Medina’s visit to Cumberland Middle school in rural Virginia to speak at a bullying awareness event was canceled after the principal refused to allow her to reference her book Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass (Candlewick, 2013) or show its cover, NCAC reports. “Though the book portrays the lived experience of bullying in a way that brings it home for teens, district superintendent Amy Giffin said they decided Medina and her book weren’t ‘appropriate’” for the rural area, NCAC reports.

In her own blog about the incident, Medina says, “I make absolutely NO APOLOGIES for the title of my book. The title is bold and troubling, and it suggests exactly what’s inside. Besides, we can fret all we want about the word ass, but that word isn’t the real trouble, is it?

“What’s hurting our kids is the savagery on their phones, and Facebook pages and in their classrooms,” Medina says. “That, and the reluctance of those around them to step up and do the tough work of pulling the issue out into the open and talking about what bullying really looks and sounds like and about its radioactive impact that lasts for years into the future.”

Meanwhile, Rowell was set to speak to kids at the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota and at the Anoka County Public Libraries—but her invite there was rescinded after a parent’s complaint sparked a larger protest by a conservative action group who took their concerns to the county level, NCAC reports. The decision to cancel Rowell’s appearance was made over the objections of the county’s public and school librarians, who had been looking forward to an author visit ever since choosing Eleanor & Park (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013) for its Rock the Read county-wide optional summer reading program. Many of the county’s teens had read the book during that program.

“These incidents go to show how far people are willing to go in expense of free speech to placate a vocal minority and keep them from being offended,” NCAC says. “At the heart of these cancellations lies the belief that we can clean up the world by erasing the parts some people dislike. The alternative is acknowledging those parts, dissecting their roots, asking how we can change them and facing them head on. That is what Medina and Rowell are interested in doing.

“To censor an author because she might use the word ‘ass’ (a banal swear) is to run away from the power of language. It is a missed opportunity for a lesson about how and why words affect us in different or greater ways….ignoring realities rather than confronting them, white-washing the world so it makes a prettier picture, is the antithesis of education.”

I’m the manager of a small branch of a large library system. I don’t have a children’s librarian on staff, but the children’s librarians at the main library choose the books for the collection. A parent has filed a formal complaint that my staff allowed her nine-year-old daughter to check out Deenie by Judy Blume. How should I handle this?

It sounds as if there are two issues: (1) A problem with your staff (2) A complaint against the book. Make sure that the mother understands that it’s never the role of the librarian to monitor what children read. Then invite the mother to file a book reconsideration form, which I assume is part of your library system’s policy. Deenie is appropriate for most nine-year-olds. The mother needs to tell her daughter if she doesn’t want her to read it. I do think it wise to ask the children’s librarians at the main library to conduct a workshop in children’s services for your staff. They may need reassurance about their roles.

A seventh-grade student brought his mother’s ereader to class on the last day of school. He passed it around so that students could read passages from Fifty Shades of Grey. It created an uproar and the teacher came to the library to ask my help. I really didn’t know what to do.

This is no different from my generation passing around dog-eared copies of Peyton Place. Don’t make a big deal out of the situation. In the future, advise the teacher to simply ask the student to focus on class work and continue reading the book when he gets home.

My friend’s son (an advanced eighth-grade student in the middle school where I’m a librarian) may take ninth-grade English for credit. The summer reading selection for ninth-graders in the school district is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. He is registered for freshman English in the fall, but she doesn’t want him to read the novel. I was her easiest target because she doesn’t know the English teacher. I didn’t know how to handle this.

Do you know for a fact that students weren’t given a reading choice? Many school districts allow students to make a summer reading selection from a list of books provided by English teachers. This accommodates various interests and maturity levels. If this isn’t the case, then the mother has a choice. She can elect to take her son out of the class and put him in regular eighth-grade English. If she insists that he stay in the class, then he needs to complete the requirement. It sounds as if she will listen to you.

I’m taking an online course in children’s services from a university that is located in another part of the country. I have an issue with some of the theories about public library services to children. In my public library system, children are welcome to use the entire library collection. The professor defines children as birth to 11 years old. This makes me feel that I have to defend the policy of my library system.

Children should have free and open access to books and materials. Most children will reject what they aren’t ready for, especially if they don’t feel the materials are forbidden. What about 12- and 14-year-olds who simply want to continue using the children’s room? Does this professor think that they should be banned because they grew up? Your library is on the right track.

Another elementary school in my district had several challenges last year. Since my school library has a number of parent volunteers, I thought it wise to provide them training in hopes of avoiding challenges in my school. What should I tell them?

Two main points: (1) Student privacy is a requirement (2) Leave reader guidance to you. I personally recommend that parent volunteers be used for more clerical types of jobs. If parents want to read aloud to students, then make the reading choice together. Never ask a parent to read aloud something they aren’t comfortable reading.

A selection of books challenged in Alabama public schools recently.

“The book is just completely objectionable, from language to the content,” Holtzclaw told Alabama Media Group’s AL.com news site on August 28. According to Holtzclaw, a constituent had queried him about the book’s inclusion on the Common Core reading list, and he has since brought the matter to the attention of State Superintendent Tommy Bice, AL.com reports.

Although Holtzclaw supports the implementation of Common Core in Alabama—surprisingly, against the wishes of the state’s Republican party, who recently introduced a bill calling for the standards’ complete repeal—Holtzclaw says he sees no value requiring students to read the novel, and that it should not be included on any required reading lists, AL.com reports.

School board member Betty Peters, who represents Alabama’s District 2, agrees. She calls the novel “pornographic” and “utterly inappropriate,” according to AL.com.

Support for Morrison
The Bluest Eye—which tells the story of 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove, who prays for her eyes to turn blue “so that she will be beautiful”—is listed by the American Library Association as the 15th most commonly banned or challenged book during the years 2000–2009 for its sexual content and, at times, graphic subject matter. However, the 43-year-old book has long been considered to be an important contribution to American fiction for its powerful themes and literary merit.

It was named an Oprah’s Book Club selection in 2000, and its author has been consistently praised for exploring similarly difficult themes in subsequent works. Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 for Beloved (Knopf, 1987)—itself the 26th most challenged book in recent years—and she is also the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1993, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2012.

