Library books aren’t required reading like textbooks are, but they can play a big role in a child’s education. As activists and politicians bring book banning back into the education debate, one group of Texas parents are fighting back. They want their kids to read stories that center diversity – and in the case of one contentious book, they won.
Library books aren’t required reading like textbooks are, but they can play a big role in a child’s education. As activists and politicians bring book banning back into the education debate, one group of Texas parents are fighting back. They want their kids to read stories that center diversity – and in the case of one contentious book, they won.
Teaching Texas is a new audio documentary from Wonder Media Network that uncovers the surprising history behind America’s latest culture war.
WMN on Twitter: @wmnmedia
Grace Lynch on Twitter: @gracelynch08
Teaching Texas
Chapter 6: Who Draws The Line?
Transcript
[News clip – Newscasters]
Texas Republicans are launching an investigation into what types of books school districts have, specifically ones that pertain to race and sexuality. In a letter to the Texas Education Agency, lawmakers pointed to Texas districts that recently removed books from classrooms after parent complaints.
GRACE
Last October, Texas state Representative Matt Krause compiled a list of 849 books. He said these books might make students feel “psychological distress because of their race or sex.”
The list included titles like An African American and Latinx History of the United States, Gender Queer, and The Abortion Debate.
Representative Krause’s list was sent to school districts all across the state of Texas – along with a demand: Figure out how many copies of these books are in your libraries.
Carrie Damon:
Ummm, am I allowed to say I was pissed off? [laughter] I was pissed off.
GRACE
That’s Carrie Damon. She’s been a middle school librarian in Texas for twenty years.
Carrie Damon:
Oh, I was mad. So the first thing I did, because I'm me, is I found every book on that list that we had in the library and I pulled it and I put it on display. Check it out while you still can!
GRACE
Representative Krause didn’t say exactly what he wanted schools to do with these books. But the implication was pretty clear: get rid of them.
Carrie Damon:
The books on there are very, obviously…there's no rhyme or reason. Some of 'em are old. And a whole bunch of that list was LGBT and what they say is CRT. It's not. You know, it's just basically anything that talks about race, racism, civil rights, any of that stuff, they’re like oh, it’s CRT!
GRACE
Representative Krause’s letter was unprecedented. But Carrie didn’t take it too seriously. She had a masters degree in library science. He was a politician looking to score some easy political points ahead of his run for district attorney. He had no idea what he was talking about.
Carrie Damon:
But the district right next door to us, they did pull all the books for review. And that just…I went from angry to sad. It was like, wait, what?
GRACE
So far in this season, we’ve spent most of our time talking about how activists and politicians have worked to limit what kids learn inside of the classroom.
But now, more than ever, those same folks are also working to limit the stories kids have access to outside of the classroom, in their school libraries. Their efforts are forcing librarians, educators, and parents to reckon with what books kids should read. And who gets the power to decide.
From Wonder Media Network, I’m Grace Lynch, and this is Teaching Texas, episode six.
Every year, Carrie celebrates Banned Books Week with the kids in her district. She takes it very seriously.
Carrie Damon:
Everybody on my campus, all the staff, they call it my high holy week. They know it's my favorite thing. I always do a display. I always do a lesson with the eighth graders.
GRACE
Banned Books Week is an annual, national celebration that aims to remind kids that they have the right to read anything they want. It was started in the 1980s, as a retaliation to the surge of book bannings taking place across the US. That's right around the same time the Gablers were reaching the peak of their power.
The Gablers themselves never focused on library books, but their objection strategy was replicated by parents across the country, for textbooks and for library books.
Because even though library books aren’t required reading like textbooks are, they can play a big role in a child’s education.
Carrie Damon:
I just feel like if you read about more experiences outside of yourself, you're gonna become a more empathetic human being. You're gonna be a better human because you're gonna see things from other points of view and you're gonna live things, experiences that you would not have otherwise had an opportunity to live. And that just, it, it makes you a better person to other people and better able to participate in a democracy where you've gotta balance all those people.
GRACE
Library books have the power to shape the way a kid views the world. That’s why Carrie is so passionate about resisting book bans.
As part of her banned books lesson, Carrie shows her kids a list of the top ten challenged books from that year - compiled by the American Library Association - and asks them: what do these books tend to have in common?
