Kerby Anderson
I go to bookstores frequently, but I don’t ever venture into the area of books for children. But a recent video and column by John Stossel has changed that. “Go into Barnes & Noble,” says Bethany Mandel, “and you will be met with a wall of biographies. Probably 27 different books about former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” She also talks about lots of books about Kamala Harris.
But what about biographies on conservatives like Margaret Thatcher or Amy Coney Barrett? According to Bethany Mandel, there are none. That is why she started a company that told the story of “Heroes of Liberty” like Ronald Reagan and Thomas Sowell.
Her top seller is her biography of Sowell, who overcame adversity to become a famous economist. When Sowell’s family moved to New York, his new teachers put him in a lower grade because they assumed that he couldn’t compete. He didn’t play the victim but asked to see the principal. It is an encouraging story.
John Stossel reminds us that conservatives make up about half the country so you would assume that book publishers would want to appeal to them. But that is not what is happening. Bethany Mandel explains that libraries buy many more books than moms and dads so there is an incentive to churn out books that librarians will buy.
Most of us (including John Stossel) assume that librarians would be apolitical. But he provides one statistic that shows that 90 percent of librarians’ political donations go to Democrats. Our tax dollars are used to buy a thousand copies of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and zero copies of Amy Coney Barrett.
Fortunately, there are alternatives. Heroes of Faith and the Tuttle Twins are some conservative alternatives. And Christian publishers have been providing inspiring books as well. Unfortunately, you won’t find these books in your local library.