As the situation continues to unfold against a backdrop of the start of a new school year and continued battles in the state over the Common Core, one local newspaper in Alabama, The Anniston Star, is taking a stand. Its editorial board has called out Holtzclaw for what it calls his misguided position, taking issue with both his admission that he had not read the book in its entirety (having only reviewed excerpts), and with what it sees as a mere attempt at political posturing.

“The fact that teachers are not required to adopt and teach The Bluest Eye seems to make little difference to the senator, any more than the fact that many of the ‘highly objectionable’ themes—racism, incest and child molestation—can be found in the Bible, the works of Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and Alabama’s most-loved novel, To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Star’s editorial reads.

“The education of our children is important…In a better world, parents would read the books their children are assigned and understand why those books are appropriate for what is being taught. The world would be even better if politicians would read the books instead of reviewing excerpts passed along to them for reasons that have little to do with education and a lot to do with politics.”

Challenges in Alabama
The Bluest Eye joins a motley crew of books challenged in recent years in Alabama’s schools and school libraries, according to a long-term study completed this summer by journalism students and reporters working at the Anniston Star. The list includes, but is not limited to Invisible by Pete Hautman (Simon & Schuster, 2005), White Oleander by Janet Fitch (Little, Brown, 1999), The Complete Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth by Sheila Kitzinger (Dorling Kindersley, 1980), Crazy Lady! by Jane Leslie Conly (HarperCollins, 1993), and The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (Warner, 1996).

The statewide investigation was conceived of as an exercise in public document retrieval for newspaper interns pursuing masters’ degrees in community journalism at the University of Alabama, a Star news editor, Tim Lockette, tells School Library Journal.

At the Sanford Middle School in Lee County, Invisible, featuring a teen battling mental illness, was challenged in 2011 by a parent citing objectionable language.

Sanford school officials then asked two 12-year-old students to read Invisible and write down their thoughts, documents that were forwarded to the Star. “It was delightful to see kids getting involved,” says Lockette. Both students liked the book, he says, though “one of them said it wasn’t appropriate for his grade.” The school ultimately flagged Invisible for mature readers.

Parents objected to the presence of White Oleander, about a troubled girl shuttled through a series of foster homes, at Winterboro High School in Talladega, in 2006. At issue was the book’s sexual content and foul language. Students now need a parent’s permission to access the book.

The Complete Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth, in the library collection at the B. B. Comer Memorial High School in Talladega County, was reconsidered after a complaint over pornographic images and “explicit drawings of how to make love while pregnant,” records show.

Though one in eight children in Talladega County are born to teenage mothers, according to the Star’s own article about its challenged books study, the book was moved to a reference shelf in 2005. Students now need parental permission to check it out.

Challenged material also included two books in the “Chronicles of Vladimir Tod” series by Heather Brewer (Dutton), about an eighth grader whose father was a vampire, according to the Star.

The books were challenged by the caregiver of a student at the White Plains Middle School, located in Anniston, in 2010. While the objector stated concerns that the book could be harmful to students inclined toward violence, the titles remain on the shelves.

Other titles that parents found offensive include Hunted: A House of Night Novel by P. C. and Kristin Cast (St. Martins Griffin, 2009) in the Auburn City School system, and Dan Gutman’s Return of the Homework Machine (Simon & Schuster, 2009), at the Mountain Brook schools.

Though Auburn City did not initially disclose details on its challenge, officials later told the Star that a parent objected to Hunted’s profanity. After a review, it remains on the shelves. Gutman’s book, a story for 4th- to 6th-grade readers about a computer that completes homework, also was spared its challenge and remains on school shelves.

Though records of challenged books are technically public information, nearly one third of the schools contacted did not respond to reporters at all, according to Lockette. Other than the nine districts reporting challenges, 77 districts reported no challenges and 46 districts did not answer to repeated requests for records, he says. “I think people are scared of records requests, particularly the smaller districts,” says Lockette. “This is something they’ve never done before.”

The incompleteness of data is one possibly reason why student interns found no recent challenges to The Bluest Eye in their research, Lockette notes—not necessarily that is has not been challenged. It’s possible that the book, in previous years, was not on school library shelves, or it had been challenged only in one of the districts that didn’t respond to the Star’s request for records, he says.

“We see it all the time with public records,” he adds. “In states where there’s a strong public records law, there is an understanding that you have to comply with that law. Where people haven’t dealt with public records very much, there is bit of confusion or fear about releasing documents.”

Adds Leah Cayson, a student intern who worked on the project, “The law says that any citizen has the right” to see a public record. Thus, to withhold information was surprising.”

Involving the community
Fortunately, according to the Star’s research, “Most of these books didn’t get taken off the shelves,” Lockette says. “They remained in the libraries.”

“It’s not our idea to go in and judge the requests,” he adds. “It’s more to spark a conversation. These decisions are being made. The community is talking about books. It’s usually a good thing.”

As for The Bluest Eye, its fate remains to be seen. Will additional Alabama school board members call for its removal? Will Holtzclaw reconsider his position? Will the Alabama Department of Education come out explicitly in support of the Common Core and the novel’s inclusion in Alabama’s curriculum?

According to AL.com, the Alabama Department of Education was planning to respond to Holtzclaw’s request, although officials did not immediately reply to inquiries about the matter from School Library Journal. Also, SLJ’s requests for comment to the Senator’s office were not immediately returned.

However, Holtzclaw admitted to AL.com last week that his goal was not to ban books, but to ensure this particular novel would not be required reading of any student, noting, “There is a slippery slope, and there are folks that will find objectionable material in widely accepted classic American literature.”

The lauded young adult novel—a story about Junior, a Spokane Indian who transfers from his school on the reservation to a rich, white school—received a starred review from School Library Journal, and is recommended for a grade 7–10 audience. In the original review, Chris Shoemaker says, “The teen’s determination to both improve himself and overcome poverty, despite the handicaps of birth, circumstances, and race, delivers a positive message.”

Nevertheless, Queens parent Kelly-Ann McMullan-Preiss stepped forward last week with the support of about eight other parents to request that an alternative assignment be given to their children. McMullan-Preiss cited the repeated discussion of “masturbation” as the main reason for her complaint, according to the Daily News.

