Actor Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains, Left Behind, Fireproof, Lifemark) recently reported that he was denied requests to host a reading of his new children’s book “As You Grow” at multiple public libraries around the nation.
Cameron’s new book is published by Brave Books, which releases a new children’s book every month to help parents tackle “difficult topics like gender identity, dangers of communism, cancel culture, critical race theory through family-friendly stories.” According to their website Brave Books’ goal is to “honor God by shaping a future generation of Americans, who will fight for a nation defined by freedom, truth, humility, bravery, and compassion.”
“As You Grow” is described as a “fun story with brilliant art” that “teaches the Biblical truths of the Fruit of the Spirit,” and although the story part of the book doesn’t mention God or contain any Bible verses, Cameron explained that the goal of the book is to teach biblical wisdom and values to children.
“‘As You Grow’ is a fun story that makes the concepts of joy, love, and gentleness easy to understand. After a family finishes going through the book, there are Bible verses within the Games and Talk About It sections that pertain to the story. Galatians 5:22-23, Ephesians 2:1-4, Romans 5:8, James 1:2-3, Proverbs 15:4, Proverbs 15:1, and Matthew 11:28-29 are all quoted throughout the ‘Games’ and ‘Talk About It’ sections in the back of my book,” Cameron shared.
Brave Books told Fox News, “All of the libraries [including the Indianapolis Public Library] that we have contacted have hosted LGBTQ+ story times with drag queens in the past.”
The Indianapolis Public Library said in a statement that they are highly selective about the events they officially sponsor and promote, and that Cameron was never told he couldn’t rent a reading room to host his own event.
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However, Brave Books Chief of Staff Zach Bell told ChurchLeaders that wasn’t exactly true.
“Yes, it always costs to rent a room at the Indianapolis Public Library if it isn’t a sponsored event like their “Drag Queen Story Hour,” Bell explained. However, “we were denied to rent a room during our first call with the library, then after the story was published citing their initial denial, the library recanted and allowed us to rent a room for Kirk’s reading.”
Although, unlike the library’s promotion of “Drag Queen Story Hour” this past June, Cameron’s book reading didn’t appear on the library’s event calendar.
“It’s pride month and the start of the summer reading program,” the library’s description of that event read. “Let’s celebrate with our community’s greatest entertainers and literacy advocates, the drag queens! Our theme this year is Discovery, so come dressed up.”
On Thursday (Dec. 29), Cameron hosted his first public library reading at Indianapolis Public Library in Indiana.
Hundreds of families with children waited outside the library. As the doors opened, families made their way up to the sixth floor where Brave Books had rented a private room for Cameron’s reading. While roughly 1,000 people entered the building, all but 170 of them were halted at the door due to the room’s capacity limit.
While Cameron had only planned on one reading, he and the team quickly arranged to do another, so that another 170 people could participate.
After the event, Cameron’s team was informed that library had an auditorium they could have rented that seated 300. It wouldn’t have been as intimate, “but we would have made it work if we had known this many people were going to be here,” the team explained.
