sure if that’s indicative of a change to the Reconsideration Process or not.

If the Advisory Board and Ms. Evans decide to do as Mrs. Bence wishes and move this book to Adult, this will be a standard under the guidelines. Essentially, a precedent that a boy wearing a tutu or “themes of gender expression” is “content of a sexual nature.” That standard would then need to be applied to all Easy/Children books objectively without targeting books containing transgender characters. I honestly am not sure how that’s feasible or realistic.

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