bookshelves of doom

I called it!

Two years ago, when I read Adam Selzer's How to Get Suspended and Influence People, I said that I wouldn't be surprised to see it get challenged.

Thank you, lady in Idaho, for making me right.

The flipside of Banned Books Week.

It brings "objectionable" books to the attention of those who would have them banned.

Be sure not to miss the comments.

Here's another brief (sensationalized) story (for which the writer clearly did little to no research -- the book list the teacher used for her Banned Books Week display was explained thusly:  "This book is banned in other school districts across the country on what's called a 'Banned Book List.'") about the situation, and in case you're wondering, it's all taking place at William Byrd High School* in Vinton, Virginia. 

Aaaand now I want to re-read Perks of Being a Wallflower.  But, no.  I MUST RESIST.  I need to stick to my All Cybils** All The Time plan for the next few months.

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*They get points because their mascot is a terrier.  They lose points for taking the books off of the library shelf before the challenge procedure is completed.  Unless that's part of their official challenge procedure.  Which is possible, albeit strange.

**Don't forget to nominate!

More vulgarity discovered at the Leesburg Public Library.

The two mothers who so disliked The Bermudez Triangle and the Gossip Girl series have found many, many more books to be concerned about.

Due to the uproar over titles like John Green's Looking for Alaska and Louise Rennison's Startled by His Furry Shorts, Garret Freymann-Weyr's My Heartbeat and Sonya Sones' One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies, the city commissioners of Leesburg voted 4-1 to (if I'm understanding the article correctly) split the young adult collection into a "high school"  young adult collection and an-unnamed-but-again-I-assume "younger" young adult collection.

John Green = Not Pleased.

I think it's odd that this is all going on during Banned Books Week and yet the story doesn't seem to have made it into the more mainstream news -- especially when it seems that there are some who are calling for the books in question to not just be moved, but pulled from the library altogether:

But Art Ayris, executive pastor at First Baptist Church of Leesburg, and Fechtel contend that moving all the high-school books is overkill and doesn't address the problem.

"If they move all the books, the indecent ones are still in with the decent ones and that's not accomplishing anything," Fechtel said.

So MOVING the books in question is overkill, but REMOVING the books in question is not?  I guess not, because the books that would be removed are indecent, at least according to the standards of the people raising the challenge.  So obviously everyone else in town must have those same standards.

I think that's what is being suggested here. 

[A few minutes later: 

But then this article makes it all even more complicated:  It sounds like the group isn't asking for the books to be removed altogether, but for them to be marked with a "Mature Audiences" sticker.  While the library seems comfortable enough with the Two YA Sections Compromise, they are not comfortable with a "MA" section:  because a split by age range wouldn't pass judgment on the content, while a "MA" section would. 

Conversely, the group of challengers wants a "MA" section for exactly that reason (I think), so that everything they deem to be vulgar would be found in one place*, and they also want to create a committee which would, going forward, decide what books would be relegated to the "MA" section.  WHEW.  I think I have it straight now.]

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*Which, one assumes (judging by my father's stories about using his childhood church's LIST OF MOVIES GOOD CATHOLICS MUST NEVER, EVER WATCH as a list of recommended viewing), would quickly become THE MOST POPULAR SECTION EVER.

Banned Books Week, 2009.

Here's the wicked dorky picture of yours truly that will be part of our BBW display this year:

All of those books next to me (and behind me, and on the arm of the couch) are books I've read that have been challenged in this country at some point over the last five years.

(Well, they're the ones that happened to be checked in at the time of the photo.)

Links:

Challenged and Banned Books Google Map
The ALA's Most Challenged Books of 2008 list
The ALA Banned Books Week page
Wikipedia's List of Books Banned by Governments

A bit more on the Ellen Hopkins challenge.

According to this article, the parent "requested an official review" of Glass.  Which I assume means that the book has been officially challenged.

