Letters

I can't for the life of me understand why you would recommend a book (Inkspell, October 2005, p. 161) that uses cussing to children beginning in grade five. My son saved up his money to buy this book, and he put it down in disgust because of all the cussing. He just looked at me with tears and said he couldn't read it anymore.

Can you explain why more and more books are landing on our school and library shelves with people like you raving and endorsing them when they have swearing in them? Why aren't you taking a stand against it? If your own child had to pick up the book and read it out loud in class, how would you feel hearing the F- or B-word come out of his or her mouth?

I was called to volunteer at the library one day. I had to read a book out loud, and before I knew it I was saying "damn." The horror of realizing I was reading a book to fourth graders "for their age group" was incredible. They were just as shocked to hear me say it. I was mortified.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean we have the right to contaminate the minds of innocent children. These books can be just as good and fanciful without the swearing in them.

I recently read the Letters section of the May issue (p. 15) and was disturbed that a librarian wrote that "profanity" and "decent" are "mutually exclusive" and that we should not "embrace an ever-diminishing standard of acceptability." It is not our role to decide what is decent literature. What one parent may teach their child about appropriate language may differ considerably from another family's code of conduct. We should do well to remember that it is our role to bring all types of information into the hands of those thirsting for it and not judge it by our own personal beliefs.

I didn't feel that the headline about the popularity of tagging versus "traditional classification formats" entitled "Webheads Dis Dewey" (March 2007, p. 29) was entirely fair to poor 'ol Melvil. Tagging, it seems to me, is about cataloging. Dewey, on the other hand, is all about classification. Why pick on him?

And here's my response to the study: Tagging, schmagging; librarians invented metadata. We've been tagging since Alexandria, baby. Webheads, get over yourselves.

The worst part about the Pew Survey blurb? You could've had fun with the headline and been accurate, too. Instead of "Webheads Dis Dewey," how about "Study Sears Sears"?

Mr. Kenney, thank you for your editorial in the June 2007 issue. You used some great words that I feel comfortable using with concerned parents to convey why we choose certain books for our collection. The reviews are invaluable and, like you said, help us to better predict what our community would like to read.