When upwards of 50 public libraries told Kirk Cameron they were “not interested” in hosting him to read his wholesome new children’s book to kids, the actor-turned-children’s author didn’t take no for an answer.
Despite not being granted a taxpayer-funded children’s storytime, as even the most provocative of drag queens are routinely afforded, Cameron’s team shelled out to rent back rooms within those libraries to create their own story hours — and eager listeners turned out in droves.
At the Scarsdale Public Library in New York, the author’s team said he packed out a room of 170 people twice back-to-back. He was then forced to turn away countless more when the library refused to extend his room rental time, claiming, according to a Brave Books representative, there weren’t enough library staff members to work the event and the library would be closing soon.
Neither of these reasons made sense, however, considering the library wasn’t sponsoring the event and thus shouldn’t have needed extra staff, and the request was made around 3:45 p.m. The library closed at 6:00.
Then at the Indianapolis Public Library, the wholesome storytime was “overwhelmed with a tidal wave of parents, grandparents, and patriots” who even asked to sing “God Bless America,” Cameron told The Federalist in an interview. Although the library contends there were 750 spectators, numerous attendees and Brave Books staff maintain the crowd was closer to 2,500, with more who likely gave up and left when the parking garage adjacent to the library was reportedly closed, with no apparent explanation. Neither library responded to a request for comment or offered an explanation by publication time.
“I know why parents and grandparents are coming out of the woodwork,” Cameron told The Federalist. “They understand there is a war on children, and nobody’s going to stop it but us.”
So that’s exactly what he’s doing. The actor-turned-children’s author is taking his library tour all over the country — starting with Placentia Library District southeast of Los Angeles this Saturday, Jan. 14. — and told The Federalist he loves suggestions for where to go next. It could be your community.
It’s Your Turn
Because Cameron’s team is still adding stops to his tour, he’s encouraging interested parents to go to BraveBooks.us, email a location request, and then show up when the author comes to a library near you.
Even when Cameron isn’t in your library, however, he encourages parents to “start by reading Brave Books to your kids.” The publisher’s “Freedom Island” books are a great way to introduce children to pivotal, worldview-shaping topics. By joining the Freedom Island Book Club, families get the monthly book releases at a discount and shipped straight to their front doors.
Beyond reading Brave Books, Cameron urges parents just to “get started, do something, put feet to your faith.” If they want better for their communities than radical and discriminatory public spaces, “Don’t just talk about what’s going on, change what’s going on.”
That’s what a number of parents and pastors across the country are already doing. “Now ‘pastors’ story hour’ is a thing!” Cameron said excitedly, a welcomed report considering the prevalence of sexualized drag queens infiltrating even America’s cherry-red enclaves. But these pastors and parents need reinforcements. “That’s really where the momentum builds and the transformation happens is when people take this on on their own,” Cameron added.
When asked what else parents can do to get involved, Cameron stressed parents’ pivotal role in countering the leftist indoctrination that’s taken over libraries, schools, and other institutions that influence children — and that role might begin even more locally than you think.
Our House
Often in times of cultural and moral upheaval, citizens look to their leaders for fixes. But, as Cameron says, the transformation process begins “not at the White House, but at our house.”
In the last chapter of the book of Malachi, through a messenger, God tells of his coming judgment: “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze.”
But the very last verse of the Old Testament ends with mercy, and it centers on fathers’ relationships with their children, saying, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
This is the Bible’s complimentary admonition, Cameron notes, that when God sends revival, he does so by sending the hearts of parents and children back to each other. It is the unique role of parents to guide their children in truth, nurture them, and instruct them with biblical wisdom. And it is the role of children to listen, heed, and obey. That job can’t be outsourced to a government bureaucrat or state-sanctioned teacher or librarian.
“That’s why God sends children into the wombs and homes of parents, not government indoctrination camps,” Cameron says.
No single author in a library reading room can fulfill that critical parental role either. Kirk Cameron just wants to be a partner along the way. Because, as he says, “Whoever succeeds in telling the stories to the children gets to control the future.”
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