Censorship Roundup

Conroe, TX: Montgomery County commissioners have ordered the removal of the controversial sex education book It's Perfectly Normal (Candlewick, 1996) by Robie Harris from county library shelves. However, commission member Alan Sadler and library director Jerilynn Williams agreed after the August 26 directive that a county-mandated book review process would ultimately decide the book's fate. That process requires that someone file a formal complaint. The commission decision came after members of the group Cut-and-Shoot appeared unexpectedly before a commissioners' meeting to complain about the book. "This book promotes homosexuality and abortion," Conroe resident Monte Lane told the Conroe Courier. He added that the person responsible for acquiring the library's four copies of It's Perfectly Normal should be fired.

Cromwell, MA: A group seeking to ban all materials dealing with witchcraft from local schools—including two Newbery Medal-winning titles, The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Houghton, 1958) by Elizabeth George Speare and Bridge to Terabithia (Crowell, 1977) by Katherine Paterson—stated their case to the Cromwell Board of Education Program Committee August 27. No action was taken, however, as the group had failed to formally request a curriculum review, and signatures on a petition calling for the ban weren't validated by the town clerk, reported the Middletown Press. The petition, which claims that books about witchcraft promote a religion called Wicca, also calls for the ban of an annual field trip to a Salem, MA, witch's museum, as well as teachers dressing up as witches for Halloween.

Webb City, MO: The Webb City school board voted August 13 to remove Achingly Alice, Alice in Lace, and The Grooming of Alice from the elementary school library, while making three other titles in the Phyllis Reynolds Naylor series available only to sixth-grade students with parental permission. The controversy began in April, when a parent questioned whether the series of novels, which address adolescent sexuality, be available to elementary students. The board had voted in June to ban the books, but postponed taking action until board members had read the novels, reported the Springfield News-Leader.