Attempts by SLJ to reach administrators and school library staff for comment were unsuccessful,  however the original story has since made the rounds on several news outlets and through social media, and on Twitter, the author has responded personally. Alexie, after a banning of his book unrelated to the Queens controversy, also said recently in an interview on the National Coalition Against Censorship blog that, “I have no objection to a parent not wanting their kid to read my book. But when they try to control a school’s curriculum, that’s when the fight is on. So the second they try to make it a policy, no, I can’t think of when it’s acceptable because whatever the text, you can teach and learn from it.”

Alexie’s publisher echoes those sentiments. Megan Tingley, executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, tells SLJ that, her company is “proud” to be the publisher of the book, and that the company is “opposed to censorship of any kind.”

She adds, “We are dismayed about the recent decision of a middle school in Queens, NY, to remove the critically acclaimed book from its required reading list.” The book, she says, “is a story about hope and resilience. We applaud Sherman Alexie’s triumphant work of contemporary fiction, which shares a Native American experience that is both poignant and uplifting and has enlightened and engaged countless readers.”

The NCAC has also come out in support of Alexie. Its Kids Right to Read project coordinator Acacia O’Connor notes that, “Studies have shown that students who have some semblance of choice, read more. Alexie’s book is often selected for reluctant readers because it’s so popular and kids really feel that the characters and their experiences speak to them.”

She also says, “The message of this book is entirely positive and uplifting. I’m sure it was selected because highlights a teen character that has confronted adversity. If the parents have some objection to reading a specific title, we always encourage that an alternative is offered instead. If the book was selected by the teachers or school media specialist, it was for a reason.” The NCAC plans to honor Alexie in November 2013 for his work on free speech.

A children’s librarian in a small public library, I announced a monthlong storytelling festival for school-age children. A parent of a third grader complained that the program involves fairy tales. I’m worried that the library director will ask me to pull the program. What should I do?

One parent shouldn’t be allowed to dictate a program. I suggest that you try to reason with her about the value of fairy tales. If she insists that her daughter isn’t to take part, then that is her choice. Let the director know that fairy tales are a large part of the oral tradition, and that no one else has complained. It should be treated in the same way as a book challenge. A formal complaint process solves the issue most of the time.

I’m an elementary school librarian and have once again been hit with a challenge to the “Junie B. Jones” series. The specific complaint is “disorderly conduct” and the grammar in the books. I’m tired of the challenges. I fear that I’m about to cave.

Do not cave! The purpose of a library is to serve all students. This doesn’t mean that everything in the collection satisfies every child or every parent. The way to solve the problem isn’t to remove the books, but to help children see that the “disorderly conduct” and the “bad grammar” define the character of Junie B. Jones—and contribute to the humor. Turn the discussion into an English lesson by asking them to correct the grammar. Children read these books to be entertained and don’t necessarily emulate the character. Trust their intelligence.

Students in a sophomore English class in my school were asked to write an original short story. One student used a lot of profanity in his. The teacher thinks the language is inappropriate and is afraid that she may get in trouble with the principal. She wants to fail the student. I told her that would be a mistake. What should we do?

If she didn’t specify that students weren’t allowed to use profanity in their stories, then she doesn’t have ground to stand on. Please advise the teacher to judge and grade the story on its merit, and not on issues of language. Are the stories for publication, a contest, to be read aloud in class? If not, then why is she afraid that the principal will question the assignment? She will create a larger problem if she reprimands the student.

I had no problems withThe Hunger Games in my middle school library until the movie was released. A parent who hasn’t read the book took her son to see the movie and she was bothered by the content. She called me because she doesn’t think the book should be in a middle school library. She added that neither the movie nor the book disturb, her son, and that makes her nervous. Help!

Tell her that the book is appropriate for middle school students, and that it was selected for the library based on reviews. Share the reviews with her and ask her to consider reading the book. Encourage her to discuss it with her son and ask him to reflect on its powerful themes. Sometimes conversation solves a disagreement. She needs to understand that she can guide what her son reads, but she doesn’t have the right to guide what other children read. Let the complaint go through a formal process if the mother isn’t satisfied.

I have seen a recent push by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) to report any challenge to library materials. I’ve been afraid to let ALA know when there has been a challenge in my library. Why is reporting so important?

Don’t be afraid. The ALA OIF is there to help you. The information that is reported is kept confidential unless the person filing the complaint wishes for it to go public. ALA uses the data to help guide other libraries in the nation with similar cases. In addition, the data is used in determining the most challenged materials in a given year. It is especially helpful when the office knows the resolution to a case.

The new school board came to its decision after district administrators pledged to send a revised notification letter to parents at the start of each school year, warning that students may sometimes have access to mature content in their classroom libraries, the Daily Herald reports.

“When it came to me back in December, it wasn’t initially a book challenge,” Tolcacher tells School Library Journal. “There was [just] a concern if the placement [of these books] was appropriate.” Thus, district librarian Vivian Jennings sent out a request to teachers requesting feedback on the titles. Jennings, the sole certified librarian in the district, supervises a staff of full-time paraprofessional instructional assistants who work on site in each of the district’s schools, from elementary to high school—a measure that preserves at least some librarian leadership for students despite dramatic state budget cutbacks, Tolcacher says.

Books in Ignatow’s “Popularity Papers” series had been available in the district’s elementary schools for fifth graders only, and at the middle school and high school libraries without restriction. A Child Called It had been available to seventh- and eighth-graders with parental permission, and in the high school libraries without restriction. Korb “didn’t agree with that, and took it to the next level, an instructional materials review committee,” Tolcacher says. “That’s one of the beauties of our system here, that you can challenge, and we have a set policy that did that. My assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, [Mary Snitily], was the chair of that committee. She held the hearings and did a great job.”

An instructional materials review committee in Prosser is typically comprised of at least one teacher, at least one parent, administrators from each of the district’s school levels, the district librarian, and at least one school board member, Tolcacher says.

According to local reports, Korb was concerned that “The Popularity Papers” stars a character with two fathers—which he said promotes a political agenda—while he objected to A Child Called It because of its graphic content describing the life of an abused boy at the hands of his alcoholic mother. At the very least, he hoped the books would be moved to the high school libraries in the district.

