book pulled from school library

April writes “Wilson County school libraries in North Carolina have pulled a book off the shelves because of content. The parents who started the complaint are now trying to stir up interest in a “rating system” for books similar to that used for movies. Here’s the story from local news channel WRAL.”

October 15, 2004 by Uncategorized 3

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3 Responses

  1. GregS* says:
    October 15, 2004 at 6:33 am

    Rated R?
    “”Diamond Dogs” is about a high school football star who kills a fellow student while driving drunk. The book describes sexual encounters between the main character and his girlfriend.”

    Naw, probably a PG-13. The student was only 11 so that should cover it.

    Reply
  2. Eli says:
    October 15, 2004 at 7:39 pm

    Teen Reading?
    I did some research on this title. I discovered that there is a difference of opinion regarding it. If you go to http://www.scholastic.com you will find that it is on a list entitled “Great Grown-up Titles for Teens.” These are suggested readings for advanced readers. Some libraries blatantly place the title on teen summer readings lists. Why is age appropriate equal to censorship or reactionary behavior. Teens today are very curious and live in an “anything goes” world. Maturity is not always there and raging hormones are. If a book is intended to teach a lesson, then there are many good titles which would suffice. Why is there a need to suggest a title that requires a degree of maturity to read it? Reading level and age appropriate are not obsolete consepts. True, the parent can decide what their teen can read, but the library cannot make an assumption that all parents agree. Once again one philosophy is catered to and the other not. Suppose a conservative wrote a book and it was suggested for teen reading, there would be loud protest about its reactionary, alleged fascist leanings. Book suggestion and collection developement seem to be a one-sided issues. In America we can pirnt anything we want and that is fine, educationally we should also consider the child’s emotional as well as physical and chronological development.

    Reply
  3. Steffers says:
    October 15, 2004 at 8:39 pm

    Re:Teen Reading?
    The problem with making age appropriate decisions is how to handle those kids that are advanced readers that aren’t (or won’t be) interested in the materials that you purchase. This, I think, would be especially difficult in a school library setting… some place where you can’t simply send the child (with appropriate suggestions) to the grown-up section to find something to read that will a)strike their fancy and b)be on their reading level. What we’re running into here, IMHO, is a library that is trying to reach out to every level of reader. The unfortunate side effect is that kids can get their hands on materials that they aren’t ready to see, or that their parents ordinarily wouldn’t allow them to see.

    Reply

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