This is a hard topic to discuss, because usually everyone believes they are doing the right thing and have the best interests of kids at heart.

The Alexandria School District removed two books from the eighth grade curriculum. (I think? It’s a little unclear what actually happened.) Four other, unnamed books, will be reviewed. And there is now a committee of two teachers, two members of the Curriculum Advisory Council, four community members and Sansted (the Assistant Superintendent) who will review books in the future.

Who is missing on this team of reviewers? Librarians. People with professional skill in books, choosing books, coming up with book alternatives, and talking about books.

(Just an FYI: Hello!! I’m not in your school district at all, but I’d be happy to come to be part of this group and give a professional perspective!!! You would be better off with a school librarian, but if you can’t find one who wants to be there – email me! admin @ cmle.org!)

So, what are these scary books?

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, by Becky Albertalli

“Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

Incredibly funny and poignant, this twenty-first-century coming-of-age, coming out story—wrapped in a geek romance—is a knockout of a debut novel by Becky Albertalli.”

You might recognize this also as the movie Love, Simon that came out last summer.

This book won the William C. Morris award from the American Library Association in 2016, ” which honors a book written for young adults by a previously unpublished author.” Other awards it has been nominated for include:

• National Book Award for Young People’s Literature: Longlist
• Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award Nominee for Young Adults
• Lincoln Award Nominee
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee: Debut Goodreads Author
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee: Young Adult Fiction

Commons Sense Media website looks at books (and other media) for kids and young adults. I do not always agree with all of their work, but of course – that’s the point. They give information about the book, talk about strategies for parents to discuss topics with their kids, and post reviews from parents, adults, and kids for different books.

” Since 2003, Common Sense has been the leading source of entertainment and technology recommendations for families and schools. Every day, millions of parents and educators trust Common Sense reviews and advice to help them navigate the digital world with their kids. Together with policymakers, industry leaders, and global media partners, we’re building a digital world that works better for all kids, their families, and their communities.”

There is information on these categories:

• A lot or a little? The parents’ guide to what’s in this book.
• What parents need to know
• User Reviews
• What’s the story?
• Is it any good?
• Talk to your kids about …
• Book details

The Common Sense media rates books on a five star scale (along with a lot of other information). “Our ratings are based on child development best practices. We display the minimum age for which content is developmentally appropriate. The star rating reflects overall quality and learning potential.”

They give this book four of five stars. The six parents who rated it gave it five of five stars. The 31 kids who reviewed the book gave it five of five stars.

This is even more startling: Sold, by Patricia McCormick. This book is a National Book Award finalist!

“Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.

He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope.  But she soon learns the unthinkable truth:  she has been sold into prostitution.

An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning.  She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family’s debt—then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.

Lakshmi’s life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape.  Still, she lives by her mother’s words—Simply to endure is to triumph—and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world.  Then the day comes when she must make a decision—will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life? 

Written in spare and evocative vignettes, this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs. “

What does Commons Sense Media have to say about this book? They give it five of five stars. Four parents combined to give it a three of five stars; five kids combined to give it a four of five stars.

It was a “National Book Award finalist, a Quill Award winner, and an American Library Association Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults. It was adapted for a film starring Gillian Anderson and David Arquette, released in the United States in 2016. “

Strangely, these books were not even required for students to read. “The six books were among 18 students could choose from.” So, instead of leaving this up to individual parents to choose for their child to read the books and to have discussions with them about the content – the school has eliminated these books for all students.

“Among the objections cited for the half-dozen books were passages of a sexual or violent nature, foul language and references to drinking and drugs.” And while we all would like to think kids are untouched by cable TV, the Internet, and observing adults in their lives – I’ll be surprised if there aren’t a couple of eight graders who have heard foul language and seen drinking or drugs consumed. Maybe discussing how and why this might be poor choices would be better strategies than pretending they don’t exist as options.

“”We are not saying that hard issues that eighth graders face shouldn’t come up in the classrooms,” Wegner [spokesperson for the parents with complaints] said. However, the group believes content addressing social issues should be done through non-fiction, fact-based, evidence-based materials.

“It’s one thing to check out these fictional books from a library for your own personal reading,” he said. “It’s another thing as part of an education curriculum for 13- and 14-year-olds.”

The parents believe these six books are contradictory to values they try to live up to, and also do not meet the school’s code of conduct.

Calling the school’s reaction Monday night a great step in the right direction, Wegner told the board that if objections are raised about another book, they are asking that it be immediately pulled and not reintroduced without an extensive review process.

He also wondered if the people who ordered these books for the eighth graders would be the same ones who will be vetting books in the future.”

This, if what he actually said, is a pretty stunning misunderstanding of books, of reading, of learning, and of the use of fiction. It’s great to have ideas, and great to have them in your home or for your own family. But it is terrible to inflict your ideas of “nice books” on everyone else.

Libraries are all about encouraging people to make their own choices. And it sounds like that was the case in this school. Kids had a variety of choices. If their parents were interested, or concerned, they could guide their child to a book they regarded as tame enough for the teenager to read.

It is certainly a complete misunderstanding of any sort of good procedure to consider books in schools. If the idea would now be “Hey! I’m one single person, and this book makes me feel squicky. NO ONE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO READ IT Take it off the shelves now!!!” that’s….terrible. (I’m trying to think of a more diplomatic word than “terrible” but I’m completely failing.)

This did not happen in the library – I don’t know what the situation is in the library with these books at this school – but it’s a sharp reminder: You Need A Collection Development Policy AND A Materials Review Policy!!

You! I’m pointing directly at you!!

We just talked about how policies like this will save you in times of trouble, on a recent Linking Our Libraries podcast episode. Karen Pundsack, director at the Great River Regional Library System, talked with us about creating good policies and procedures. And Amy Schrank, from the same library, talked with us about Collection Development.

Your policies do not need to be perfect, but they need to be present.

Why?? What good will they do??

Possibly nothing. But at the very, very least – having a professionally written policy on Collection Development means you can show that you thought about the books on your shelf. You can demonstrate you looked at awards the books have won, thoughts from other school library people about the books, and recommendations from around the profession.

Having a challenge policy means you are setting out a way for people to express concerns about a book being available to everyone in the community. As a profession, libraries take this opportunity very seriously. Not every book is right for every population, and it’s important to give people a chance to voice that idea.

Regardless of the outcome of a challenge policy, this is a good opportunity to let people know about the work you do to provide good materials for everyone. Talk about review, about awards, about holdings in other schools.

CMLE members: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! Call us! We would be happy to help you create a quick policy you can use in your library. We will help you discuss ideas with your stakeholders, to be sure the materials in your collection are meeting the needs of your students. We are a professional voice you can lean on to help you to be successful in your library.

We are here all summer, or we are happy to chat when you come back in the fall. It won’t take long, and knocking out some quick work and some thought now can make smaller problems that may crop up down the road.