cahn

I think it would have bothered me less if the kid in "A Witch's Guide to Escape" had found the books on his own, achieving escape entirely through his own agency, but there was something in the premise of White Protagonist Lady Librarian Helps Black Kid Achieve Escape From Our Terrible Racist World Into Another World that really bugged me, as a white librarian-adjacent lady--because as a white lady who works in a library, I think I have a responsibility to use my privilege to make this world better for those with less privilege, and just showing them a way out seems like dodging my responsibility for tikkun olam.

...basically I wanted the story where the protagonist used her privilege to fight back against her library's "twenty-five cents a day" late fee (rejecting late fees as a form of regressive taxation is a big social justice push in libraries today), thus making the books in the library more accessible to all underprivileged kids. Which I admit would have been a really boring story for 99% of readers.

(Also I'm salty about "There have only ever been two kinds of librarians in the history of the world: the prudish, bitter ones with lipstick running into the cracks around their lips who believe the books are their personal property and patrons are dangerous delinquents come to steal them; and witches" okay.)