Carrie Damon:
And they are very quick to point out, you know, it's all sexuality and racism. Like that's all of 'em people have problems with them based on race and sex. And I'm like, yeah, pretty much!
GRACE
The school district Carrie works at is diverse. A lot of the kids that she’s teaching are Black or brown. A lot of them are queer. It’s not lost on her students that these books are banned for having characters who are just like them.
But when Carrie has taught this in the past - honestly, kids didn’t care that much. No one was really trying to ban these books in their libraries. These conversations were mostly hypothetical.
But things have changed. And so Carrie has started raising the alarm with her students.
Carrie Damon:
These past couple years I'm like, y'all, this is not a drill, you know, this is real, pay attention to the news. And most of them don't because you know, the news is boring and they're eighth graders, they're 14, they don't care. But when I hit 'em with the race based and the LGBT based stuff, that's usually gets them where they live. Because if they aren't represented by one of those groups, they know somebody and they're close to somebody. And so they feel like it's an attack on them.
GRACE
In Texas, there is a specific process for parents who want a book removed from their child's library.
First, they go to the school librarian. If the librarian and the parent can’t come to an agreement between themselves, a committee is assembled. A group comprised of librarians, parents, teachers and administrators all read the book. Then they decide together whether to retain or remove it.
Carrie Damon:
And I've been on a couple of those committees in my district and everyone I've been on we've we've retained.
GRACE
But in recent years, that process has changed. Now, instead of one parent taking issue with one book, entire activist organizations or politicians are taking issue with whole categories of books.
Carrie Damon:
It feels more systematic. It feels more…they aren't reading the books. You know, it used to be like a, “I have a problem with this book” and now it's like, “I have a problem with all of the books about this topic” or “all of the books by this author”. And it's um, I always forget the group. I think I block it. That…all the moms? What is that group?
GRACE
“That group” is Moms for Liberty. They’ve made monitoring and challenging school library books a priority. And to do that, instead of following the process Carrie described, they’ll often go straight to school board meetings and demand that all books that contain references to gender identity or supposed Critical Race Theory get banned.
When I spoke to the Mom’s for Liberty co-founder, Tiffany Justice, she talked to me about why this cause was so important to them.
Tiffany Justice:
For our children to be taught in school that somehow half of them might be oppressed and half of them might be oppressor. Um, I don't think we've really taken a step back and looked at what that's doing to children psychologically.
GRACE
Tiffany Justice told me that she’s worried if teachers and librarians give kids these books that contain themes of sexuality and race it will fundamentally change them. Turn them into social justice warriors, or put them at risk of being forced into gender transition. To her, it’s a parents responsibility to shield their child from those dangers.
Tiffany Justice:
The role of a, a, an adult and a child's life is very important. We very much feel a sense of duty to raise our children and, and, and schools and teachers, uh, are not parents. They do not raise our children. So we'd like to very much see the boundaries between school and home redefined, and we're working very hard to do that.
GRACE
But most teachers, and librarians like Carrie, aren’t trying to raise their students. Carrie knows that every parent draws lines at home for their kid. And she teaches her kids to respect their own parents' lines.
Carrie Damon:
We usually have a joke about, you know, everybody in here knows what their parents' lines are. And most of you know that mom and dad have different lines. And that's why you go to one for certain things and you go to the other one for certain things and they all giggle, you know, like, yeah, yeah, we do. We totally play our parents like that.
GRACE
Since her students know their parents' lines, it’s their responsibility to choose books that are within those boundaries.
Carrie Damon:
When the kids come up to check out books, I'll tell 'em flat out, hey, look, I know that this book has the F-bomb in it, or, you know, lots of violence or some gang issues or a gay character. I'll tell 'em. And, and they know I tell them so that they can make the decision. Not because I'm going to take the book away. ‘Cause it needs to be their decision. And I've had kids say, “Ooh, that's yeah…That's not what I want– thought it was about. Can I put it back?” Absolutely. Go put it back, find something else. And then the next kid line is usually, “Ooh, I want that”.
GRACE
Tiffany wants to extend the line she draws as a parent past her home - and into the school district. Making it so that all those kids have to be conscious of her boundaries, not just their parents boundaries.
When moms like Tiffany demand school districts take certain books off the shelves, the consequences go way beyond their own children.
