My First Book Challenge(s)

Although I run the school library, I'm not there full-time.  When I arrived the other afternoon, another parent volunteer reported to me that a third-grade teacher who is, shall we say, quirky, had requested (demanded?) that the fantastic (my adjective, not hers) graphic novel Smile be taken off that shelves as it was "inappropriate."  She had put post-its on specific pages that involved "boy talk" and a game of Spin the Bottle.  She objected to the part where Raina's friends encourage her to "glam up" to garner male attention.

Of course, like most censors, she had completely missed the point of the book: that girls should be themselves and should be comfortable with their appearance.

The book is so popular, and deservedly so, that I actually ordered 3 copies of it (and 3 each of Raina Telgemeier's other books), which is pretty much unheard of for me.

But I'm in a bit of a tough spot here.  I'm an unpaid volunteer, not an employee.  And I'm not the principal's favorite.  I must admit, I'm thinking of compromising and taking the book off the shelf when her class comes.  It is more appropriate for 4th and 5th grade, that is true.  And some classroom teachers do retain veto power of what books their students check out from the school library.  Certainly in the future she would not permit her students to check Smile out, so I'm just short-circuiting the process.

To some extent, I "censor" all the time, whenever I make choices for the library.  This is, after all, a school library, serving children ages 4-11.  Moreover, we have limited space.   I keep in mind those limitations when I purchase books.  I don't buy "superhero" books or Minecraft books or comic books for the school library, despite student requests.  But the only book I've ever removed from the shelves for inappropriateness was The Hunger Games.

Wow, that sounds a lot like rationalizing, doesn't it?  I feel like I'm colluding in censorship.  What would you do?

Meanwhile, another volunteer reported that a parent came in, angry that his child kept coming home with books "too hard" for him.  She referred him to the classroom teacher.  I would have suggested that he read the books to his child.  And that reading above your level can open up a whole new world.

I do feel like I've just gotten my librarian wings, though... or perhaps pages?

Wonderful, Even Out of Order

Despite the fact that I'm incredibly messy with physical things (just ask my husband), I'm pretty organized when it comes to mental tasks.  If a book is part of a series, I read it in order.  And I finish the series (with rare exceptions).  That's why I was horrified to discover my daughter reading Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice books out of order.  Out of order!  Who does such a thing?  And yet, when I picked one up, I understood. 

Some of the many Alice books, out of order.

Alice's voice is so real, so frank, so matter-of-fact, that you can't help but be drawn in.  And, being, let us say, frugal, I put the books on hold at the library and they arrived out of order, leaving us with a random assortment as we await earlier ones in the series.  But once my daughter had read one, she just couldn't wait to read the others.  (The books were actually written slightly out of order, with the prequels coming later, as younger readers clamored to get in on the Alice action.  Moreover, with 28 books in the series (!!!), we'll see if my daughter actually reads them all.)


I picked up the one where Alice is in seventh grade (Alice in Rapture, Sort Of).  I opened it to the middle (hey, once you're reading the series out of order, why not pick up an individual book halfway through?), to this part:

"It's bodies!" Elizabeth told us.  "I mean, they're so embarrassing."

"Everybody's got one," I said.

"The noises they make!" she said.  "I have to eat four crackers just before I go out with Tom to keep my stomach from growling."

Pitch perfect, right?  Alice isn't horribly embarrassed by her body, as her friend Elizabeth is, but neither is she entirely comfortable with it.  What girl or woman is?


A few pages later, Alice describes her friend Pamela's bikini bathing suit.

"I knew her mother had gone with her to buy it.  I wondered why a mother would buy such a suit for a daughter who wasn't supposed to kiss until she was sixteen.  Some parents don't seem to have a bit of sense."

Don't you just love her?!?

When her boyfriend kisses her, she tells him simply and straightforwardly, "I don't think I'm ready for this yet."  And in the perfect touch, "He looked a little relieved himself."

The Alice books are some of the most-censored books out there.  What a pity.  Alice is a wonderful guide for young girls.  She's the big sister every girl has wished for and no one has ever had.  The time to read these books is when the reader is just a bit younger than Alice is in each book.  I'm thrilled my 8-year-old came upon these books.

If only we had them in order.

To (Junie) B. or Not to (Junie) B.

The other night my daughter was sitting on the couch, reading a book to herself and laughing out loud.  She was not reading a great work of literature, but one of the Junie B. Jones books.  Now, I know that Junie has been criticized as modeling poor behavior, not to mention poor grammar, but I was still surprised when talking with some acquaintances to find that several of them do not allow their children to read these books.  (I wonder what they would do if their children were in my daughter's first grade class, where her teacher is actually reading the first book aloud to the whole class!)  Why would I deprive my child of that laugh?  And more importantly, why would I deprive her of the chance to make her own judgments about Junie's behavior?  Characters in books are not supposed to be role models.  They are supposed to be friends, entertainers, and sometimes, a jumping-off point for a discussion about the choices they make. They are supposed to show us new ways to think about ourselves and other people and the world around us.  A role model rarely does that as well as a more complex, nuanced character does.

That doesn't mean that I don't think that certain books are inappropriate for my daughter right now.  So I will warn her if I think a book is too hard or too scary.  And I will not go out of my way to present her with books that I don't think are appropriate... or even all that good.  And if I can't stand the book personally, I won't read it to her.  But when she finds a book on her own, I let her read it.  And laugh.