A children’s book that reportedly knocks religion and praises Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been distributed to public school libraries, the New York Post reported Saturday.
“What You Don’t Know: A Story of Liberated Childhood,” written by and illustrated by Anastasia Higginbotham, which reportedly appears on a fifth-grade independent reading list, revolves around a black, “queer” boy named Demetrius struggling to fit in at school and church. At one point in the story, Demetrius’ spirit is depicted meeting a character that appears to be Jesus, who tells him that everyone is invited to love and be loved, including an unnamed white man on the page that appears to resemble Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Higginbotham confirms that the character is indeed Sen. McConnell during a book reading on a YouTube video, the New York Post reported. (RELATED: Congressman Writes Children’s Book To Be ‘Part Of The Solution’ For Woke Education)
“That’s Mitch McConnell. And the child wants to know if even Mitch McConnell is invited to love and be loved considering all the harm he is causing,” Higginbotham says in the video.
AOC, along with fellow members of “the Squad,” including Democratic Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar reportedly appear on a TV as Demetrius watches with his parents later in the book, where its narrator espouses rewriting of rules and resetting world balance.
“We will rewrite the rules we live by and love the world into balance,” the narrator says.
This book for NYC school kids has AOC instead of ABCs https://t.co/V0FtoJHPDx pic.twitter.com/tX0gmfEs5k
— New York Post (@nypost) May 22, 2022
The book has reportedly been met with parental criticism for its political themes and alleged anti-Catholicism, according to the Post. P.S. 3 in Staten Island’s Pleasant Plains neighborhood has reportedly declined to distribute the book to their library after the book’s content was brought to administrators’ attention, the outlet noted.
“I never expected people who cling to the oppressive, dying institutions of patriarchy and white supremacy to like that book,” said Higginbotham in a statement to the Post.
Higginbotham is also the author of another controversial children’s book, “Not My Idea“, which reportedly teaches that whiteness is the devil. The book, along with other children’s books that appear to highlight the praxis of Critical Race Theory, are reportedly featured on the New York City Department of Education’s new Universal Mosaic Curriculum set to be implemented next year.
