Censorship Roundup
By Staff -- School Library Journal, 4/1/2005
Fayetteville, AR: Laurie Taylor, a mother of five, recently asked the Fayetteville School Board to remove three books from area middle and elementary school libraries, saying they were too sexually explicit for children and young teens. The Teenage Guy's Survival Guide (Little, Brown, 1999) by Jeremy Daldry, It's Perfectly Normal (1994), and It's So Amazing (1999, both Candlewick), both by Robie H. Harris were not being used for classroom instruction and were only available in school libraries, say school officials. An internal commission composed of administrators, teachers, parents, and a media specialist will review Taylor's formal complaint and ultimately determine the fate of the books. The Daldry book offers advice to teenage boys on dating, romance, sex, and emotional development, and the Robie books explain reproduction and the physical, psychological, emotional, and social changes that occur during puberty.
Merced, CA: Merced City School District Assistant Superintendent RoseMary Duran has ordered the removal of Life Is Funny (DK, 2000) by E. R. Frank from two middle school libraries following a complaint by parent Necola Adams about its sexually graphic passages and profanity. Duran was quoted as saying that she feels the book's content is inappropriate even for high school libraries and that the district plans to evaluate its book-buying policies to determine how the title ended up at the two middle school libraries. Adams's daughter, a seventh grader at Tenaya Middle School, had been reading the book, about the lives and loves of eight teenagers living in Brooklyn, NY, to gain extra credit in an English class. Life Is Funny received a 2000 Teen People Book Club NEXT award and a mention on the American Library Association's Quick Picks list that same year.
Lake Wales, FL: The school media committee at Spook Hill Elementary School recently voted to remove Anastasia Again! (Houghton, 1981) by Lois Lowry from the school library after parent Kristi Hardee objected to its references to beer and Playboy magazine, and the main character making light of wanting to commit suicide. Written for children ages nine through 12, Anastasia Again! is the second in a series of novels chronicling the adventures of a precocious preteen girl named Anastasia Krupnick. Hardee also objected to a passage in which one of Anastasia's friends recalls how, at the age of seven, she had run naked on a beach while her father filmed her. Spook Hill principal and media committee member Matt Burkett says he also objected to the passage. Hardee had sought to have five other books by Lowry banned, but the 11-member committee voted 7–4 to only remove Anastasia Again! and to keep the rest.
Norman, OK: Students in an English class at Little Axe High School were recently ordered to stop reading the Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Color Purple (Harcourt, 1982) by Alice Walker after a dozen parents complained about passages relating to a sexual relationship between a girl and her stepfather. School Superintendent Barry Damrill defended pulling the book, which the class was reading aloud, saying it was the school board's policy to do so in response to numerous complaints. Damrill says students will still have access to the book, which is available in the school library. If parents wish to appeal the decision to remove the book, they may do so before the school board. The Color Purple ranks 18 on the American Library Association's list of 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990 to 2000 and is described by the Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia as a "feminist novel."