So the superintendent felt that as the book was under review, it wasn't appropriate for the visit to continue.  As per district policy, the books will remain in the school library until a decision is made.

I rather think he should have treated her visit the same way -- until a decision is made, the book stays on the shelves, so it follows (in my mind) that her visit should have continued as planned as well, and according to him, the district policy states that parents can exclude their children from events, so it isn't like there wasn't already an out for the parents who are uncomfortable with the book -- but it's always easy to be a backseat driver in situations like this.

Anyway, I'm glad that Karin Perry (the librarian) was able to schedule an off-campus event -- regardless of what happens at the school, Ellen Hopkins will speak at the Hillsboro Free Baptist College at 7:30 tonight.

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Previously:

Just in time for Banned Books Week...

Just in time for Banned Books Week...

...Ellen Hopkins' planned visit to an OK middle school has been canceled due to a complaint from one parent.

Oh, and also?  Her books were pulled from the school library.

From her LiveJournal:

Because the school superintendent not only pulled the books for review, he CANCELED my author visit. Wouldn't even allow me to move to the high school. Seriously? What did that parent and he expect me to do? Go in with a live demonstration? Use the f-word? Talk about sex? I mean, you've got to be kidding. I've done hundreds of school visits. Pretty positive I've never corrupted a student. In fact, my talks inspire them. Arm them. Inform them.

(via LISNews)

Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl challenged in IL.

I'm actually surprised that this is the first time I've seen news about a formal challenge to Living Dead Girl. 

Happily, the article is all about how the Helen Matthes Library does not plan to remove the book from the library or move it out of the teen section.  Good on them.

Reported Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2009.

Check out this Google map released for this year's Banned Books Week.

(via the NCAC blog)

Ontario school pulls Mockingbird from Grade 10 curriculum.

From TheStar.com:

The classic literary novel To Kill a Mockingbird is being pulled from the Grade 10 English course at a Brampton high school after a parent complained about the use of a racial epithet in the book.

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which challenges racial injustice in America's Deep South, will be removed from curriculum at St. Edmund Campion Secondary School following a lone complaint from a parent whose child will be in Grade 10 this September.

Part-Time Indian to stay at Antioch High School.

• I'm totally glad about the decision, but I'm a tad disappointed that this article kicks off by describing the book as "a novel sprinkled with racist language and descriptions of masturbation".  Way to stir the pot, guys.
• This article talks a bit about a new committee the school is creating in an attempt to prevent similar problems in the future.

Challenge news.

• One of the parents who is objecting to the use of Part-Time Indian in the ninth-grade curriculum has suggested placing warning labels on books.  Whenever people bring this idea up, I wonder how far they've thought it through.  Would Romeo & Juliet and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Graceling and Boy Toy and the entire erotica genre all get the DANGER: SEX sticker?  Would The Scarlet Letter and The World According to Garp get ADULTERY stickers?  Would Lord of the Flies and Hamlet and American Psycho and The Hunger Games get slapped with one that reads VIOLENCE INSIDE?  For that matter, would American Psycho get the SEX sticker, too?  Jeepers.  Some books would be so plastered with stickers that we wouldn't be able to see the cover art anymore.  Who would decide how much 'offensive' content was enough to warrant a label?  ETC.  [Moments later:  Actually, I may have to reconsider my previous opinion.  Because a CAUTION: DOG DEATH sticker would come in way handy in some cases.  Or maybe something a little more broad, like DANGER: MAY CAUSE UNCONTROLLABLE SOBBING.]
• In response to the ongoing Gossip Girl controversy, a Florida newspaper editorial has also brought up the idea of book ratings.  See above.
• And four short stories (by David Sedaris, Laura Lippman, Stephen King and Ernest Hemingway) have been pulled from the curriculum of an elective course in a New Hampshire high school.

Part-Time Indian has horrified some parents in IL.

