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At College & Research Libraries News:

By using a familiar and well-liked local author, the sharp point of what harm censorship can really do to a community could be driven home in a way that it never could with the standard list that we all hang up every year.

I made the announcement—a simple two-sentence memo (on letterhead), placed on our Facebook wall. The angry reaction from students, faculty, alumni, and other “interested parties,” was immediate. A local newspaper reporter contacted Miller within 20 minutes of the posting. A Facebook protest page was created within a day and people from around the country were voicing their angry thoughts. One person even posted that he didn’t know books were still being banned.

We had gotten people’s attention.

(via GalleyCat)

From the Anniston Star:

The Star/University of Alabama team set out last fall to collect all book challenge forms filed in the past five years in the state's 132 city and county school districts and a few state-supported schools that aren’t part of typical districts. Some districts responded immediately; some responded after multiple requests for the forms, which are public record. 

Nine districts reported challenges, a few of which predated the five-year span of The Star’s records request. Seventy-seven districts reported no challenges in the past five years; 46 districts didn't provide any information at all. 

"I feel the most important things to consider when reviewing a book are: is the material appropriate for the age level, is the material well presented, (and) does the material support the curriculum of the school?" Teresa Offord, library media specialist at B.B. Comer High in Talladega County, told the newspaper.

A few titles are given (including, yes, the Vladimir Tod series), but I wasn't able to find a full list.

A book that frankly discusses sex and issues surrounding sex? Not pornography.

A book that frankly discusses rape and its emotional aftermath? Not pornography.

A book that frankly discusses the fact that teenagers engage in sexual activities? Not pornography, child or otherwise.

A book that frankly discusses the fact that some teenagers are victims of rape, and that some teenagers perpetrate rape? Also not pornography, child or otherwise.

Sex does not equal pornography.

Rape does not equal pornography.

A book that explores an issue does not necessarily glorify or condone that issue.

Acknowledgement that terrible things happen in real life does not equate to tacit approval.

The purpose of pornography is to titillate. To provide sexual gratification to the audience.

Speak? Is not pornography.

I don't understand why this is so difficult to understand.

I understand a reader being uncomfortable with it.

I understand a parent not wanting his or her own child to read it.

I do not understand why a parent would believe that his or her own beliefs would trump the beliefs of another family.

I do not understand why or how people continue to equate not just sex, but RAPE, as pornography.

That's all, I guess. 

I just needed to vent.

Thanks for bearing with me.

I'm going to go and bang my head against a wall now.

Related links: CBLDF, Laurie Halse Anderson, Watchdog Wire.

From an interview with Ted Dawe, at the New Zealand Herald:

I told him how much I loved the story My Dog, Your Dog, (on the Christchurch Library's website) which he wrote and Jane illustrated. It has never been published but it should be. It is very sweet and very funny and the pictures are magical and the very last thing you expect a moral polluter to have written. He said: "You've read that! Oh! Cool! You're the only person I've ever met who's read that."

There are no rude words in this little story. I did have to ask about the C word in his book. He told me a very funny story about using the word as a little boy playing Scrabble with his parents and grandmother. There was a terrible silence and finally his grandmother asked if he knew what the word meant. Of course he did. It meant "silly person" and he knew this because he and every other kid at school in Tokoroa called each other the word for silly person: "Every second sentence.

Previously.

From the New Zealand Herald:

Books For Kids owner Helen Le Heron said she found the book "unnecessarily graphic".

"It contained themes that were inappropriate for young teenagers. We have removed the books from our shelves," the Hamiltonian said.

She had contacted colleges that had bought the book from her shop and alerted them to the "explicit content" warning.

Some school librarians had since removed it from shelves until they had read it while others had restricted access to senior students, she said.

A selection of oft-challenged YA titles that, according to their website, the bookstore DOES stock: Looking for Alaska, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, The Hunger Games trilogy, Feed.

From an opinion piece at the New Zealand Herald:

Teachers and school librarians do teenagers a disservice when they point them towards books that need to shock to capture their interest. Teenagers are not shocked by the subject matter, of course. They can see worse without going to much trouble.

What might shock them is that teachers and librarians have put this stuff in front of them. Teenagers would never say so, but they do not want this sort of fare from their school any more than they would want it from their parents.

If teenagers "would never say so", I'd love to know how/why the author feels so comfortable in making such a sweeping generalization, but whatever.