Upon review of both books—neither of which is required reading for students—the committee determined that they had been, in fact, properly placed within the district’s libraries, and the superintendent moved to uphold that recommendation on March 20, 2013.

But Korb appealed those decisions to the school board, and members finally considered the books in several separate votes over the course of this month.

Tolcacher says his decision was based on the findings of the committee but also his own reading of both books and research of how other districts in the state regard the books and handle their access.

“The Popularity Papers was a wonderful book, I thought; the kind of thing that goes on with kids in middle school,” he tells SLJ. “The issue of two dads was secondary. So my focus was not on those issues, it was on the kids and the strife that they were going through. I thought it was a great book.”

Tolcacher also notes that, according to his research, A Child Called It, though it does contain some graphic content, has appeared on recommended accelerated reading program lists in the state, making it appropriate for placement in school libraries with access by seventh-graders and up.

An initial vote on the books upheld Tolcacher’s decision to keep Ignatow’s book in place, but had deadlocked on Pelzer’s. In subsequent heated debates, the board considered postponing the decision until a new policy for handling challenged books could be put in place. The deadlocked decision means Tolcacher’s decision to keep the book in place stands.

“They felt that the policy that we have used was one that was for instructional materials and not library books, but it’s the only one that we had,” Tolcacher says. “That’s what was in place and had been used before successfully, and I think it was used successfully this time.”

He adds, “As superintendent, I don’t have a problem with my board asking me to review the policy and make sure that [it’s] where it needs to be. [That is] absolutely appropriate and I think that’s the board’s role, to ask those questions and to make sure that it is clear.”

However, he notes, “my main purpose is that I want to make sure that my librarian has the support to do her job, and make sure she doesn’t have people looking over her shoulder. I still believe [these books] are in the right places.” Without a clear majority decision by the school board, he says, “I was not going to take books off shelves. I just wasn’t going to do that.”

The crux of the issue, Tolcacher says, is that “people’s values are very different. Some people would be not happy that there are bibles in the schools for kids to look at or different religions, books about World War II or the Civil War where people were shot. People have to have responsibility for what their youngsters read. I could definitely see an issue if [it] were a book that was in front of a captive audience in a classroom…but every public library around here has those books without any restrictions.”

He adds, “Our librarian is doing a phenomenal job in our district, a stellar job. She knows her business. She knows how to vet these books.”

A committee in the Northville Public Schools district had met Friday, May 3, to discuss the request, brought by parent Gail Horalek, that the district’s seventh graders read an earlier edition of the popular diary written by a Jewish teen who hid with her family for two years in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Anne Frank was betrayed and died at age 15 in a concentration camp.

“Following a thoughtful, deliberative process, the committee reached a unanimous decision to continue use of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl—The Definitive Edition as an option within the seventh grade English language arts curriculum. The committee felt strongly that a decision to remove the use of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl—The Definitive Edition as a choice within this larger unit of study would effectively impose situational censorship by eliminating the opportunity for the deeper study afforded by this edition,” says Robert D.G. Behnke, assistant superintendent for instructional services at Northville Public Schools, in a prepared statement addressed to the school community, which he provided to School Library Journal.

Horalek, a resident of Northville, a bedroom community of Detroit, MI, says her daughter’s school should have clearly communicated the differences between the definitive edition and the expurgated version that many parents remember from their school days. “I’m saying it’s inappropriate for the middle school, and [district officials] are blindsiding the parents,” says Horalek.

First published in 1947, the diary has been translated into 67 languages, with more than 30 million copies sold, according to the Anne Frank Center in New York. The diary has attracted dozens of requests to ban it from inclusion in school libraries or curriculum since its 1952 publication in United States, says Barbara M. Jones, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

Parents have objected to Frank’s directness about her sexual awakening, Jones says, or felt their children are too young to learn about the holocaust. Teachers value the diary as a tool to help young people understand history and the adolescent experiences and emotions they share with previous generations. “It’s not just about a war, but it’s also about a girl growing up,” Jones says. “The book is powerful, and it has been my experience that powerful books get censored.”

In November 2009, the definitive edition of Anne Frank’s diary was pulled from the school system in Culpeper County, VA, after one complaint about the sexual references. Culpeper schools switched to the expurgated version edited by Anne’s father, Otto Frank, a switch that parent Gail Horalek asked Northville schools to make in the city’s two middle schools.

Published in 1995 by Random House imprint Doubleday—and then in paperback by Random House imprint Bantam Books in 1997—the Definitive Edition restored passages omitted by Otto Frank, including unflattering descriptions of his wife, Anne’s mother, and others in hiding, and his daughter’s entries about her burgeoning sexuality, according to the foreword of the edition.

Among the additional material are two diary entries, written when Anne Frank was 14 years old, that Horalek considers too graphic for seventh grade. On Jan. 6, 1944, Frank reflects on puberty and her desire to kiss and touch a female friend. On March 24, 1944, Frank wonders whether her friend Peter has seen a woman nude and ponders how to describe her genitalia to him. These sections total about four pages in the 352-page book, but in total, all of the additional material represents 30 percent of the newer Definitive Edition.

Often challenges to books in schools focus on small sections outside of the context of the entire book, says ALA’s Jones. The Frank diary tells the story of a girl growing up in extraordinary circumstances and having thoughts similar to today’s adolescents, Jones says. “She’s concerned about what’s happening to her body and what is happening to her as a person,” Jones says.

Horalek’s daughter grew uncomfortable and went to her teacher and then mother, Horalek says. The school provided Horalek’s daughter with a different book. Troubled with the lack of notification to parents about the difference in editions of the diary and her daughter’s feelings that her teacher had minimized her concerns, Horalek asked the district to switch books.

Horalek clarifies that she doesn’t see the diary as pornography. Instead, she says, a number of students in her daughter’s class are distracted by Anne’s writings on her sexuality and the adolescents treat those pages like porn rather than appreciating the diary, Horalek says.

Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Horalek says she was initially excited that her daughter chose to read the diary. “I think Anne Frank is a person who everyone should know, not just because of the holocaust but because she truly was special,” Horalek says. “There is so much to be gained by reading her diary.”