From the Daily Herald:

The novel was chosen by a committee of English teachers at the high school and approved by department Chairman John Whitehurst. He defends the book and says the controversial passages need to be read in context.

"This book has positive life affirming values," Whitehurst said. "The main character is about the same age as our students. He's a really good kid adjusting to a new environment and looking to education as a way of getting ahead."

Whitehurst acknowledged the racier paragraphs but said the words are authentic.

It was originally required reading for all incoming freshman, but the school has introduced an alternate selection* for those who object to the language, etc. 

I think it's time to revisit that Alexie clip. (Any excuse, right?):

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*The article mentions that the title is Down River, but I'm not sure if they mean the John Hart or if they mean Will Hobbs' Downriver.  (I'm assuming the Hart.)  I checked the school website, but the summer reading page hasn't been updated.

Group seeks permission to burn library book.

Yeah.

I don't get it either.

Awesomely*, they are also demanding $120,000 in compensatory damages ($30,000) per plaintiff) for the horror of seeing Baby Be-Bop (pictured here, please don't sue me) in a library display.

They also want the mayor to resign for allowing the book to be displayed.  Or something.

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*In this case, 'Awesomely' is defined as 'totally batshittily crazily'.  There are a lot of book challenges that, while I don't agree with them, I can at least sort of understand where the complainant is coming from.  This one, not so much.  Unless they're hoping that the ridiculousity will get them more attention, and thus, support?  But then wouldn't the... I'm looking for a tactful word here... can't find one... insane nature of the suit work against them?  Or is it just about the money?

A few links.

• Ed asks Sherman Alexie to expand on his comments about the Kindle.
• Are you following the NerdsHeartYA Tournament?
• The Orange Prize now has a teen shadow panel.  They read the same twenty books that the official judges did and came up with a completely different shortlist.  I think this is a cool idea -- a way of involving audiences that might not usually be all that aware of certain awards & books.
• A Wisconsin library board unanimously voted NOT to restrict teen access to certain books.

Likely a hoax, but...

...interesting nonetheless -- I mean, how could a story about a high school girl running a library of banned books out of her locker* not be an interesting story?  Add to that the discussion in the comments about truth vs. fiction and whether or not it matters, whether a hoax (if it is a hoax) could inspire people to Stand Up and Act or whether it detracts from real cases, and you end up with a good fifteen minutes of entertaining thoughtfulness. 

And those thoughtful conversations take place in and around a bunch of people fighting about the amateur librarian's choice to not include Twilight in her collection, so there's that, too.

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*Obviously, if it isn't a hoax, the girl is totally my hero.

Challenge stuff.

• In a squeaker of a school board vote (4-3), Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon has been reinstated to an AP English class at Michigan's Shelby High School.
• And in an unusual story (at least, I haven't come across anything similar), a new math book has caused an uproar in Frederick County, Maryland.  (To be honest, it does sound REALLY lame.  But I don't know anything about it other than what was included in the article.  Which wasn't much.)

Revisiting two classics.

Harriet the Spy at Unshelved.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret at Fine Lines.

Two links I meant to post yesterday.

• First up was this article at PW (via Jackie on Twitter):

Four members of a library board in West Bend, Wis., were dismissed last week for refusing to remove controversial books from the library’s young adult section—and yesterday, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Association of American Publishers and PEN American Center criticized the firings.

An earlier article from a local paper says that the board members were "not reappointed", which is different than being dismissed (at least in my mind -- being dismissed would suggest that they hadn't been allowed to serve out their terms).  BUT.  If the city board members voted against reappointing the library board members solely because the library board members refused to vote in favor of pulling those books, it kind of amounts to the same thing, doesn't it?

• And, if you haven't seen it yet:  The Art of Penguin Science Fiction.  (Thanks for the reminder, HBS Steve.)

Congratulations, Khaled Hosseini!

You made the 2008 Top Ten Challenged Book List!

May your sales soar.  (If it's possible for them to fly any higher*.  Yeesh.)

