This week I am trying to catch up with treasures that I have saved. I found this book 'First Breast Feeding' at the Bologna Children's Book Festival in the spring. It is a Korean book, illustrated by Cho Eun Young, about breast feeding created using expressive, monochrome line drawing. Due to the subject matter, it is so unlikely that this book would ever have been published in this country and I think it is amazing, wonderfully expressive and beautiful work.
All through this year books have come up in discussions and lectures that would not be published in this country. This censorship by market-driven publishing then extends to illustrators and authors who self-censor and avoid subjects, stories and work that they consider will be unpublishable. I find this very sad and worry about the limitations that this places on creativity, knowledge and culture.
