Kids’ bookstore owner who banned book after spotting drawing on one page reveals all the books she refuses to sell

Warning: This article contains discussion of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community which some readers may find distressing.

A children's bookstore owner, who banned a book after spotting a drawing on one page, has opened up about all the books she refuses to sell.

Now, Lindsey Vroegindewey, who owns Big Sky Life Books, has already sparked outrage after taking to Instagram last month (18 January) to share why she decided to take one particular book off her shelves.

She shared a clip holding up the 2019 book in question, A Green Place To Be: The Creation of Central Park by Ashley Benham Yazdani, as she shook her head to the backing track of 'Another One Bites The Dust'.

Why did Lindsey ban A Green Place To Be?

She later explained the reason why she removed the book was because one page contained an illustration of a gay wedding.

Lindsey captioned the post: "A Green Place To Be has been removed from our wholesome children’s bookstore."

Followed by a thumb's down emoji, Lindsey continued: "If you look on the last page on the upper right, you’ll see a gay wedding ceremony. This does not meet our high standards of wholesome family values."

She then apologised for the 'oversight', before telling viewers: "If you purchased this book from us, please reach out!

"I have several copies left in my inventory. If you’d like a copy at half price, reach out to me. The image in the book is small and easily covered up."

Lindsey finished up: "This is a good reminder for me to stay vigilant!

"Have a great day, everyone!"

What other books has Lindsey banned?

Following the initial post, Lindsey shared a follow-up video outlining the reasons why she refuses to stock a number of other children's books on her shelves.

Up first on the rundown is The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity: A Tale of the Genius Ramanujan published by Amy Alznauer in 2020, set in India in 1887, about a boy named Ramanujan who's born with a passion for numbers. Lindsey took issue with this book due to the pluralising of 'Gods'.

"Now, I'm all about learning history. And obviously they believe in gods, and they prayed to Gods back then. But it's confusing for me," she said. "Reading this to my child, I have to paraphrase it. This is what they believed, that God did not do this. And then when he says he's talking about God, and God is capitalised, well, it's just confusing for kids.

"So, this is a no for us."

Next is Odd Boy Out, a book about Albert Einstein's strange childhood, including his mania for puzzles and problems, published by Don Brown in 2004.

Lindsey took issue with the descriptions of Einstein's domestic life, pointing to a line in which his grandma calls him 'much too fat' as well as when he's 'sometimes cruel to his sister'.

'A touchy subject'

She also banned the books Elmore (2018) by Holly Hobbie because the porcupine character was 'moping' too much as well as A Fort on the Moon (2020) by Maggie Pouncey because: "I don't like books that makes the kids look smarter than the parents."

Knit Your Bit: A World War I Story, published in 2013 by Deborah Hopkinson was next, which Lindsey didn't like due to a illustration of a brother 'rolling his eyes' at his sister who shared his disdain for knitting.

And last on the list is Buzzing with Questions: The Inquisitive Mind of Charles Henry Turner (2019) by Janice N. Harrington.

Explaining it was a 'touchy subject', Lindsey shared her issue with the following section which read: "On Friday afternoon, Herrick invited students to his laboratory for spirited talks about biology. He spread table cloths over the long laboratory tables and set out sweet cakes and cups of tea. But Herrick worried about inviting Charles Henry Turner. He worried that the other students wouldn't want to drink tea with his only brown skinned student."

Lindsey declared: "Now, when I'm reading to my child and I read 'so and so was worried that his friends wouldn't want to have tea with his brown skinned student', my kid is absorbing that.

"Like we're embedding those thoughts into his head. Do you think he was on the playground and he said, 'Oh, do you want to invite your friends over for tea?'

"He would say, 'Oh, I don't know if my friends are going to want to have tea with a brown skinned friend'. like, why are we planting those seeds? I think those are seeds of racism."

Lindsey went on: "This is a great book full of great information. Now you could teach history by saying, well, back then, this is what happened back then. This is what, you know, people were allowed to do and were not allowed to do.

"Those are history teaching questions, but to say, 'Well, his friend didn't know if his other friends would want to have lunch with a with a brown skinned student'.

"What do you guys think? I just think it's planting seeds and I I don't like it."

What did people think about Lindsey's reasoning?

After watching the video, people shared their thoughts on Lindsey's reasoning for removing the above six books from her shop with one Instagram user writing on the limited-comments post: "It's confusing? It isn't that difficult to explain that different religions exist. My three-year-old understood that."

"There’s such learning opportunities about Albert Einstein and his neurodivergence and how he acted and was treated and you COMPLETELY missed it because you labeled him and are trying to rewrite history," penned another.

"Your children are going to miss out on so much compassion and understanding by hiding these truths from them."

And a final Instagram user added: "I didn’t know if the last book was supposed to be contemporary or historical fiction… so when you mentioned that it was historical fiction… I would respectfully disagree and say that it is historically accurate and a great history lesson for how far our country has come from slavery and Jim Crow days."

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the LGBT Foundation on 0345 3 30 30 30, 10am–6pm Monday to Friday, or email [email protected]