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*Oh, hell.  Who else now has Wind Beneath My Wings plinking in their head? 

[A bit later:  I have successfully counteracted with John Prine and Nanci Griffith.  And also John Prine and Iris DeMent.  Phew.]

ttyl stays in middle school library.

From the Wausau Daily Herald:

The Wausau School Board voted 7-2 Monday to keep a book in the John Muir Middle School library after a parent asked that it be removed because of sexually explicit content.

XOXO.

It's all Gossip Girl, all the time around here:

In Leesburg, Florida, a concerned mother has been trying to get a book from the Gossip Girl series (as well as The Bermudez Triangle by the ever-lovely and ever-hilarious Maureen Johnson) yanked from the YA section of her local public library since August.  She says:

"I'm optimistic because it's such common sense," she said. "It's not a gray area. It is black and white. It's so distasteful for youths. It's so farfetched that we would allow this to happen in the first place."

I think this one is black and white, too.  Just the other way around.  Also, I kind of think it's not necessarily "distasteful for youths".  I think it's more that it's distasteful to her.  But, you know.  That's just my take.

Big doings in Topeka.

From the Topeka Capital-Journal:

The library's board of trustees voted 5-3 Thursday evening in favor of restricting minors' access to "Sex for Busy People," "The Lesbian Kama Sutra," "The Joy of Sex" and "The Joy of Gay Sex" because they deemed the material "harmful to minors."

The article is worth reading -- it sounds like discussion got very intense, with one of the board members in tears by the end.  No word on how the books will be restricted, if they'll be kept behind the desk or on a special shelf or in the back room.  It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, if people will request that other books be restricted, etc.  It sounds like there'll be a lawsuit in the works soon.

My favorite part of the article:

"Cover your ears," Washington told the room of onlookers gathered in Marvin Auditorium at the library.

He then read several explicit lines from a book he found online. The material wasn't from one of the contested books.

"I'm going to stop there," Washington told the board. "You have two pages of this. We have youngsters who are coming to the library who are exposed to this."

Except the excerpt he read wasn't from any of the challenged books!  So he wasn't just taking something out of context to complain about it, he was taking something completely unrelated and using it to complain about the books.

Crazy times.

My Brother Sam is Dead...

...challenged in Georgia.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil unbanned from high school library.

In North Dakota:

Superintendent Rob Lech handed the book to three Beulah High School students who carried it down the hall and put it back on the shelf of their high school library Monday night.

The book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" a 1994 runaway nonfiction bestseller had been banned from the library for four days, following a decision by the Beulah School Board last week to remove it at the request of two parents.

A bit of history about this formerly-seemingly-never-ending debate here.

Judy Blume at Seven-Imp.

From the interview:

7-Imp: You recently issued updated versions of some of your best-loved books, such as Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, removing references to obsolete items, such as mimeograph machines and sanitary napkin belts. What motivated you to make these changes, and what has the reaction been?

Judy: I don’t think of them as updated versions. The books are exactly the same, but—in the case of Margaret—she buys and tries out pads that stick to your underpants. These pads replaced belts and pins just months after I wrote the book. Girls today, who read it as a contemporary story, would have to go to their grandmothers to find out about belts. And pretty soon even their grandmas won’t remember. Actually, I made these changes in the book fifteen or twenty years ago.

Wow.  I just totally reverted.  For some reason, the word underpants is making me smirk.  Underpants.  Underpants.  Underpants.  Hee hee hee.

New Rochelle School High School is teaching Girl, Interrupted... minus pages 64-70.

From New Rochelle's Talk of the Sound:

"The material was of a sexual nature that we deemed inappropriate for teachers to present to their students," said English Department Chariperson Leslie Altschul, "since the book has other redeeming features, we took the liberty of bowdlerizing."

You'll be relieved to know...