The response to Horalek’s request to swap editions has ranged far and wide, with media outlets and their readers, including The Huffington Post, New York’s Daily News, Canada’s The Globe and Mail, and the UK’s The Guardian weighing in. The vast majority of commenters want to retain the Definitive Edition in Northville middle schools, including the Kids’ Right to Read Project, a joint effort of the National Coalition Against Censorship, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The group sent a letter to the district formalizing its request.

Horalek’s complaint has constitutional implications because she is trying to control what other parents’ children read, says Acacia O’Connor, coordinator of the Kids’ Right to Read Project. The courts have ruled that parents can make decisions for their own children but not other people’s, she notes, adding, “The historical importance of this book would outweigh anything considered objectionable.”

The diary’s American publisher, Random House, declined to comment on the Michigan challenge, but Gina Centrello, president and publisher of Bantam Books, did sign the Kids’ Right to Read Project letter requesting that the district retain the Definitive Edition.

Requests to remove a book from a school can lead to additional challenges in other communities, O’Conner says. Often other challenges, regardless of merits or outcome, are used to justify the removal of a book from classrooms or school library shelves, she says, noting that teachers and school librarians work in an environment where parents and administrators are increasingly critical of educators’ work.

According to ALA’s Jones, school librarians and teachers frequently call ALA reporting that they will lose their jobs if they support keeping a controversial book.

“If you stand up to parents and administrators, you run a huge risk,” O’Conner says. “Every time there is a challenge, there is a chilling effect on teachers and librarians.”

Marta Murvosh, MLS, is a former newspaper reporter who works for a regional library system in the Pacific Northwest. Follow her on http://www.facebook.com/MartaMurvosh.

Unfortunately, strict Internet filtering is the reality in many schools. Check your district’s Internet Use Policy and make sure there’s a provision to unblock sites that students may need. Perhaps you could meet with other teachers and see which sites kids will need to complete their upcoming assignments. Then ask the IT person to unblock them in advance.

My school district is adamant that our students must meet the Common Core standards for reading and literature. I’m especially concerned about the “Production and Distribution of Writing” standard, which requires kids to “Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.” Our school’s computers are heavily filtered, and the district’s policy doesn’t allow students to use email or social media during the school day.

Schedule a meeting with those who have the power to change the policy, including members of the IT department. Point out that this particular standard is impossible for kids to meet because the district’s current policy is so strict. Perhaps the IT department can come up with a solution. It’s also important to check your state’s privacy policy. Perhaps student writing should only be posted with a student’s first name or a unique screen name. You might also want to consider asking your district to subscribe to SchoolTube, which is a site where students can share their work.

One of our high school students is doing his senior project on Robert Cormier. He’s especially interested in exploring why many of Cormier’s novels were often censored. As part of the research, the student is required to use books, periodicals, newspapers, and websites. We have online access to some magazines and newspapers, but they don’t date back to when Cormier’s works were first challenged. I’ve done a quick search for online resources, but many of the sites that deal with censorship are blocked in our district. Any suggestions?

There’s a book about Cormier’s work in the “Authors of Banned Books” series that’s called, Robert Cormier: Banned, Challenged, and Censored (Enslow, 2008). If you check its chapter notes, you’ll find many valuable resources, including the names of websites with their URLs. If your school library doesn’t own this series, the local public library may. Consider getting it through interlibrary loan if you can’t purchase it by the time the student needs to complete his research. I’m sure that the public library can supply almost anything the student needs—make sure he has a public library card!

I’m an elementary school librarian. Recently, our principal asked me to remove the entire “The Popularity Papers” series from our collection after a parent complained about it. Our girls—and even some of the boys—really love these books. The fact that one of its main characters has two dads has never been an issue until the parent complained. When I asked our principal if he wanted me to remove the series because of the gay parents, he replied, “Yes, we can’t support that.” I haven’t removed the books. What should I do?

Does your district have a Materials Reconsideration Policy that deals with specific challenges? If it does, review the policy with your principal and the parent. Let them know that following a proper procedure is the most professional way of handling a challenge. The courts have already said that school administrators can’t pull a library book based on their “personal opinion or bias.” Point to the case in Davis County, UT, where the school district removed Patricia Polacco’s In Our Mothers’ House (Philomel, 2009) from its shelves. Parents who wanted their kids to have access to the book sued the district. The school board has reinstated the book, but the court case isn’t settled. If you don’t have a policy, now is the time to develop one.

Pat Scales is chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee. You can send your questions or comments on censorship to her at pscales@bellsouth.net.

The look of surprise on their faces reminds me that many of our neighbors never experienced a library until we opened six weeks ago. I take that as my cue to deliver my thorough yet brief elevator speech on the fabulousness that is the public library. The breadth of our collection, the number of programs we host, and the Teen Center Game Room piques their interest, but I end my spiel by giving the patrons the power: “The library is here to serve you, so please let us know what we can do to make you want to be come back.” As they leave the Teen Center (pictured right) shaking their heads in amazement, I know I have turned yet another person on to the potential that lies within the public library. I truly believe that it is my job to deliver what patrons want and need in the format they desire, be it online, print, or face to face.

But as any librarian can tell you, not everyone is excited about the library’s array of offerings. Some people believe our collection should be strictly educational and appropriate for all ages, with no regard to entertainment value. Within weeks of opening our doors we began fielding questions from a few concerned citizens who were voicing dissatisfaction with the library owning and circulating video games. These games are available for browsing both online and in-person, and are available for check-out to anyone with a library card. Anyone of any age can check out any video game the library owns. That is a standard that we follow as endorsers of the American Library Association Bill of Rights, part of which reads:

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library services.

But that standard is not endorsed by these community members, who are concerned about children being able to access materials with mature content. Our director, Chang Liu, responded publicly to this concern at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting, saying: “The responsibility of controlling or monitoring children’s access to the library materials resides with the parents or legal guardians. We expect parents to be with their children if they are concerned about what kind of materials, books, magazines, or other things that their children might be getting.” The conversation will likely continue, as the Board of Supervisors is also in the people-serving business and must practice due diligence.

