Challenge roundup: Repulsive Pornography.

• In North Carolina, a challenge* that resulted in the removal of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents from classrooms and school libraries has spurred a larger search for literature that might possibly become problematic:

In the wake of the Johnston challenge, the school board asked administrators to check all of the books in high school libraries and classrooms against lists of commonly challenged books to weed out other offensive material.

According to the associate superintendent, books on the lists will not necessarily be automatically removed from the schools.  They'll just look at them.  It wasn't clear if the "offensive" books that get looked at will be formally reviewed before removal.

*According to the challengers, the theme of the book is "pornography". 

• After hearing it read aloud, out of context, a passage of Sarah Dessen's Just Listen has been labeled "repulsive" by a school board chairwoman and a really crappy headline.  (Uh, yeah.  Rape/attempted rape/sexual assault?  All repulsive.  Just Listen?  Not repulsive.  It's a super book that deals with the fallout of an attempted rape, and I'd assume that it's probably been a big help to some girls out there.  As for the graphic nature of the passage, well... it's pretty effing graphic in real life.)  The book will now be stickered "For Mature Readers" in all Hillsborough high schools. 

The mother who originally challenged the book has taken the book's non-removal philosophically: 

Still, Burt said she will not forbid her daughter, who usually reads mysteries, from reading the book because she thinks she will want to read it even more.

"I'm just going to let her read it and then discuss the issue with her," she said.

Sarah Dessen responds.

Comments

[Rebekah]

What repulses me is that so many people in the comments on the Dessen book seem to AGREE with pulling the book, because of the "smut" therein.
Nothing EVEN HAPPENS in that ONE semi-explicit scene.
(well, yes, there's an attempted rape. That happens. But. It isn't "dirty")
I read Just Listen and I truly loved it; Sarah Dessen tackles a lot of difficult topics and she was my first Young Adult Author fixation.
Once again I'm extremely grateful I have the parents that I have.
Huzzah for openminded gaurdians!