Take the example of Drama, a graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier. The book features queer students, and normalizes their experiences. A lot of people praise the book for that. But, Drama is also one of the most challenged books in the country. Many parents and organizations -- including Moms for Liberty – fought to get it banned from schools.
Moms for Liberty didn’t protest it in Carrie’s school district specifically. But the book still ended up getting banned from the district’s elementary schools.
Carrie Damon:
We have what, 110,000 kids in our district. So when one parent complained about the gay characters in Drama and they got that book removed from the elementary schools that probably affected about 70,000 kids. And do you think that of those 70,000 kids there aren't some that know they're gay? Or have gay parents, gay siblings, gay friends?
GRACE
Since Drama was only banned in the district’s elementary schools, the second the kids graduate to middle school, they make a beeline for it.
Carrie Damon:
The entire first semester it's constantly checked out, making the rounds of the sixth grade. What I find with kids is that if they aren't ready for certain things, they don't seek them out. And if they are, they will, they will run you over to get to them.
GRACE
When I was in the 4th grade, I was a voracious reader - and a little annoyingly precocious. I distinctly remember feeling a bit underwhelmed by the books I was ‘supposed’ to be reading. So I ventured into the ‘middle school’ section of my school library and selected a book that I believe had the word ‘snogging’ in the title. It seemed really “grown up”.
I checked it out with a volunteer who wasn’t our typical librarian. And when I went to renew the book, our regular librarian, Mr. Wolf, told me it was “too mature” for me. And he returned it to the shelves. Unlike Carrie, he didn’t trust me to make my own decisions about what I could and couldn’t read.
Now, in general, I don’t respond super well to people doubting my abilities and this really didn’t sit well. So I went back, swapped out the book jacket cover with another book, checked it back out and finished it. I didn’t let Mr. Wolf stand in the way of what I wanted. Looking back, I’m pretty proud of my 10-year-old self.
I recognized that at the library, I could choose to read stories that I wouldn’t encounter in the classroom.
That’s precisely why the Gablers never focused their attention on library books - they’re optional. Kids don’t have to read them like they have to read textbooks.
But that’s also why library books are so important. When kids read library books, they get exposed to a much wider set of stories. And those stories can help them grow.
Plenty of parents understand this. But like we saw with the Gablers, the loudest voices in the book banning debate tend to be the ones protesting books, not the ones supporting them.
That is - until another group of parents entered the fray.
While in Texas, we stopped at the Round Rock Public Library, right outside of Austin. We were there to talk to two moms who fought to keep a library book on the shelves - Natosha Daniels and Meenal McNary.
They had an incredibly calming presence about them. When we sat down to talk, Meenal was holding her five year old daughter, who promptly fell asleep in her arms and remained like that the entire interview. If you listen closely to the tape, you can hear her little snores.
Natosha and Meenal are also both members of the Round Rock Black Parents Association, a tight-knit community of parents with Black kids in Round Rock. The group started in 2015, as a response to a Black student being choke-slammed by a police officer at Round Rock High School.
Natosha Daniels:
I mean he wasn't even doing anything, which they never are, right. Nothing warrants choking, choke slamming a 14 year old child. But, basically the district was not holding the officer accountable and black parents organized and started going to board meetings and speaking up like demanding accountability.
GRACE
That voice you’re hearing is Natosha Daniels. She’s the Chief Systems Navigator of the Round Rock Black Parents Association. She’s also a former educator and is now a doctoral student at the University of Texas.
In Round Rock ISD, Black students make up only nine percent of the population. They’re hypervisible - everything they do attracts extra scrutiny from their teachers, who are overwhelmingly white.
It’s a situation that breeds the kind of violence Natosha described. Which is why the Black parents of Round Rock ISD decided to form a coalition.
Natosha Daniels:
We were like, this has to stop. Like there is a pattern of black students being treated– mistreated in round rock ISD from test scores to discipline, to underrepresentation and gifted programs, all the things that you see across the country, it's the same. I think the original objective was stopping the trauma, like as fast as possible. And then now we've evolved into a larger focus and I'll, let Meenal talk about that if you –
Meenal McNary:
Yeah. So now, you know, our mission to unify, mobilize and uplift the community. And we wanna garner support for parents in our district who are fighting for their child, fighting in all shapes, ways and forms academically, physically, safety-wise, emotionally, in every aspect.