The ALA Bill of Rights was established in 1939, and 74 years later we are still having the conversation about what is appropriate for whom, and if the library is the proper place to be offering certain materials. Even a brand new library with all of its shiny new things and endless possibilities isn’t immune to censorship and opposition. I choose to see this as a positive situation; as just one more opportunity to show our new patrons how seriously we take our mission, how high we set our standards, and how much effort we are willing to put into defending the rights of patrons of all ages to check out the materials they require and the materials they desire. All for the low, low membership fee of $0.00.

“Let me be clear—we are not banning this book from our schools,” Byrd-Bennett said in her memo to principals. “It was brought to our attention that it contains graphic language and images that are not appropriate for general use in the seventh grade curriculum…Due to the powerful images of torture in the book, I have asked our Office of Teaching & Learning to develop professional development guidelines, so that teachers can be trained to present this strong, but important content.”

Byrd-Bennett said that CPS would also be considering whether the book should be included in grades 8 to 10, although there is no official timeline for these decisions.

Barbara Jones, director of ALA’s OIF and FTRF executive director, responded in a letter addressed jointly to Byrd-Bennett; David Vitale, president of the Chicago Board of Education; and Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago, seeking an explanation and urging that the book be returned to classrooms. “While we applaud the CPS Department of Libraries for adhering to its own very well-crafted policies on school library collection development…we remain exceedingly troubled by the standing directive to remove the book from classrooms,” Jones said.

Jones also called the directive to restrict access “a heavy-handed denial of students’ rights to access information” that “smacks of censorship.”

Although the CPS maintains that the mounting protests have been “much ado about nothing,” according to Dave Miranda, deputy press secretary for CPS—who characterizes the re-evaluation of the book’s appropriateness as “just a shift in the curriculum”—the decision was so surprising (and so abrupt) that FTRF has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to it.

At the same time, many educators seem perplexed at the efforts to “recall” Persepolis since the book is identified as an instructional text as part of Chicago’s Common Core State Standards.

Aside from an unsuccessful challenge in 2009 in the Northshore (WA) School District, Persepolis has been widely recognized as an outstanding work since its first publication in France, notes Brigid Alverson, editor of School Library Journal’s Good Comics for Kids blog.

Since its 2003 publication stateside, Persepolis has received numerous accolades including two Eisner Award nominations, for Best Graphic Album and for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material, and Newsweek included it in its list of the top 10 fiction books of the decade, Alverson says. It was also adapted into an animated film, which was awarded the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and a nomination for an Academy Award that same year.

Although Alverson concedes that the graphic novel format could make its subject matter “more immediate, and more disturbing, when it is presented as pictures as opposed to print,” she notes that the ”the art in Persepolis is quite stylized, however, and not excessively gory.”

Alverson adds, “This isn’t a book about torture, it’s a book in which torture occurs. I think it’s important to consider the book as a whole, and not fixate on a particular image—that image will look different when regarded as part of the story than when taken on its own. The question I would be asking is whether the story is told in a way that seventh graders can understand. I can’t answer that, but the Chicago curriculum committee said yes, at least initially.”

The report—the first in a Pew/Berkman series that’ll explore youth privacy issues—features information from interviews with focus groups that were conducted by Berkman’s Youth and Media team and a national phone survey of parents and their teens that examines the use of social networking sites.

The findings are based on a phone survey of 802 parents and their 802 teens ages 12 to 17, conducted between July 26 and September 30, 2012. Interviews were done in English and Spanish and on landline and cell phones. The research team also conducted 16 focus group interviews with roughly 120 students. The report is fully downloadable, and may also be searched online.

The book, In Our Mothers’ House (Philomel, 2009) by award-winning author Patricia Polacco, was relocated behind the desks of librarians in schools serving K-6 students in Utah’s Davis School District. The book is about three adopted children of differing ethnic backgrounds and their lesbian mothers.

Children in the district must present written parental permission to see the book, according to a 26-page complaint filed by the ACLU and the ACLU of Utah Foundation on November 13.

The Davis School District claims that the book violates Utah state laws banning support of homosexuality in instructional materials supplied by schools.

“[T]he District’s primary justification for removing the book from the shelves is that, by telling the story of children raised by same-sex parents, the book constitutes ‘advocacy of homosexuality,’ in purported violation of Utah’s sex-education laws,” according to the complaint.

The ACLU maintains that removing the book violates students’ first-amendment rights.

“The Supreme Court has been very clear that schools cannot remove books from the shelf simply because they disagree with their viewpoints,” Leslie Cooper, senior staff attorney at the ACLU LGBT Rights and AIDS Project, told SLJ. “This case is about students’ rights to books in the library.”

“This is not about instructional materials. It is a book on the library shelf,” Cooper said. “A book that depicts a family headed by a gay couple hardly advocates a gay family lifestyle.”

The ACLU is filing the proposed class-action suit on behalf of the two children of Davis School District mother Tina Weber, along with the other nearly 3,000 students in the district.

“I was shocked when I heard that a handful of parents had made a decision about whether everyone else’s kids could have access to this book,” Weber said, according to an ACLU press release. “Our job as parents is to make sure we teach our children about our values. We can do that without imposing our personal views on the rest of the school community.”

How the case evolved

The flap over the book started in January, when a kindergarten student at Utah’s Windridge Elementary School brought Polacco’s book home and the child’s parent objected to it. The parent filled out a form requesting that the book be removed from the library.

As recounted in a June SLJ article, the book was moved from the K-2 section to the 3-6 grade section following a January 27 meeting of the Windridge School Library Media Committee.

The parent, along with 25 others, then appealed to the District Library Media Committee, filling out complaint forms asking again that the book be removed. The group provided statements claiming that the book contains “propaganda, because it puts forth an idea, then makes it look attractive and normal” and that “the author is wanting us to accept homosexuality as a norm,” among other objections, according to the complaint.

On April 30, the District Library Media Committee voted to have the book put behind librarians’ desks in all district schools.

ACLU’s Cooper says, “The removal of the book was deferring to other parents’ decisions about what their children can read.”

According to a Salt Lake Tribune story published on June 1, school librarians were later being told to remove other books touching on gay and lesbian themes.

