In light of the recent legislation banning the sale and distribution of children’s books manufactured prior to 1985 because of fears about lead or something – I thought we’d have a look at some of my loot.
Unless those books have undergone expensive tests for lead, or if you can somehow declare the children’s book a vintage collectible – word is you cannot give any of these books to a child, and you cannot sell them.
But wait! Do we contradict ourselves? Yes, we contradict ourselves:
The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.
So, if you think it doesn’t exceed the lead limit, sell at your own risk. Right? And if it turns out my ancient paper exceeds the lead limit of 600 parts per million, if I put it in the hands of some paper-sucking tyke, I could go to jail. Right? But I won’t know unless I have it tested. Right?
Unless I sell it all to an adult as a collectible vintage item. And they can suck all the lead bearing paper they like. Right?
And don’t you think it’s a crying shame they have to post addendums to this dumb law? Because you’d think they’d have thought these things through before they passed it.
But no.
The situation is extremely fluid and every day this week ALA has received new and sometimes contradictory information.
That’s a comfort.
Since none of my kiddy books are worth big sums of money, can they be considered collectible? Where do I get my collectible certification? How can I afford it?
I don’t want to go to book jail!!!
I love my old Andre Norton books. None are particularly valuable. But, now they are illegal if I let my family tykes have them! I could get a $100,000 fine! Holy crap!
It’s like waking up one day and finding out tomatoes are illegal.
So here’s my contraband – I mean – my private collection of highly valuable and collectible goods I would never knowingly place in the hands of a child lest I give them reading cancer. They will be stored in locked cabinets along with the guns, the ammo, and my secret stash of uranium:
All of you out there in cyberland: what’s your book poison? What nefarious ancient volumes make you an outlaw?
My God! The horror! This 1904 copy of Little Sir Galahad by Lillian Holmes only cost me $1 on the secondary market!
Holy Mary Mother of God, won’t someone think of the children?
Any little tyke could afford to buy this tome and suck the ink right off the pages, no doubt giving them a fatal case of reading cancer within days of exposure! Perhaps they will decide the staples in the binding look just like chocolate! And then they could choke to death while trying to lick them!
Of a surety, this book should get the torch.
It is inscribed on the frontspiece, no doubt to make it seem even more harmless to potential buyers. It is a thing of the devil!
“With Best Wishes for a Happy Christmas, to Joel Barren Jr from Cecile Carlyle, Christmas 1916.”
Isn’t that awful? It all looks so…so innocent. And yet, it is obviously such a dangerous item your Congress has decided it should never be given to a child.
Whew. Let’s move along. Here’s a book that cost me $30. I’d say that places it out of the reach of most kids, but since most children’s book cost about $20, maybe not.
It kills me to think this 1943 edition featuring illustrations by N. C. Wyeth is getting tossed in dustbins from flea market to flea market. Mine’s pretty beat up, and it’s not a first edition. Does that render it not collectible? Not vintage?
And how about this beauty? I bought this for 50 cents at a library book sale. Little Timmy and Little Sarah will not have that opportunity now. It’s a good thing because we wouldn’t want to give them reading cancer:
Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle, with gorgeous thick paper and handsome, clean, black and white illustrations. Destined to give your kiddy something fatal. Like, the ability to understand words like “yclept” and “methinks”.
This is a spectacularly stupid law.
They will get my books when they pry them from my cold dead fingers, those book hating swine Congressmen!
Shame on them! Tsk.
This doesn’t sound promising, though: The Bill passed the House 424-1 and the Senate 89-3.
But then, common sense in an uncommon virtue among that lot.
• The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act goes (went – I pinched this from Publishers Weekly) into effect February 10 and requires third-party testing of all products for children 12 and under, including books, audiobooks and sidelines. This includes older products on-shelf as well as books shipped after the deadline.
• AAP and other industry trade groups are lobbying to have print-on-paper and print-on-board books exempted. They also are looking for clarification on testing protocols and other specifics.
• If the Act stands as currently written and interpreted, significant costs and longer production times will negatively affect publishers and retailers, potentially putting some out of business and causing books to be removed from stores, libraries and schools.
• The industry is struggling to comply with the Act in time for the deadline, even as it waits for resolution and interpretation from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
For the latest updates and clarifications, go to CPSIA
If you can understand this monster document of legalese blather, you are smarter than me. I saw no exclusion for books, but I did laugh when I got to the paragraph about the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Paperwork.
Reduction.
Act.
Toss a book in a bin, that’ll do it!
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