One of the judges of the award, author Bernard Beckett defends the book—and the decision of the award committee—thusly:

"There's a massive difference between, 'Hey, look at this exciting world of sex and drugs and rock and roll', and 'Look at the damage being done to this young man because our society can't find a place for him to stand'. And within that context, hard-hitting material is crucial; it is what makes the book authentic, real and important."

Arcadia Books in Newmarket will not be stocking the book, and Family First has suggested that the author (and the judges) are "out to pollute the moral innocence of kids" as well as having called on the NZ Post to withdraw the award.

The author, meanwhile, says:

"I'd rather people reacted and hated it, or loved it, than people who are just bored by it."

"That's the key thing about books. You've got to grab people by the soul and give them a good shake."

Previously.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Legendary author Judy Blume joined the fight against the book's removal from Glen Ellyn District 41, and maybe her clout helped turn the tide. School board members voted 6-1 Monday evening to reinstate the book.

...

Blume mentioned the Glen Ellyn controversy while appearing Sunday at the Printers Row Lit Fest, where she accepted the Tribune's Young Adult Literary Prize. Blume said she planned to donate the award's $5,000 prize to the National Coalition Against Censorship, which also opposes the book's removal, in the students' honor.

From NBC Chicago:

"In this ultra-connected age, young people face countless challenges and temptations. Books like "perks" help kids to anticipate what they will likely encounter," said Brett Cooper, a teacher at Hadley Junior High School, speaking in support of the book. "Parents may benefit, too, by reading the book, discussing it with their kids and contemplating alternative responses to similarly challenging circumstances."

Previously.

From the Irish Times:

The Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt complained at Stormont that the teaching guide for Bog Child was evidence of bias and the worst kind of “politicisation of the classroom” under Sinn Féin’s direction.

Mr Nesbitt called for the book by the late London-Irish author Siobhan Dowd and the teaching notes supplied by the North’s Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) to be removed.

In response, the CCEA did not directly criticise Mr Nesbitt but said the book was not on the curriculum. It said it was one of a list of suggested books that teachers could use in the classroom for 14-year-old students.

...

“Let me be clear, this is not an attack on the book,” said Mr Nesbitt. “I have not read Bog Child, so have no opinion on its value as a piece of literature. But I have read the teaching notes, as endorsed by the Department of Education and I am stunned by what I read,” he added.

Walter Dean Myers' Monster has been retained for use in seventh grade classrooms in an Illinois school district (and, yes, they provide an alternate book for students/parents who object to the book):

Daniels, meanwhile, said she's very unhappy with the district's decision. She adds that the book, according to many reviews she's read, is actually intended for children no younger than 13.

She said some of her friends have opted for the alternative book, but their kids still have to sit in class while the book is discussed. Daniels added that she'll opt for the alternative if Monster is still is use when her child enters the seventh grade.

The fate of The Little Black Book for Girlz, meanwhile, is still up in the air at Taft High 7-12 in Lincoln City, Oregon:

“A classmate of my daughter checked the book out of the Taft High library and gave it to her,’ said O’Donnell. “All her friends had been talking about the book and when she brought it home she was kind of hiding it.”

O’Donnell described the book as “very graphic.”

“It is simply too graphic for a seventh grader and for my daughter,” said O’Donnell.

From the Tri-City Herald:

The Prosser School Board deadlocked on a vote to remove The Popularity Papers from some of its school libraries Tuesday night. That means a recommendation approved by Superintendent Ray Tolcacher to keep the book remains in place.

But board members did not support Tolcacher's recommendation to keep Dave Pelzer's A Child Called It on book shelves. The board tabled further discussion of what to do with the book when they were unable to reach a consensus.

Previously.

...from eighth-grade classrooms in Glen Ellyn, Illinois:

On Monday, those who spoke on this topic during public comment disagreed with the board's decision. Students said they didn't want their ability to read certain books to be determined by other parents in the district and board members, rather than their own parents. Many also said certain objectionable passages in the book were focused on rather than its overall message.

"This book gave me hope," said Carly Basler, Hadley eighth-grader. "This book inspired me. This book showed me my differences are my strengths."

Last week, some Hadley students demonstrated their support for the book by placing sticky notes with drawings of flowers and quotes from the book on walls in the school, Hadley teachers said. They also started their own petition, which was sent to board members, teachers said.

Previously.