...that Tom Cruise has denied having anything to do with Amazon dropping that anti-Scientology book.  (Because The Sun is such a reliable source of information.  I love that they have a "Bizarre USA" section.)

In other book challenge news:

• At Monday night's school board meeting, the Superintendent of the Ankeny, Iowa school system suggested that instead of voting on whether or not Tango will remain in the elementary school libraries, "that the board consider adopting a new selection process for library materials, and that any new process take into consideration age-appropriateness of materials. He also suggested that while new procedures are being discussed, all books and other materials should remain in place and not be restricted in any way."  Makes sense to me.
• Also in Iown, Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why has sparked a bit of controversy.  I had no idea that high school teachers read aloud to their classes. 

Book challenge news.

• You've probably seen that Tango is being challenged in Iowa.  If not, well, Tango is being challenged in Iowa.  Because it promotes a (ahem) "risky lifestyle".  FOR PETE'S SAKE.  Love You Forever promotes wasting toilet paper, stalking and nighttime climbs up rickety ladders.  I don't see anyone challenging that.

• And in Texas, a Superintendent has pulled TTYL from middle school libraries in his district (and sent it over to the high school libraries) even though "two panels of parents and school officials examined the novel and recommended it remain in middle schools".  I'm a huge fan of this quote:

"The last committee recommended 'TTYL' remain on the shelves by only a 5-4 vote, so it was a very divided vote," Chávez said.

Oh, so since the vote was close, it doesn't count.  I totally get it.  Astounding logic.

"Animal cruelty? No. Not OK. Not OK in my book anyway."

The Book of Bunny Suicides is being challenged at Central Linn High School in Halsey, Oregon.

Or it will be, if the lady who objects to it ever returns it.

[Later:  People are donating it and copies of other challenged books to the high school.]

[Later later:  Aaaaand this article says that the challenger plans to burn it.]

[Later later later:  The challenger has taken it back about burning the book.  And now she's saying that she'll return it.  And that she'd be okay with the book being held behind the desk "for more mature readers".]

Celebrate Banned Books -- with food!

The Haphazard Gourmet is running a series called Civilization is Cooked Without Books -- click through for a fairy cakes recipe inspired by the Eloise books.  And be sure to look for other CiCWB installments on the HG sidebar.

(via Bookslut)

[A bit later: Also via Bookslut, a quiz on banned books at the Guardian.  I scored a 9/12.  V. ashamed.]

Whoa.

Remember The Jewel of Medina?  How Random House dropped it and Gibson Square picked it up?

On Saturday, Martin Rynja's house (which doubles as the Gibson Square office) was firebombed.  According to everything I've read, he's okay and going forward with publication.

Book challenges.

• It's Banned Books Week, as I'm sure you know...
• Philip Pullman on his challenge glee.
• TTYL challenged in Round Rock, Texas.
• The 2K8ers are looking at challenged and banned books this week.
• A video via HipWriterMama:

Book challenges.

Nineteen Minutes in Illinois:

The Beardstown School Board will vote on whether remove from the library shelves the controversial book “Nineteen Minutes” at Wednesday’s school board meeting.

At last month’s meeting, Beardstown parent Stephen Griffin asked the board to remove the book and district librarian Sue Reichert defended the book as a valuable tool in anti-bullying curriculum.

And Of Mice and Men in Kansas:

A local mother wants Washington High School to remove John Steinbeck's "Of Mice And Men" from the required reading list.

Dana Washington told KMBC's Dion Lim that she is upset over the use of the N-word.

"Of Mice And Men" is required reading at the high school.

Book challenges.

• The Joy of Gay Sex challenged again, this time in Montana.

• Use of The Kite Runner on school reading list challenged in California.

• While not a formal challenge, it is worth mentioning that Bookuu Book City in Shanghai has pulled The Book of Bunny Suicides: Little Fluffy Rabbits Who Just Don't Want To Live Anymore from shelves due to the recent suicide of a 12-year-old and attempted suicides of four teens.  (Every headline I've seen about this has been misleading.  Some more so than others.)