GRACE
So when some parents at Round Rock ISD tried to ban a book that they said contained ‘Critical Race Theory’, the Round Rock Black Parents Association fought back.
It all started when a teacher in Round Rock ISD put the book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You on her curriculum.
Stamped is by Ibram Kendi and Jason Reynolds. The book aims to teach kids about the history of racism and anti-racism – so that kids can learn how to build a better, less racist world.
A parent saw that this teacher was assigning the book to students, and called for it to be removed from the shelves. So the teacher started a petition arguing that the book should remain. She reached out to the Round Rock Black Parents for help. And they started collecting thousands of signatures.
Meenal McNary:
We advise people, hey, you know, one parent should not be able to make the decision for everyone else's child. If they are uncomfortable with the material in the book – which is by the way, factual and history – then they should not be able to dictate what happens for everybody else.
GRACE
The parents who wanted Stamped banned were also going to those school board meetings and making their objections heard. But unlike the Gabler-era politeness, these parents were often combative.
Meenal McNary:
There is a group of, a very vocal minority group who attends boards meetings regularly. Who are hateful, racist, scary to be in the presence of as a matter of fact. And that's why a lot of black and brown folks don't attend board meetings is because it's not safe. And we will not advise people to go to board meetings where it's not safe and the police aren't going to help.
GRACE
This vocal minority holds a lot of power. At these meetings, they often created an atmosphere that felt dangerous. Meenal’s husband experienced that firsthand:
Meenal McNary:
He got accused recently of trying to assault, um, another white woman that was there. And he didn't even look at her, talk to her, nothing. But she pointed a finger at him and said, “you touched me!” And he had not done anything.
GRACE
White women falsely accusing Black men of assault is pretty run-of-the-mill racism. And at that school board meeting, this woman joined a long line of white American women before her; in repeating a racist history.
It’s impossible to talk about the history of American education without talking about white women. For as long as education has been a political fight in this country, white women have been at the center of it – usually, white moms. Norma Gabler talked about being a mom constantly when she was teaching parents how to object to textbooks. When I talked to Tiffany Justice, she did the same.
Tiffany Justice:
A mom will not fight for anything like they will fight for their child. I saw recently in New York Times there was an Op-Ed that said that maternal instinct is a, uh, I guess basically a social construct. It was created by men. Um, what a joke that is, we know that isn't true, moms know that's nonsense.
GRACE
Whether you buy that or not – education is a place where mothers have been able to claim real political power. But what’s concerning is the kinds of mothers claiming this power: middle-class, straight , white women. They are typically wealthy enough to stay at home full time to raise their kids. And tend to assume full responsibility for monitoring their education.
These women also are rarely in solidarity with their counterparts who are poor, queer, or non-white. For example, white women have played a big role in segregating schools since the late 1800s.
When white women today protest at local school board meetings, they’re trying to make schools into a place tailor-made for their kids. Places where any books that discuss race are banned, and CRT is a dirty word.
And a lot of politicians take their opinions very seriously. White women are an incredibly influential voting bloc. Particularly suburban white women who’ve strayed from Republicans during the Trump era. Which could be why politicians like Texas Governor Greg Abbott, desperate to win them back, are campaigning on things like “parental rights”.
But parents of Black children, like Meenal, actually want their kids to have a basic understanding of CRT.
Meenal McNary:
What we want to teach our kids is to think critically. But critical race theory is a, a great explanation for the foundation of this country and the, the racism that this country is built on. So yes, people should have a basic understanding of what it is, but it's nothing scary to understand.
GRACE
To be clear – Meenal isn’t saying that kids should learn Critical Race Theory itself in class. That actual theory -- created by the law professor Kimberly Crenshaw -- is a graduate level concept. Meenal -- who has a doctorate -- couldn’t even finish Crenshaw’s book. That’s how jargony it is.
But - Meenal doesn’t see anything wrong with kids learning America’s racist past. When she read Stamped, she thought it was wonderful.
Meenal McNary:
It is a great historical book. My son who's in now, eighth grade, loved it and he would talk to his friends about it.
GRACE
But, a lot of the white women who often control these school board meetings disagreed with Meenal. They also took it one step further: they didn’t want their kids reading anything that has to do with race, period.
The operative word here, again, is their kids.
