Ten-year-old Nicola Liebke wrote to The Canberra Times to express her dismay at Woden Library for refusing to stock books written by British children's writer Enid Blyton.

"I do love Enid Blyton books and so do a number of my friends. But [the government] won't allow them in the Woden Library," she said.

"I think we should be allowed to read what we want to read and they should read what they want to read. They should not tell us you cannot read that or see this or go there or not go there."

A Canberra public librarian, Anthony Ketley, said that the policy of public libraries to not buy books by Enid Blyton had been in existence since about 1964.

"The long-standing policy not to buy Enid Blyton books is based mainly on the grounds that we feel the general run of children's literature has a lot more to offer," he said.

"It is generally believed there are social attitudes, racist and anti-authority, in some of the books in a way which puts down the system."

Even during the 1960s and '70s, the views expressed in Blyton's work were controversial.

These concerns included "gollywog" characters in Toyland, the use of racial slurs, and female characters who were told that they would not ever be as good as boys.

It wasn't just politics that was a concern.

Blyton's work was considered to be repetitive and basic by many educators and librarians.

BBC schools department head Jean Suttclife is credited for saying in an internal memo from 1938 that "[Blyton's] stories might do for Children's Hour but they haven't much literary value."

Despite public libraries not stocking the author, the books were not censored in Australia more broadly.

Nicola's friend and next-door neighbour, Anthony Drabsch, had a rather large stash of the controversial books.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/12381039