Hi everyone!
When Kirk Cameron got started as a children's book author with Brave Books, he was rejected from some 50 libraries. Armed with children's books steeped in morality and Christian values, he attempted to hold story hours at public libraries—libraries that also held Drag Queen Story Hours—only to be told his stories did not align with the libraries' values. This past Saturday, he took his story hour to the Library of Congress.
It wasn't a smooth road to the Capitol. After the rejections, Cameron and Brave rented space at libraries to hold story hours and were overwhelmed with support from parents who brought their children out to their local libraries to hear stories about faith, family, and morality. Families had been inundated with messaging about LGBTQ lifestyles.
In fact, the San Francisco-based founders of Drag Queen Story Hour launched the project with the idea of getting their "glitter" so deep into the "carpet" that it would never come out. Drag Queen Story Hour was the intentional "queering" of early childhood education. "Drag," writes founders and authors Harper Keenan and Lil Miss Hot Mess, "is firmly rooted in play as a site of queer pleasure, resistance, and self-fashioning."
This is what Cameron and Brave Books were facing: an entire pedagogy intentionally designed to bring children into practice and acceptance of queer lifestyles, including everything from sex changes to so-called "pup play." Keenan and Lil Miss Hot Mess said that the structure of the Drag Story Hours should involve drag queens, "occasional kings or other gender-bending performers," reading books on "queer and/or trans characters, gender-transgressive themes, or narratives about not fitting in and finding one’s voice." The drag performers then lead children in crafts, such as "making wands or tiaras."
The same libraries that hosted Lil Miss Hot Mess' creation refused to host Cameron and Brave Books. It was astounding, and it was not what parents wanted. The launch of See You at the Library Day to counter it was more successful than they could have imagined. Families lined up around blocks to get in, they were finally feeling welcomed at their public libraries. Sure, there were protests, but they were drowned out.
What bigger triumph could there be than that of being hosted at the Library of Congress, where Cameron and other Brave authors read to children, as See You at the Library Days played out across America?
August 16, 2025 was not just the day See You at the Library Day hit Capitol Hill, but the day that these Brave Books story hours blossomed at libraries across the country. In DC, the event was sponsored by the Department of Education's Center for Faith and featured Brave Books authors reading to an auditorium full of families and children.
The Library of Congress is not only the largest library in the country but the largest repository of books and knowledge in the world. It was founded in 1800 and its gilded walls and arches have seen countless hours of research, study and scholarship. In just a few short years, Cameron and Brave Books went from being shut out, protested, and mocked to the most prestigious literary venue the country has ever known.
It was entirely and unequivocally a win. I talked to Kirk Cameron, Brave Books CEO Dr. Trent Talbot, Michael Knowles, and Missy Robertson about the project, the books, and where we are in the culture war.