Writing last week about books as a source of resilience, I recalled that many years ago I regularly spent time with the principal of an elementary school in an impoverished community whose students needed the most of almost everything and got the least.

One of the consequential ways that disparity revealed itself was in access to books.

As I recall, children were not allowed to remove books from the library overnight, perhaps because of an inadequate replacement budget for the books that might not be returned.

The closest public library was beyond walking distance, reliable public transportation did not exist, and many parents worked long hours which prohibited frequent library visits. 

Some of these children undoubtedly had access to books at home and parents who cultivated the joy of being transported to other worlds through reading. 

But for those who didn't it is hard to overstate the effects of that deprivation on their early years and in the trajectory of their lives.

Through books children deepen their understanding of other people, places, and times. They acquire empathy and appreciation for the endurance of people revealed in history and biographies and that are imagined in fiction.

Sadly, today those benefits are threatened in many communities by those who want to deny young people access to books and ideas the censors regard as threatening.

(The Washington Post reported that at least two Florida counties directed teachers to remove or cover classroom books because a new state law restricting books applied to classroom as well as school libraries.)