Freedom of Expression Update

Statement on Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak

On February 8, 2006, the Canadian Jewish Congress sent a letter to the Ontario Library Association. The letter strongly objected to the use of a children’s book called Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak in the OLA’s Silver Birch reading program in schools.

Three Wishes is a non-fiction book. It records the thoughts and feelings of contemporary Israeli and Palestinian children who live in a world of strife and violence. The book’s author, Deborah Ellis, is a winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award and a nominee for the Order of Ontario.¹

The Silver Birch reading program encourages children in Grades 4–6 in Ontario’s schools to read from a list of 20 books. Professional librarians select the books for their quality. Schools do not require students to take part in the Silver Birch program, but more than 40,000 students do. In May, children vote for their favourite book.

The CJC’s letter said that Ellis provided a flawed historical introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The letter also said that some children portrayed Israeli soldiers as brutal, expressed ethnic hatred and glorified suicide bombing. The effect on Canadian readers in Grades 4–6, the letter concluded, was “toxic.” The CJC asked the OLA to withdraw Three Wishes from the Silver Birch program.

The letter also said that the CJC would be notifying school boards across Ontario about its concerns. Not long afterward, school boards began to review the use of Three Wishes. By March 15, at least five school boards had set restrictions on the book.

• The District School Board of Niagara encouraged librarians to steer students in Grades 4–6 away from Three Wishes and to tell parents that their children had asked for the book.
• The Greater Essex County District School Board restricted access to the book to students in Grade 7 or higher.
• The Toronto District School Board restricted access to the book to students in Grade 7 or higher and withdrew the book from school library shelves.
• The York Regional District School Board withdrew Three Wishes from the Silver Birch program.²
• The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board refused to stock the book and refused to provide copies to students who asked for it.

The Freedom of Expression Committee of the Book and Periodical Council neither endorses nor rejects the opinions in the CJC’s letter. But before more school boards restrict student access to Three Wishes or withdraw the book from the Silver Birch program, the committee wishes to declare its views.

Since 1978, the committee has defended the right of Canadians, including Canadian schoolchildren, to read. In fact, the committee was founded to stop religious activists from pressuring school trustees in Huron County, Ontario, from withdrawing contemporary novels from Grade 12 English classes. The committee has always opposed pressures from outside interests to ban controversial books and magazines in schools.

The committee does respect the right of all citizens to express their opinions to school authorities. The committee also respects the careful procedures used by teachers and librarians to select books for school-age children. And the committee understands that informed, honest adults will periodically disagree over what age is best for children to encounter a book such as Three Wishes.

But the committee becomes much more critical when citizens lobby schools or libraries to remove books from children’s hands. The committee opposes attempts to restrict access to books or to marginalize them merely because they are controversial for a minority. The committee also disapproves of school boards that deny books to children to appease outside interest groups.

Instead, the committee urges teachers, librarians and parents to work together to help student readers understand controversial books. Teachers and children should discuss them in class. Teachers and librarians should encourage children to compare books such as Three Wishes with other books on the same theme. All adults should teach children to read between the lines and help children to think critically about what they read.

The freedom to read, learn, think and question is fundamental to democratic education and responsible citizenship in Canada. We must defend and nurture the awareness of this freedom in our young. We must never teach our children, by word or example, that any book is so contentious that it must be locked away or that it cannot be understood.

1. Ellis won the prize in 2000 for her novel, Looking for X (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 1999).

2. In fact, York’s school board withdrew Three Wishes from the program in 2005 because a teacher, not the CJC, complained about the book. But the teacher alerted the CJC about her concerns.