...in Glen Ellyn, Illinois:

The Glen Ellyn School District 41 Board of Education on Monday has nixed a recommendation to keep a controversial novel in eighth-grade classrooms at Hadley Junior High School at after two parents requested to have it removed because of its mature content.

The book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, has been available to eighth graders in literacy classrooms for independent reading. Per the school's literacy curriculum, students could choose to read a book and put it down at any time.

...has been released.

It is as follows:

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey.
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
   Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
3. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
5. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group
6. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
8. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence
9. The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
10. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence

From the article:

A student-run New Mexico community college newspaper that was suspended this week after publishing an issue focusing on sex will be allowed to resume publication, school officials announced Wednesday.

Central New Mexico Community College spokesman Brad Moore said the CNM Chronicle has been authorized to continue operations immediately, and the papers will be returned to newsstands.

The papers were pulled off of the newsstands and the staff was suspended, which are both serious actions on the part of the college administration so the WP's title—Suspended NM community college paper to resume publication after outcry over ‘censorship’—reads as obnoxious and condescending to me.

But maybe I'm just being "sensitive".

I used to post about older books a lot more. Somewhere along the way, though, in an effort to keep up with the never-ending supply of review copies and new books at the library (and new books that I buy!), that except for the rare special series, I've gotten away from that.

So, for the foreseeable future, anyway, I'm going to start covering older titles on Fridays. And what better way to start than with The Perks of Being a Wallflower?

It begins:

August 25, 1991

Dear friend,

I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. Please don't try to figure out who she is because then you might figure out who I am, and I really don't want you to do that. I will call people by different names or generic names because I don't want you to find me. I didn't enclose a return address for the same reason. I mean nothing bad by this. Honest.

I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesn't try to sleep with people even if they could have. I need to know that these people exist.

That second paragraph breaks my heart. Which is an impressive feat, breaking a reader's heart before she even really gets to know the narrator. (And yes, this was a re-read, but it'd been so long that I may as well have been going in completely cold.) 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is, as you probably already know—at this point it's shifted, I think, from cult-classic status to modern-classic status—comprised of the letters that our narrator, Charlie, writes to an unnamed confidante over the course of his first year in high school. It's not surprising that it gets challenged again and again and again, as Charlie witnesses—and sometimes directly experiences—many of the very things that parents want to shield their children from: sexual assault, suicide, molestation. Add to that the empathetic and friendly portrayal of homosexuality, the profanity and the drug use, the frank talk about masturbation, and the brief mention of bestiality, and from some perspectives, I'm sure that the book looks like a veritable cornucopia of objectionable content.

The thing is, though—and the way that the book was embraced when it first came out, passed from hand to hand, locker to locker, backpack to backpack, backs me up on this—is that many adolescents not just want, but need to reflect on and talk about these things. Pretending they don't exist is impossible; we—and they—see them every day, if not in our own homes, then in the halls of our high schools or colleges, and certainly on tv.

But The Perks of Being a Wallflower isn't only about the scary things in our world: far from it. There are joys here—making deep and real connections with other people, loving them, feeling infinite—and those joys are every bit as important a part of Charlie's experience as the other parts. It's about a boy climbing out of darkness into the light, about finding his way from the fringes of life into a comfortable center, about a wallflower becoming a participant. And it's a book written with such honesty, that feels so profoundly human—to me, anyway—that even trying to articulate that feeling has me choked up and starting to cry.

So I'll just finish up by saying that it's a book in the same bloodline as The Catcher in the Rye, and deserves every bit of love that gets thrown its way.

BONUS POINTS: It's a book that stands up as literature, too, beyond its emotional impact: over the course of the book, Charlie's voice and writing style strengthens and changes and matures, but in a subtle and organic and believable way. It's so subtle, in fact, that it's almost undetectable as it happens, but if you finish the book and then immediately turn back to the beginning (as I did), it's quite striking.

____________________________

Author page.

____________________________

Amazon.

____________________________

Book source: Personal copy.

From the News-Leader:

“The committee voted unanimously to keep the book on the shelves with no restrictions,” Ritchie said.

Ritchie said that the committee did discuss the possibility of being more proactive about informing parents that they can place their own restrictions on what their children can access in the library.

From the News-Leader:

The middle school in Buffalo will soon decide whether to ban a “coming-of-age” novel — and it was the school’s own principal who made the formal complaint.

...