A web page on the Davis School District site states that “The Davis District Library Media Policies are undergoing review at this time.” A previous school library policy statement was recently removed from the site, according to the complaint.

Utah librarians respond

“It appeared to us that the Davis School District followed the procedures that they had in place,” said Shelly Ripplinger, president of the Utah Educational Library Media Association (UELMA). “As an organization, we support all school libraries having a selection policy and a reconsideration policy.”

“School libraries serve a different function than public libraries,” Ripplinger added. “Our purpose is to support the curriculum, so with our limited budget we have to focus on supporting the curriculum and leisure reading.”

Chris Williams, community relations director of the  Davis School District, was not available for comment at press time.

On November 14, the day after the lawsuit was filed, The Utah Library Association (ULA) posted a new  Statement on Intellectual Freedom on its website.

A video of parents reading Polacco’s book aloud at a Salt Lake City library appears on the ULA Intellectual Freedom Committee portion of the site. The video was created as part of the 2012 50 State Salute to Banned Books Week (September 30-October 6) organized by the American Library Association (ALA).

In Our Mothers’ House classifies as a banned book, said Wanda Mae Huffaker, ULA Intellectual Freedom Committee Chair. “Being placed behind the desk falls into the definition of being banned” because the book is “not accessible to everyone.”

“Few banned books stay banned,” Huffaker observed. “Most of the time librarians are able to get books back on the shelves. We librarians are good at what we do.”

Polacco, the author of more than 85 books for young people, explained in an October 5 article for the ACLU blog during Banned Books Week that she wrote In Our Mothers’ House after witnessing a fourth grade girl with lesbian parents and adopted siblings being told by an aide that “you don’t come from a real family.”

Laurie O’Neil, family outreach social worker at James M. Quinn Elementary School, at the school’s Mix It Up Day last year.

A Christian group’s protests have spurred some schools to pull their involvement from next week’s Mix it Up at Lunch Day—an 11-year-old program meant to reduce prejudice among students that’s sponsored by the Teaching Tolerance project, part of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

But the American Family Association (AFA) doesn’t see the program that way. Instead, the Christian association has launched a campaign encouraging families to keep their children home on October 30, describing the event as a means to “establish the acceptance of homosexuality into public schools…” The AFA did not return calls requesting comment.

Schools that have participated in Mix It Up at Lunch Day for a decade have reported that the event is a great way for all students to break down social barriers—and even make new friends.

Deerfield (MA) Elementary School, which is holding their event on Friday October 26, has sixth graders lead table discussions over three different lunch periods.

“The students will say, ‘I already know everyone at this table,’ yet that’s not where they normally sit,” says Jeanine Heil, Deerfield’s principal. “This has allowed them to get to know more people at the school.”

The Teaching Tolerance project encourages schools to run Mix It Up at Lunch  on October 30— allowing for students to mingle and meet kids they may not normally share their sandwich with on a regular school day. There are materials online, plus links to model schools, like Deerfield, including other ideas on how to mark the event.

About 2,755 schools are registered to participate this October, more than each of the last two years. However, Maureen Costello, Teaching Tolerance’s director, says that about 5,000 or more usually hold an event, but don’t officially sign up online. Because of the AFA’s protests this year, 250 schools asked to be unregistered—but then another 400 added their names to the official list, Costello said.

“Half [that unregistered] indicated they were doing so under duress and had every intention of doing the program on another day or under another name,” she says.

Eileen Hunter-Sweeney says her school hasn’t heard a peep about concerns about next week’s Mix It Up at Lunch Day at Hackberry Hill Elementary in Arvada, CO. Instead, the kids are excited about the chance to sit with new students, as they have every year since Teaching Tolerance launched the event.

“It’s an easy way to meet someone they want to sit with,” says Hunter-Sweeney, the school’s social worker. “They don’t have to have the nerve to walk across the cafeteria and meet someone new. They’re expected to.”

Students at the Mix It Up event last year.

They’re not necessarily expected to wear big purple hats at James M. Quinn Elementary School in Dartmouth, MA. But that’s what Laurie O’Neil, the school’s family outreach social worker will don at next Tuesday’s lunch, where teachers, students and staff are encouraged to mix up their clothing as well. “The kids love it,” says O’Neil.

At Lynn (MA) English High School, students are invited to two Mix It Up dinners each year—one in the spring and one in October, held earlier this week, where about 150 students paid $3 each, enjoyed a catered dinner of pasta and salad, played Pictionary, and were assigned tables by picking a random number.

“The goal is to work with kids within the school to improve school climate and make everyone feel welcome and accepted,” says Ginny Keenan, peer mediation and mentoring coordinator and Friends of Rachel Club advisor, which sponsors the event.

And that, ultimately, is the goal organizers hope to reach: students seeing each other for the individuals they are—and accepting them into the school community.

“We hope the schools use it as an approach to build a positive climate for students and respect for each other,” says Costello. “We don’t want students to relate to stereotypes but to each other.”

Ellen Hopkins

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) will honor award-winning authors Ellen Hopkins and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor next month for their fight to defend free speech.

Hopkins, who writes about addiction, teen prostitution, and other controversial issues in her “Crank” trilogy (S & S/Margaret K. McElderry Bks.), is no stranger to book banning. In January 2010, she and a handful of other YA authors were scheduled to attend the Humble ISD Libraries’ Teen Lit Festival in Texas, but Hopkins was uninvited when a middle school librarian voiced concern over the author “being in the vicinity of her students.”  In protest, five of the seven other festival authors—Melissa de la Cruz, Matt de la Peña, Pete Hautman, Tera Lynn Childs, and Brian Meehl—withdrew from the event.

Hopkins was also banned from speaking at Whittier Middle School in Norman, OK, in 2009, after a parent asked that her novel, Glass (S & S, 2007), a semiautobiographical account of her daughter’s battle with a crystal meth addiction, be pulled from all district middle school libraries—and that no student be allowed to hear Hopkins speak.

For Banned Books Week in September 2009, Hopkins created a “Manifesto” video, in which she recites an anticensorship poem that chides “you zealots and bigots and false patriots who live in fear of discourse.”

