Last month saw the release of Rhett Miller’s debut book of children’s poetry, No More Poems! from Little, Brown. At the time, we published a glowing – but slightly cautionary – review of the book. I also featured an extensive conversation with Miller over on my podcast. The book, and the poems within, were the end of a long road for Miller, and it was clearly a labor of love.

We stand by our review of and love for this book and its author.

Why the need to say that? Well, a band of “concerned parents” recently discovered the book and is currently waging a targeted campaign against the book. Take a look at the Amazon listing, and you’ll see a whole slew of recent 1-star reviews.

Their main quarrel seems to be with one poem in particular – “Brotherly Love” – which we also called out specifically in our original review (and included audio of Miller himself reading the poem). The poem is clearly satire. It’s clearly meant to be humorous. And it’s clearly intended to be an over-the-top depiction of sibling rivalry.

It is NOT, as the army of angry online moms wants you to believe, a recipe for how to kill your brother. Frankly, if you’re THAT concerned about your children picking up ideas for how to commit murder from a picture book, then I think you have bigger problems to deal with.

Pick up ANY book by Shel Silverstein (universally recognized as masterpieces of the genre and clearly an inspiration for Miller), and you’ll find much worse.

I’m not sure which is more insulting: that these people are raising the proverbial pitchforks and advocating in favor of banning books (or worse) or that this book somehow “slipped by” Little, Brown and got published without their knowledge.

Please. That’s not how publishing works. To be clear, I have no inside knowledge about Little, Brown and don’t want to put words in their mouth, but they clearly believed in the book. How do I know? First of all, they published it. That’s not something that happens by chance or accident.

They also gave the book to the incomparable, Caldecott Medal winning illustrator Dan Santat, who might just be the hardest-working artist in the industry. If there’s an A-list of picture book artists, Santat is definitely on it.

Also? Little, Brown released a series of promotional videos with celebrities (including Fred Armisen and Roseanne Cash) reading poems from the book. They also released a video that featured Rhett Miller reciting “Brotherly Love”!

Obviously, the poem didn’t “slip past them.”

Look, I kind of get the concern. No More Poems! is a different kind of book. It pushes boundaries and breaks the mold. But what I don’t get – and WILL NEVER GET – is the idea that book banning is a perfectly acceptable solution. It’s not. It never will be.

You don’t like a book? Fine. Don’t buy it. Don’t give it to your kids. Why can’t that be the end of the story? Why the need to keep a book you find personally objectionable out of EVERYONE’S hands? Who are you to make decisions for me… or anyone else?

Responsible parents should be reading or reviewing books they give to their kids in any case – especially at this level. So be responsible. Read a few dozen poems and see if No More Poems! is for you. No? Put it back on the shelf. There’s no need to light the bonfire (proverbial or literal) and wage a crusade.