A grandparent of a Buffalo Prairie Middle School student raised concerns about Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s 2009 novel “Intensely Alice” to a counselor about a month ago, the Buffalo Reflex reports, but didn’t fill out the formal complaint form that would prompt school officials to consider removal.

However, principal Matt Nimmo reviewed the book after hearing of the grandparent’s complaint, the Reflex reports, and filed the formal complaint himself two days later.

So... that's going on.

From the Arizona Daily Sun:

But not everyone thinks his biography -- "Steve McQueen, King of Cool: Tales of a Lurid Life" -- should be on the shelves of the Flagstaff City-Coconino County Public Library.

The book was one of a handful that have been "challenged" by library patrons over the last few years in an attempt to have them removed or placed in a specific section of the building, explains Heidi Holland, the director for the local library district.

The article isn't really about a specific controversy, just about some of the books that have been challenged at the library over the years. Some entertaining bits in there, though.

At the NCAC:

And of course, some parents object to its sexual content.
Again, the sexual content is that the book mentions masturbation three times and boner four times. There is no sex. Nobody has sex. But in a couple of challenges back East—one in Missouri and one in Georgia—they actually invented sexual scenes. One woman claimed in a newspaper interview that the book contained blow-job lessons. And then another claimed that the lead character ran around grabbing women’s breasts.

From the Washington Post:

“It’s not about the author or the awards,” said Murphy, a mother of four whose eldest son had nightmares after reading “Beloved” for his senior-year Advanced Placement English class. “It’s about the content.”

AP level courses are college level courses.

In college, you read challenging texts.

AP level courses are not required.

And that is all I have to say about that.

...rounded up by the folks at the National Coalition Against Censorship.

And, hey, Judy Blume shares a birthday with my mother: So happy birthday to you both!

(ETA: The above makes the THIRD time I've wished my mother a happy birthday today. WHEW.)

Here are a couple of excerpts from the story, but I'd suggest clicking through and reading the whole thing. (The committee is due to discuss The Popularity Papers today. ETA: Or yesterday, I should say, as the article was dated 2/6.)

From the Yakima Herald:

A committee of administrators, teachers, parents and a student on Tuesday recommended that a book challenged for its graphic depiction of child abuse remain available to seventh- and eighth-graders at Housel Middle School.

...

Korb said he was disappointed by the committee’s recommendation and will wait to see what Tolcacher does before deciding his next step. In addition to questioning the committee’s rationale for keeping the book in the libraries, he also questioned why the committee is composed entirely of women.

“If we’re willing to sacrifice the many for the one, that’s a problem,” Korb said, referring to Wheeler’s statement.

Previously.

From the Yakima Herald:

Richard Korb, a social studies teacher at Prosser High School, has formally challenged the books for depictions of child abuse and profanity and what he says is the promotion of homosexuality.

It’s the first time in at least eight years that books have been formally challenged in the Prosser School District, said Mary Snitily, assistant superintendent.

Korb was unavailable to discuss the challenges but a flier signed by him and forwarded to the Yakima Herald-Republic said he wants the books banned. It does not mention simply restricting them to certain ages.

The two books in questions are Dave Pelzer's A Child Called It and Amy Ignatow's The Popularity Papers. Unsurprisingly, Pelzer's book is being challenged due to the child abuse & profanity. Ignatow's book, however, is being challenged for "promotion of the homosexual agenda". Because, you know, depicting a character with two fathers—acknowledging that such families exist in our world—is promoting an agenda. 

I would go on, but I think I'm coming down with the plague* and I just don't have the energy. So, like that time that Buffy was going off into battle and wasn't in the right mindframe to come up with a quip: think of something pithy and intelligent and wise, and just imagine that I said it.

_________________________________

*Aaaaaaaaaaaaaag.

From the Effingham Daily News:

She added all the library's sections are open to every age, meaning if the book were moved to the adult section, teenagers would still be allowed to check it out.

Although the ultimate decision was to leave the book in the teen section, the board commended Esker for keeping track of what her children are reading.

"Obviously, your daughter has taken on your values," said Secretary Jane Wise.

Discounting the whole challenge thing, this story was actually a nice example of a younger reader holding her hand up and saying, "WHOA. THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR ME."

I mean, obviously, the parent took that statement and went a step further to "IF IT'S NOT FOR YOU, IT'S NOT FOR ANYONE YOUR AGE", which is problematic, but still. 

...have been announced.