“We’re thrilled to honor Ellen as an author who is courageous for the kinds of stories she writes and her willingness to fight for young people’s right to read them,” says Joan Bertin, NCAC’s executive director.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Reynolds Naylor, a 1992 Newbery Award-winner for Shiloh, has published more than 25 books in the often-challenged “Alice” series, which deals with relationships, sex, friendships, life problems, and God—and landed on the American Library Association’s list of most challenged books for several years, topping the list in 2003. Reynolds Naylor is also founder of the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, which annually rewards $5,000 to an author of children’s or young-adult fiction of literary merit to complete a work-in-progress.

NCAC has for years honored authors and journalists among defenders of free speech but began recognizing YA authors annually in 2009, when it highlighted the work of Judy Blume, who has served on NCAC’s board since 2000 and is vocal about her battles against censorship.

Lauren Myracle, a New York Times best-selling author of the “IM” series of books, which include ttyl, ttfn, and l8r, g8r, was honored in 2010. Myracle ranked number one on ALA’s top 10 most frequently challenged books list in 2011 and 2009—and also made the list in 2008 and 2007. In 2011, NCAC honored Laurie Halse Anderson, author of the debut novel, Speak, about rape, and Wintergirls, which deals with eating disorders. Both books are often challenged in schools.

Hopkins, Reynolds Naylor, and Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, will be honored November 12 during NCAC’s annual Free Speech Matters ceremony in New York City.

NCAC’s Free Speech Matters celebration is the only annual event to recognize YA writers and children’s book publishers for their contributions to free expression. If you’d like to attend, sponsor, or donate to the event, there’s still time.

Lauren Myracle

freedom to read. We caught up by email with bestselling author Lauren Myracle, who ranked number one on the American Library Association’s top 10 most frequently challenged books list in 2011 and 2009—and who also made the list in 2008 and 2007.

What does it mean to top ALA’s list of most challenged books–not once–but twice?

Well, it means I get a little bit of attention for a few days. I like that. I like attention! It also reminds me to do my best to stay on the top of my game. If I’m going to be an advocate for intellectual freedom which I sure try to be—then I better keep a close eye on myself. Where do I fall short? What ideas am I uncomfortable with? How do I deal with those ideas and the people who express them? +shrugs+ It’s tough. I am still a total work in progress.

Are you proud? Sad? Mad?

PROUD, for sure. “Mad” went away a long time ago. (I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, you know. I’ve been on this list before.) “Sad”? Well…maybe a little, in the broad way that I am sad that we silly humans can’t get our acts together and sing in harmony. But I’m an eternal optimist. We’ll figure it out, and conversations about tough topics—like censorship—inevitably lead to growth.

This is your fourth time on the list in five years. Why’s it important that kids get to read books like yours?

Because they’re AWESOME. Can that be my answer? Okaaaay, fine. Because ideas don’t kill people. Guns do. Except maybe gun-totin’ mamas have a valid argument for strapping lady revolvers to their inner thighs. Only how will I know if I’m forbidden from reading the gun-totin’ mamas’ treatise: “How to Coordinate Your Pistol with Your Pumps”? Hmmm???? (Um. My books have nothing to do with guns. My brain just goes to weird places late at night…)

What is the most moving comment from a reader that you’ve received?

“I am a gay boy living in NC. If I hadn’t read yr book Shine (Amulet, 2011), I probably wldn’t be here today. Thx.”

Do book challenges have any effect on your writing?

Absolutely, and it’s a pain in the butt. I doubt myself all the time. I want to reach tween and teen readers, but to reach them, I often have to meet the approval of an adult parent/teacher/book buyer/etc. But I don’t care about the approval of those adults. Do I? What if what I write really *is* “wrong”? What if I try so hard to not censor myself that I go too far and fall over? What if I try so hard to not not censor myself that I teeter in my high-and-mighty heels and fall over in the other direction? WHAT IF I SUCK? It is a mind game, see? But for the record, I don’t wear heels. I am usually barefoot.

OK, an easy one. How do you feel about book banning and challenges?

Can my answer be “Awesome!” again? Kidding. I don’t feel awesome about book banning. I feel crappy about it. Censorship hurts readers (all readers) and hurts authors (especially those who have yet to develop a thick skin). As Chris Crutcher said, “When you ban a book, you ban a kid.” Uncool. On the plus side, the fact that we celebrate Banned Books Week every year *is* awesome, because it draws attention to the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power—and yes, the absolute and utter awesomeness—of literature.

Bill Moyers Joins ALA’s Banned Books Week Virtual Read Out.

As honorary co-chair of this year’s Banned Books Week, from September 30 to October 6, Moyers’s video, “The Bane of Banned Books,” talks about how he grew up in East Texas without any money for books, so he’d go to the small local library where he checked out his first books: Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days and a primer on Greek and Roman mythology.

Years later, when he entered the library as a freshman at a state college, Moyers says he was overwhelmed.

“I looked down at row after row of books and periodicals and thought, ‘Wow! All this for me?’” says Moyers, adding that he even considered majoring in library science just to be close to all those books. “Which is one reason it pains me to think that in this modern age, some folks and communities across America are saying, ‘No, that book isn’t for you.’”

ALA’s Virtual Read Out is an advocacy campaign that highlights the danger of censoring books in schools and libraries, and provides an opportunity for readers to demonstrate their support for the First Amendment by reading from their favorite banned or challenged books.

Joining Moyers in this year’s Virtual Read-Out are frequently challenged authors Dori Hillstad Butler, Stephen Chbosky, Sara Paretsky, Carmen Tafolla, and others. More than 800 videos were uploaded during last year’s Banned Books Week, including posts from authors Jay Asher, Judy Blume, Chris Crutcher, Whoopi Goldberg, and Lauren Myracle.

Be sure to mark your calendars for another Banned Books Week event: Moyers will discuss book censorship and Banned Books Week, along with other topics, in a “Live Chat with Bill Moyers” on Monday, October 1 at 3 p.m. EST. Join the chat with your class by leaving comments and questions on the site or via Twitter @BillMoyers.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week, an annual event sponsored by ALA, which recognizes the importance of the freedom to read. For more information about book challenges and bans in your area, or a listing of Banned Books Week events sponsored by libraries, bookstores and other groups across the county, visit the Banned Books Week website.