Those Who Want to Stop the Sexualization of Children Should Stop Protecting Child Molesters, Not Waste Time Banning Books

Meet our Contributor: Padma Venkatraman

Padma Venkatraman is the internationally acclaimed author of The Bridge Home (Global Read Aloud); Safe Harbor (ALA Notable) and A Time to Dance (1st South-Asian-American YA Novel-in-Verse); Born Behind Bars (Kirkus Best Book of the Century), Island’s End (South Asia Book Award winner) and Climbing the Stairs (Julia Ward Howe Award winner), which have secured over 20 starred reviews and sold over ¼ million copies. She is the winner of  WNDB’s Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature and numerous other awards and honors, from Canada to Spain to Japan. Her books have been featured in the New York Times and Washington Post; and her poems have been published in Poetry and nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Padma’s debut picture book, FARAWAY FAMILY, about making friends with family by bridging generational, linguistic and cultural barriers through the power of creative play, will hit the shelves this summer and is ready for pre-order. Her first nonfiction, Secret Agent Noor, is scheduled for release in 2027. Padma has presented keynote addresses at teacher, librarian and writer conferences, appeared on PBS and NPR, and shared her love of reading and writing with audiences of all ages across the globe, including Mongolia, Trinidad and India (where she was born and which she left, alone, at age 19). Before becoming an American citizen, she directed a school in England, served as chief scientist on oceanographic vessels, conducted doctoral and post-doctoral research in environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins and the College of William and Mary, and led diversity efforts. Discover more: www.padmavenkatraman.com ; visit www.diverseverse.org (which she founded) or arrange a visit:  https://theauthorvillage.com/presenters/padma-venkatraman/.

Note from Steve Bickmore

I have been following and promoting the work of Padma Venkatraman since November of 2008. I heard her speak at the ALAN Workshop. I was hooked. I read the book she was promoting, Climbing the Stairs as fast as I could. 

I love the work of many young adult novelists. I truly belive that they are  providing a service for young readers. While teaching the classics in middle schools and high schools really does have a place, they simply do not meet the needs of all readers. After teaching for 25 years I can assure you that at least 75% of the students are not reading those assigned classics. Instead they are using notes from other students, looking up plot details and characters online, and doing their best to fake it through any assesment. 

We need to meet kids where they are with the needs they have. Teachers and need to have open discussions that meet the needs and interests of their students AND their parents. As Padma suggest in this blog post, parents should shoulder the primary responsibility of teaching and talking with their childern about important and controversial issues. 

Banning books has never gone well, indeed many of the books listed in Great Books of the Western World were problematic in their day and burned by the Nazis. 

There is a reason that the books of Laure Halse Anderson, John Green, Walter Dean Myers, Meg Medina, Chris Crutcher,  Matt de la Pena and a host of other authors remain extremely popular even among attempts to ban them.

Back to Padma's work. I find it hard to believe that if anyone read any of Padma's book with an open mind they would not join with me in whole hearted support of having these books in libraries and available for students. 

When I finished reading The Bridge Home, it was one of the only times, that I immediately went to the compter and wrote the author a thank you note. I was extremely moved by the book and the author's sensitivity to the plight of children in difficult circumstances.

In the post below, Padma makes an articulate arguement against HR 7661.

Those Who Want to Stop the Sexualization of Children Should Stop Protecting Child Molesters, Not Waste Time Banning Books by Padma Venkatraman

This February (2026), HR 7661, a bill given the inflammatory and misleading name “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act” was introduced in the House of Representatives. Having passed out of committee, it will soon be recommended to the House for a full vote. 

If those who support this bill truly wish to protect children, I’d suggest they push for complete transparency and full disclosure regarding the criminals implicated in the Epstein files. If you care for children, please help convict those who were involved in child sexual abuse. Denounce all who willfully ignored Epstein’s cruelty. Support the survivors. 

Don’t waste time distracting people from the Epstein Files by, ironically, accusing authors who have devoted their lives to writing literature for young people. Criminals are guilty of  “the sexualization of children” ; authors like me are not. As I pointed out when my novel Born Behind Bars was challenged, if I’d wanted to make money writing lewd stories, I’d instead have written a book called ‘porn behind bars’.  My colleagues and I are dedicated to helping young people feel seen and heard; and to expanding their hearts and minds by engaging their empathy.  

HR 7661 intends the opposite. 

The bill’s proponents may argue that education will not be curtailed and that scientific material will not be attacked. Yet the bill’s language only protects “standard” science coursework and doesn’t elaborate on what (or who) defines that “standard”.

It does, however, clearly define and protect “classic works of literature”. Classics, the bill states, are either “Great Books of the Western World” as listed in the Encyclopedia Britannica or books referenced as classics by certain people or sources, such as “Compass Classroom”. Compass Classroom is an organization whose mission is to “teach… kids to think Biblically”. Diverse viewpoints expressed by award-winning authors (such as this group of current and past Ambassadors of Young People's Literature -- Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds, Gene Luen Yang, Kate DiCamillo, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Katherine Patterson, Jon Scieskca, and Mac Barnett) are missing from Britannica’s list, which highlights white male viewpoints from past centuries (and excludes historically marginalized voices).  

The bill aims to prohibit “sexually oriented” material. Ominously, though the bill doesn’t explain the entire range of works that this phrase might include, it explicitly states that books that “involve gender dysphoria or transgenderism” will fall under this category. According to PEN America, a quarter of all banned titles during the 2023-2024 school year featured LGBTQ+ characters or themes: of these, 28% featured trans or genderqueer characters.  

If this bill is passed, schools and libraries will not be allowed to use funds to buy books that their librarians and other educators deem important for their students. The bill supports the federal government’s interference in personal issues, perhaps as part of a larger campaign to defund public schools and free libraries – the bastions of our democracy. 
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History warns us that those who begin by banning books may end by burning people. Pulling funding from schools and libraries that wish to improve representation on their bookshelves by including stories featuring people of all identities is a step in the direction of that descent.

As a parent I understand how frightening it is to raise young people and give them freedom to explore beyond the home; to let them be exposed to new ideas and different people. With such freedom, inevitably, comes the opportunity to experiment with sexual desire. 
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Most parents, I assume, feel uncomfortable speaking about sex or sexuality when children are around. I’ll admit I love imagining that I’ll be a grandmother someday but abhor the thought that my child might someday have sex. Like most people, I love to exist but hate the fact that I’m alive as a byproduct of my parents having had sex.

Discomfort discussing, speaking or thinking about sex, may result in adults’ neglecting to educate children about sex in a safe manner. Books that address romantic love in an age-relevant manner allow young people to think through experiences before engaging in them. They provide an opportunity for young people to ask questions of adults whom they trust. Isn’t it safer for a teen to fully understand the science of sexuality, and to learn the importance of love and tenderness through the pages of books, before involving themselves in personal sexual exploration? Isn’t it better for teens to be forewarned of the dangers of sex-trafficking via story, so they may protect themselves against violent exploitation in real life? 

Of course, this bill isn’t just about striking down books that may mention sex. It attacks the existence of people who are transgender or gender non-conforming. It asks us to prohibit ourselves and our fellow-citizens from ever entering an imaginary universe where people of all genders are respected and affirmed. Instead, it moves us alarmingly close to living in a world where certain people’s stories – and next, perhaps their very identities – will be erased. 
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Thanks,

Padma