Nampa library once again Joyfully Sexy.

From CBS:

After months of controversy, and possible lawsuits, two sex books will be back on the shelf at the Nampa Library.

The Nampa Public Library Board of Trustees and the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho announced Monday a resolution that avoids a lawsuit and restores two books in the Nampa Library to the public stacks.

Previous stories here and here.

Link-o-rama.

• Josh Harnett is apparently a fan of Party Girl.
• Cute Overload loves Frank Herbert.  And also llamas.
  
• "Free" book scheme in Shanghai not working out so well.  Possible solution:  Remove the popular books.
  
• Citizens Against Pornography challenges (sort of) John Green's Looking for Alaska (and many others) in St. Louis libraries.  The woman who originally placed the complaint (or contacted CAP, at any rate -- it doesn't sound as if any official challenge has been filed) said "she hadn't seen books aimed at teens with "erotic" passages at the county's Daniel Boone Library before a visit last year".  Somehow I doubt that the library suddenly bought a bunch of books that deal with sex last year -- it's much more likely that the patron only just got introduced to YA books.  Regardless, if they're taking issue with the scene in Looking for Alaska that I think they're taking issue with, it's the least erotic thing I've read in my whole life.  Sex does not always equal sexy.
  
• Has anyone read this Disney/Jon Scieszka Alice in Wonderland book?  (Thanks, Jody!)
  
• One of the bazillion articles about the Sarah Palin/library stuff.
  
• Yoga banned from Brisbane library due to issues revolving around hygiene.  Or something.
  
• Poem pulled from the GCSE syllabus due to references to "knife crime" and goldfish murder:

A spokeswoman for AQA confirmed there had been three complaints, two referring to knife crime and a third about the description of a goldfish being flushed down the toilet.

I love that the article actually includes the poem in question.  Excellent work, Guardian.  Something similar happened when I was in high school -- the poem Richard Corey was included on the MEAs and people flipped out about the suicide reference.  I actually don't remember how it was resolved.

I can't believe this still hasn't been resolved.

Seriously.  This started a year ago.

From the Lewiston Sun-Journal:

A local woman said Wednesday she's prepared to go to jail rather than return a library book about sexuality that she calls "dangerous" to children.

JoAn Karkos, 64, was confined to a courtroom at 8th District Court for about an hour after she was ordered by a judge to hand over the borrowed book: "It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health."

Judge Valerie Stanfill revised her order shortly after noon, giving Karkos until the end of the week to produce the property of Lewiston Public Library. Karkos also was ordered to pay a $100 fine within a month.

I'm dying to know how this will play out.

[Later:  Okay.  No jail for Karkos.  But you have GOT to watch this video and see who she compares herself to -- seriously.  Seriously.  Make a guess first, then watch it.  I'm still in shock.]

[Even later:  I suppose it would help if I actually included the video link, huh?  My shock was so great that I forgot!]

150,000 copies sold, three official complaints: Random House UK changing the text.

In Jacqueline Wilson's My Sister Jodie, the word 'twat' will become 'twit'.

Bookseller.com

Times

The Telegraph

The Guardian

BBC

The Scotsman

Kite runner challenged in Illinois.

The school hasn't released the details of the challenge, other than that it is a challenge to the district's use of the book as a whole.  (It was assigned as summer reading to rising sophomores enrolled in honors English at two high schools in the district.)  My guess is that the objection is to the rape scene.

Thumbs up to Fred Newport, the English teacher quoted in the article:

Newport said he is willing to work with parents who object to a particular book for their children, and to find alternatives for that child that are acceptable. But as far as a challenge to the district as a whole using a book, "I'm generally uncomfortable with one person saying something should not be read in a public school because it doesn't meet with one person's criteria," he said. "I'm very uncomfortable with one person dictating the terms on what an entire body of professionals has judged to be appropriate and effective."