In Round Rock, Black kids are actively trying to read more books that center characters of color. Meenal’s son even helped start a Round Rock Black Students Book Club.
Meenal McNary:
And so they're two incoming eighth graders now who they've each pick a book every month. Um, and it can be any whatever book they like. And um, we hold a zoom meeting one Saturday a month. And so our next one is gonna be in July and it's gonna feature a local author from Round Rock, Varian Johnson, um, who is phenomenal. And they're reading, Playing the Cards you're Dealt. So they're really excited. And that book also was, um, one of the censorship lists. So they're excited to bring him in. They’ve had teachers show up, um they’ve had parents show up, other kids just show up just to listen in. Um but it’s a good group. And it’s something they look forward to. And they lead it.
GRACE
And when I talked to Carrie Damon, she told me that the kids of color she teaches at her middle school aren’t scared of reading about racism.
Carrie Damon:
They roll their eyes and, and and kind of laugh it off because they're like, “Oh, you mean, they're finally figuring out there's racism? Like that's the world…that's how the world operates, and they're like mad about this now? Like what?! That doesn't make any sense.” They're like we have always known, this is how things work and you know, and now they're just, we're seeing it in the books and people are getting mad about it, but that the books are just telling the truth. That's how it's always been.
GRACE
These books are just telling the truth. And if you’re a Black kid going to a predominantly white high school, and you see another Black kid get, say, choked by a police officer, and then you watch that police officer not being held accountable at all…the library is a place you can go to find stories that help you make sense of that experience.
But let’s be clear: these books don’t just help Black kids. They help all kids. Every kid in America has to learn how to make sense of the country they have found themselves in. Understanding the roots of racism, and examining our own unconscious biases, that can help all of us understand ourselves, and our world, better. No matter what race we are.
And maybe part of that learning does involve white kids feeling uncomfortable. But when I talked to Natosha, she told me that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Natosha Daniels:
The only place you grow is within discomfort. If you're comfortable all the time, you're never learning. You're never growing. Like I tell my students all the time, if this is hard for you, that means you're learning. Like we're gonna keep pushing until you get it. And that's, I mean, that's all I, I have to say. Like I think, I think when people phrase that question, it, it puts the, it [sigh]. Like what about my children? Like, are they supposed to continue living the rest of their lives uncomfortable because they were born into that discomfort?
GRACE
The Round Rock Black Parents answer to that question was - no. That’s why they fought so hard to keep Stamped from being banned. And in the end - they won.
Meenal McNary:
My son made public comment. My mother made public comment. There was a lot of people that came out. We got thousands of signatures on the petition and word got out. And come time for the school board meeting that day, the school board trustees voted five to two to keep the book on the curriculum. And so it stayed. And that was a huge victory for that book specifically and our children.
GRACE
Groups like Moms for Liberty are incredibly vocal about their desire to not have their kids learn about racism. But this victory proved that actually, a lot of parents in Texas - of all races - want their kids to have access to books that teach them how to be anti-racist.
Meenal McNary:
These people exist, that that don't want these negative consequences for their children, that don't want these outcomes. They want to fight for their, their white children to read these books, to be exposed to these things so that when they grow up, it's not, “oh, you feel bad about this, Chad?” No, you're going to get up and do the work. You're gonna get up and make a change, instead of going to your closet and crying about who you are.
Natosha Daniels:
And maybe we should disclaim that no “Chads” were harmed in the making of…
Meenal McNary:
Yes, no “Chads” were harmed in the making. I'm sorry, that's just, just generic…
Grace:
No, no, it’s correct.
Natosha Daniels:
Or maybe they were, but ask me if I care.
[laughter]
GRACE
I had come to the Round Rock Public Library to hear Natosha and Meenal talk about how they won. How they kept Stamped on the shelves.
But in the hour and a half that I spent with them, they kept reminding me that their fight against book bans was just one part of a larger whole. What they were really fighting against was white supremacy.
Natosha Daniels:
It makes perfect sense if you think about the larger scope of what the book bans do and like what they are looking for. Like this is such a larger connection to white domination, white supremacy. Our current reality, necessitates violence toward black people
GRACE
Natosha and Meenal believe that to eradicate white supremacy, we have to unlearn it. And - maybe even more importantly - we have to teach our kids to unlearn it. By making books like Stamped available.
