I recently read an article titled “‘Sexy’ Children’s Book Pulled from Library Shelves”. This article caught my attention for a number of reasons. First off, I was curious to find out what was exactly ‘sexy’ about the material, especially if this item was for an elementary school library. Secondly, I wanted to know what kind of reconsideration measures were taken in order for the book to be removed from the collection. It seems like a great topic for debate in regards to IF.
The article discusses an incident in Paradise Valley over “Lovingly Alice” by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, famously known for writing Shiloh, a Newberry Award winner. An 8-year-old girl took this book to her mother when she encountered content that she felt was mature for her age. The mother was appalled by what she found and complained to the school, which then removed the item from its shelves.
According to the article “The children's book is about a young girl with lots of questions about sex, and the discussion gets very detailed, with characters asking 'how long does it take?' and whether it was messy”. After reading this part of the article I went to Amazon.com to get a more detailed description of the plot of the book. School Library Journal describes it much differently than how it was portrayed in the news, with only one sentence containing any mention of sexual content (“Alice is concerned about being motherless and muddled about sex, and there's a fair amount of talk about it, much to Lester's embarrassment.”).
I need to conduct further research about the book and the process that was taken that resulted in its removal (nothing was mentioned about a formal proposal or process), but my initial reaction is that I believe that material should remain in the school library. The focus of the book is not sex, but the life and troubles of a teenage girl. Is it right to take the sexual themes out of the context of the story and use them as the basis for removal? The article also mentions that according to ALA, this is the second most banned/challenged book in libraries in the last decade. How are other libraries defending the right of this book to remain on the shelves?
Article link: http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/education/childrens-book-pulled-from-library-shelves-5-16-2011
Description from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lovingly-Alice-Phyllis-Reynolds-Naylor/dp/068984400X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305731715&sr=8-1
What an interesting article. I too believe that it should stay in the library. It is my personal opinion that while libraries should not censor materials, parents should. Before the child begins to read any book, the parents should review it before allowing their children to read it. The parent has nobody to blame but themself for not reviewing the content first.
ReplyDeleteI just cataloged the latest "Alice" book the other day and this makes we wonder if I should have looked at it more carefully to see whether it might belong in the Young Adult section, rather than J Fiction? I really wasn't aware of this series I guess. Since the books seem to follow Alice as she is getting older, the content may have matured as well. I do think that the books do belong in the public library because these are issues real elementary students need to understand. This 8 year old is probably reading beyond her maturity level though. I had an early reader and I did try and monitor what she checked out of the library, up until middle school I think.
ReplyDeleteAt the public library where I work we have Naylor's "Alice" books in two different places. She does, indeed, mature as the series goes on. I think that librarians who catalog this book should follow the lead of our staff and start putting the books in the YA, or "teen", sections of their public libraries.
ReplyDeleteAs for the elementary school that housed this book, it is my strong opinion that it should have probably not have been purchased for a K-5 library but, rather, for the high school of this school system.