Uncle Bobby's Wedding challenge and response.

This article about a challenge to Uncle Bobby's Wedding (Guinea pigs!  In tuxedos!) led me to the blog of the library director who had to deal with the challenge.  He's posted the letter he wrote to the patron who objected to the book -- it's well worth a read.

Anne Carroll Moore vs. Stuart Little.

Do not, do not, do not miss this article -- it's chock-a-block full of fantastic quotes and stories:

In her New Yorker column, White took aim at Moore: “A number of experts in children’s literature have pronounced ‘The World Is Round' a good book, but that does not surprise me, since, with a few exceptions, the critics of children’s books are remarkably lenient souls. They seem to regard books for children with the same tolerant tenderness with which nearly any adult regards a child. Most of us assume there is something good in every child; the critics go on from this to assume there is something good in every book written for a child. It is not a sound theory.”

Not only is it full of "Ooooo, BURN!"-type quotes, but it reminded me that I'd like to read The Minders of Make-Believe, as well as the letters and essays of E. B. White:

White replied that he had started writing a children’s book, but was finding it difficult. “I really only go at it when I am laid up in bed, sick, and lately I have been enjoying fine health. My fears about writing for children are great—one can so easily slip into a cheap sort of whimsy or cuteness. I don’t trust myself in this treacherous field unless I am running a degree of fever.”

It also, of course, made me want to re-read Stuart Little.

Lois Lowry on yet another challenge to The Giver.

The Nashua Board of Education recently voted 7-1 to require parental notification if elementary school teachers plan to use The Giver in classrooms.  They also voted 5-3 against removing it from the elementary school libraries.  The challenge came about after a teacher read the book to a fourth grade class and a parent objected.

Fourth grade does seem a bit young to me for that one, especially as a classroom book -- I would think that the students who would be mature enough for it would be in the minority.  Obviously, I'm glad it stayed in the library -- that way the kids who're up for it will have easy access, too. 

Lois Lowry is of the same opinion:

When asked about the school board's decision Tuesday, Lowry said she agreed with it. She recommends the book for children in sixth grade and up and said she has a grandson in fourth grade and couldn't picture him reading it."I do think fourth grade is too young," said Lowry, in a phone interview from her barn in Maine.

...

Lowry said she would never support removing the book from the elementary school libraries.

"Every parent has the right to monitor what their own child reads, but I don't think any parent has the right to supervise the reading of other peoples' children," she said.

Challenge news from across the pond about...

...a school in Indiana.

From the Telegraph:

Mrs Heermann asked her head teacher if she could use it in lessons last autumn and, with the backing of nearly 150 parents, was granted permission.

But when the matter came before the Perry Meridian high school board for final approval it was rejected, allegedly because a single member objected to swearing in the book.

From the Guardian:

Heermann and the union say there was no explicit ban on the book when she handed it out to pupils on November 15. But later that day she received an email from the board advising her not to teach the book. "That was the pivotal moment of my life, when I saw how my students were taken with the book, how they loved it, and then I am told not to let them read it? I said no," she said.

She's been suspended for either one year or eighteen months without pay (I've read both, not sure which is correct) for 'insubordination' and 'neglect of duty'.  Now.  I understand why the board accuses her of insubordination (neglect of duty, not so much) -- but I don't understand why the school board took issue with The Freedom Writers Diary when the teacher had already asked for and received written permission from almost 150 parents.  If the parents were good with it and supported the use of the book, why would the school board start this uproar? 

There's also an essay by the director/screenwriter of the movie about the situation at the Huffington Post.

"Huck Finn must go!"

Yep.  Another sort-of challenge to the use of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a high school.

I say sort-of challenge, because the challenger didn't officially challenge the book -- she just organized a protest outside of Renton High School in Washington state.

