Hideous Book Remains in Fond du Lac School Library
PrintA materials review committee formed by the Fond du Lac (Wis.) School District has denied a request by a Theisen Middle School parent to remove Sonya Sones’s One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies from school-library shelves. However, complainant Ann Wentworth remains immersed in the district’s reconsideration process; shortly before the February 18 hearing, she filed objections to the presence of six other young-adult novels in the collection, explaining in the February 19 Oshkosh Northwestern that “ultimately I’d like to see a policy change in how literature is selected.”
Wentworth said she objected to Hideous after her 6th-grade daughter borrowed it because the novel was sexually explicit and age-inappropriate. “Kids are bombarded from every angle. In the home, parents control the media. Parameters need to be put in place for literature at school,” she asserted.
But Fond du Lac Public Library Director Ken Hall, who was a member of the reconsideration committee, characterized the novel as “a sweet book, something I felt a reluctant reader would read.”
Superintendent Jim Sebert read aloud a letter from Sones in which she supported Wentworth’s right to monitor her child’s reading but, “As Clare Booth Luce so eloquently put it, ‘Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there.’”
At one point, the discussion shifted to a district-library software program that enables parents to bar their children from borrowing particular titles. “It doesn’t do any good if parents aren’t aware of it,” area resident Lori Gneiser said of the Alexandria program, which Sebert described in the February 18 Fond du Lac Reporter as “allowing the district to meet individual needs while also providing a robust collection in line with First Amendment provisions and the spirit of intellectual freedom.”
The other six books challenged by Wentworth are: Ann Brashares’s four-volume Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern, and another Sonia Sones title, What My Mother Doesn’t Know.
American Libraries, Wed, 02/24/2010 - 13:44
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Comments
What a BOOK
Yes I guess I agree with the person who said that She is the one who determine what her/his child can read, on the contrary with that i guess we dont had that much control on what our child would like and love to read, I never seen nor read this book if what inside with it or whats the story about still it is good that those book were band as it has a Hideous article with it as what they claim is.
In response to CLARE BOOTH LUCE IS NO AUTHORITY...
We live in a neighboring town. I checked out the book to read it, curious about what can be so terrible that it would compel a parent to discourage their child from reading. My 16 year old daughter saw it sitting on the table. "You’re reading this?" she said to me. "I read it in the 6th grade. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read." Hmmmm…when she was in 6th grade, she attended a parochial school..the book was available there. Today, my daughter is a bright, voracious reader, an honor student, active in Forensics, Model UN, sports, and church activities, both locally and nationally. We don’t always agree (what mother and daughter do?), but I felt comfortable asking her opinion of the sexual content of the book. "Sex? I don’t remember the book being about sex. It was more her accepting her mom, and her dad, and herself. Mom, it’s a book about learning to love." I am blessed! Thank you to Sonya Sones for understanding what moves young people!
P.S. From what my daughter tells me, a person has to wonder if perhaps there is an unspoken agenda here…maybe similar to the one that rocked the nearby city of West Bend this past year. It’s a disturbing trend of judgement and condemnation. Not particularly Christ-like behavior.
A good reminder to have your ducks in a row
Kudos to the FDL school officials for responding to this issue so professionally. These reconsideration requests are likely going to increase, primarily in schools, but also in public libraries as well. It is so important for our institutions to be ready to respond to any book challenge. This means regularly reviewing our reconsideration policy. making sure the form or whatever we use is in a convenient and easy-to-find location, and frequently reviewing the policy and agreed-upon procedures with staff.
Agenda
Here in Fond du Lac, the general public is overwhelming AGAINST Mrs. Wentworth and her book banning. She’s appealing and adding more books to her ever growing list. It would appear that she has an agenda other than just "protecting" the children of the city.
But Katherine Paterson IS an Authority
I’m glad that there are
I’m glad that there are parents that care about what their kids do (including reading). I’m also glad that a lot of those parents trust their kids enough to generally self-censor (aren’t supposed to be teaching them how to make their own decisions about right and wrong?). It’s unfortunate that a group of parents (and I disagree that it is MOST parents) prefer to jump on a censorship bandwagon before they actually read a book themselves. As a librarian, I, of course, cringe when a person believes it is their responsibility to decide what information ALL children can access rather than worrying about their own child.
What comes to mind as I read yet another censorship article is actually a quote by an evangelical minister, Ravi Zecharias, who says "Let my people think."
The worst thing my mother
The worst thing my mother ever did to me was to tell me not to read a book. I read it, it was too old for me, and I was disturbed by it, but I didn’t have anyone to talk to about it. It bothered me for quite a while when I was in the 6th grade.
When I finally told her about it, she was very sorry and we had a great relationship after that, talking about books. It’s one of the reasons I became a librarian.
A 64-year-old Librarian
Hideous is very popular in my middle school library.
Our kids have been great about self-censoring. They decide in the first few pages…"ewwww, this is not for me!" or something similar. Or they read it and enjoy it. Generally, <6th graders say "not yet."
Even had some parents check it out after their kids said they liked it. The page where she parodies the cabin attendant’s landing announcements is popular w/kids and adults.
This book has pulled in a bunch of reluctant readers.
I have no qualms about recommending Sonya Sones.
Thanks so much!
Thanks so much for alerting me to these titles! I’ll order them for our library immediately! I’ll even add on some more "travelling pants" paperbacks to our collection.
The best sign for a book kids will want to read is a parent that doesn’t want them to read it!
Censorship Article...
I liked the superintendent’s comment. The software mentioned was interesting too…
Clare Booth Luce is no authority...
Clare Booth Luce is no authority on what children should be allowed to read, no matter how eloquent she may have been. It would be interesting to see how many parents would actually like their children to read the book(s) in question. I dare say most would not. It might be a good idea, if the school feels they must have the book, to have it accessible to children only by request from their parents. It certainly is not the schools place to usurp the authority of the parents. If such arrogance continues to be the attitude of school library and other libraries, parents are certainly justified in withdrawing their children from those schools and keeping them away from those libraries.
In response to "those
In response to "those schools" and "those libraries" … you will be hard pressed to find a middle school library in this country that doesn’t own those titles. Might be time to consider homeschooling. Just sayin’.
...and neither are you
And you are no authority on what should be available to anyone else’s children. If you want to limit what your own child is reading, that is your misguided perogative. Taking a book out of a library, or even making it accessible only by request, is imposing your values on to everyone else.
And by the way, have you even read these books? I sure hope you have. Because otherwise it is absurd to assume most parents would not let their children read them if you don’t even know what’s inside.
What strikes me as arrogant
What strikes me as arrogant is how some parents feel they have the right to determine what MY child can or can not have access to. Let me educate on a certain issue. I determine what my child can read, not you.
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