Sonya Sones challenged; Marjorie Rawlings to stay in Honors English classroom.

• One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies has been officially challenged in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.  A sixth grade student brought it home from the Theisen Middle School library, her mother read it, and, as she (the mother) put it: 

"To the author's credit, it's a good story line, but it contains sexual content that my child, at that age, doesn't understand".

While it's certainly commendable that the parent in this case is closely involved in her daughter's life, it's unfortunate that she:

A)  Seems to feel that because she doesn't want her daughter reading the book, all other parents would feel the same way, and
B)  Isn't accounting for the fact that this is a middle school library, and that

i)  sixth graders are very different from eighth graders, not to mention that
ii)  sixth graders vary, too.

Anyway, the Reconsideration Committee has heard her complaint and there will be a public hearing on February 18.

• A review committee has recommended that The Yearling, which was challenged by a parent for its use of the n-word, stay in Chipley High School's 10th grade Honors English program.  The challenger has stated that she'll appeal the decision.  As is common in cases with complaints of this nature, it seems that the challenger wants to, in some way... ignore history.

Comments

[Sonya Sones]

As the brilliant newly appointed 2010 United States Ambassador of Children’s Books, Katherine Paterson, once said, "All of us can think of a book that we hope none of our children or any other children have taken off the shelf. But if I have the right to remove that book from the shelf - that work I abhor - then you also have exactly the same right and so does everyone else. And then we have no books left on the shelf for any of us."

Power to the readers!

xx,
Sonya Sones

[Carm J]

Hmmmm... as a 6th grader I was alternately reading The Thornbirds, Betsy-Tacy Books, and the Bible. :) I despise censorship. Censor your own child if you must, but don't censor mine. (not long after my Thornbirds read, my dad loaned me Clan of the Cave Bear.... yikes.) A book shelved in a library is not the same thing as an "assigned" book.

[Linda]

An adult reads a book like The Yearling with all its themes: responsibility of adulthood, lost childhood, exile from "Eden," etc. along with its setting in a frontier Florida that doesn't exist any longer and its memorable characters, and all they can take away from it is "its use of the n- word"? That is so depressing it is unfathomable.