Natosha Daniels:
And it takes an unlearning, again if we taught this in schools we wouldn't have it. And I think that's the fear, right? That is the whole like, well, if they understand their power as a collective, then our power is threatened. So I think again, that goes back to like making sure we have an ignorant populace. So that collective, collective liberation never happens.
GRACE
Natosha, Meenal, Carrie - they are all working towards that collective liberation.
But that fight takes a toll.
Carrie Damon is planning on retiring as a librarian - in large part because of how frustrated she is by conservative activists’ attacks. Natosha ended up leaving her job as an educator, largely because of the racism she experienced. And Meenal pulled her children out of their public school for the same reason.
Meenal McNary:
Because of the trauma that they have endured they are not in public schools any longer. And now they're in a charter school and I have all hopes of taking them back into public education, but to what? What is public education for me? Eventually I'd love it to be a place where my child is free, happy to see himself in, in every aspect of the curriculum. And learn about his people in every aspect of the curriculum. And it be something that is the default. Because why not?
GRACE
I think losing folks like Natosha, Meenal and Carrie from the public education system is a big net loss.
When you’re up against people like Don McLeroy, or Neal Frey, or the Gablers - these people who are sure their views are correct, and who have the power to bake those views into educational policy - imagining a world where we are all collectively liberated can feel really hard. If not impossible.
But still - Natosha and Meenal and the Round Rock Black Parents Association are working towards that dream of liberation. And they have hope that that dream is possible.
Natosha Daniels:
Mariame Kaba. She says hope is a practice. And I think I have to practice real hard in these times. And I think we all do, right? Like, and, and hope is not meaning like we're like happy or that we're like, like hope is knowing that we are this small piece of, of the timeline. And we do what we can in this timeline to move things forward.
GRACE
We’ve been talking a lot this season about the importance of the stories we teach our children in public schools.
In our first episode, Joan DelFattore told us about the Holocaust deniers who argued that removing the story of the Holocaust from textbooks would mean that it essentially never happened. The parents trying to ban books in schools today are following similar logic: if kids can’t read stories about racism or gender identity or sexuality, it’s like those things don’t exist.
But… the Holocast did happen. Queer people and racism exist. Educators like Natosha strongly believe that If we want to equip our kids to enter the real world, we should be giving them access to more diverse stories, not fewer.
Kids respond to whatever stories we tell them. whether that story comes from a library book - or a teacher.
When I spoke to Natosha, she told me a counterintuitive piece of advice she got from a fellow teacher about how to deal with a student with a reputation for being disruptive who was about to join Natosha’s class. The teacher told her, instead of warning him to behave, or disciplining him early on, tell that kid all the wonderful stories you’ve heard about him.
Natosha Daniels:
And I was like, Ooh, that's a good idea. I tried it on my first day. This child came into my classroom and was everything I said, plus some. And, and teachers were having all kind of behavior problems, and I was like, no, because I had told him when he came in, he was going to be everything. And he was all these great things. And I was so excited to have him in my classroom. And he, he performed that way.
GRACE
When we tell kids that who they are should be banned, and hidden away, they’ll respond to that. But when we fill kids with stories that affirm their humanity, and challenge them to make the world better… they’ll respond to that instead.
All the parents and educators we’ve talked to want a say in deciding what stories their kids are told. But as these people grow louder, their opinions are influencing more than just their local school district.
This fall, the Texas State Board of Education was slated to revise the social studies TEKS - for the first time since Don McLeroy revised them in 2010. So in the midst of the CRT backlash, the board had to decide what version of American history will become true in Texas public schools.
[Clips of Testimony from the State Board of Education Meeting]
Speaker 1:
We implore you to reject the radical revamp of the K-12 social studies TEKS and get back to true American history.
Speaker 2:
Your priority is the social engineering of our children into global citizens.
Speaker 3:
We the parents, we do feel rushed. And what they went through with the thousands of hours ain’t nothing compared to what we will see at the ground level.
GRACE
Next week on Teaching Texas, the politics around CRT collide with the State Board of Education.
Teaching Texas is created by me, Grace Lynch. It’s produced by myself, and Adesuwa Agbonile. Our editor is Lindsey Kratochwill. Production Assistance by Sara Schleede. Jenny Kaplan is our executive producer. Original theme music by Chelsea Daniel.