Back when the challenger was a junior at Renton (she graduated in 2004), she opted out* of reading Huck and her grandmother filed a formal challenge.  Then, years later, the former student came back and objected to Huck's inclusion on a supplemental reading list.  She didn't file a formal complaint.  To do that, she had to present her case to a committee -- in person -- and thought she was invited to four separate meetings, she never showed.

And thus, the protest?  I guess?

*The school offers the opt out/alternate reading option on all assigned reading.

Avi book pulled from Florida elementary school library.

Judging by the two articles I've read, it sounds as if The Fighting Ground (which was not being used as required reading) was pulled because of the phrase "my God" and possibly the word "goddamn"*.

This is not the first time this school district has had a book controversy -- check out this article from 1987.

*I'm not positive about that one, but it was described as "profanity with the word "God" in it", so that's my best guess.

Very interesting. Verrrry interessssting.

Remember that Joy of Sexbusiness in Nampa, Idaho?

Yeah.  Well, one of the board members, Bruce Skaug, has now resigned.  According to the mayor (who appointed Skaug and the other two members of the board who voted to move the books to the library director's office), Skaug was "not a one-issue board member".  But Skaug's words suggest otherwise:

“My short-term mission is accomplished,” Skaug said about his role in getting the books placed in the library director’s office where library patrons must ask for them. “Being a little bit of a lightning rod ... that was needed to get some changes, it’s just better that I’m gone from the library.”

Don't miss the section at the end of the article that covers a controversy-within-a-controversy:  Skaug's anonymous comment on a Nampa blog.  That couldn't possibly have had anything to do with the resignation, right?

Joyful sex still allowed in Nampa, Idaho -- but only in the library director's office.

From the Idaho Statesman:

The Nampa Public Library Board has voted to permanently remove two sex education books from library shelves, storing them instead in the library director's office and making them available only on request.

The board voted 3-2 Monday to have "The New Joy of Sex" and "The Joy of Gay Sex" kept off shelves for good, following up on a March meeting when the board voted to temporarily move the books to the director's office.

It sounds like local politics may have made quite an impact on this situation: according to the article, the books were challenged back in 2006 and the board voted unanimously to keep them. Since then, though, the Nampa mayor appointed three new board members -- and when the books were challenged again, all three voted to keep the books off the shelves.

The bit that really doesn't make any sense to me is this: one of the new board members said that this vote didn't set a precedent for future challenges, and that she would "not vote now, or ever, to consign them to the same fate as the two titles of discussion today".  ("Them" being books challenged in the future, I assume.)  If she voted to keep these books off the shelves this time around, then how can she know that she wouldn't vote the same way again?  And how in the world does it not set a precedent?

Maybe it's just too early in the morning for my pathetically tiny brain.

Top Ten Challenged Books of 2007.

Surprise, surprise, Tango is at the top of the list.  Again.

This is the first time I've seen The Golden Compass on the list.  I'm annoyed about this:

Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass," an anti-religious work in which a former nun says: "The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake."

Dr. Mary Malone said that in The Amber Spyglass.  She's not even in The Golden Compass.  Get it right, dudes.

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging challenge.

The challenge has already been dealt with -- the school board voted 6-1 to keep the book in the middle school library -- but I just had to mention it because of this wonderfully hilarious quote:

"What is fun about two children stalking another girl to see what underwear she is wearing?" he asked.

It's also an excuse to re-post the awesome picture someone took during the filming of the upcoming movie:

And here's the trailer:

Tango back on Sugarland shelves.

From the Washington Post:

Last week, Hatrick said his decision to pull the penguin book from general circulation should have applied only to Sugarland Elementary, the school where the parent filed her challenge, and not to the 13 other elementary schools that had purchased the book. On Monday, school officials issued a written statement saying that the book also would return to the shelves at Sugarland because Hatrick had discovered "significant procedural errors" in the way the case was handled.

• In other challenge news, those two paragraphs in Kaffir Boy are at it again.