From: Rachel Davis <rquenk>
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 14:36:50 -0400

I am a children's librarian in a public library. There are currently three children of two-mommy families (that I know of) regularly attending my preschool story hours. These children deserve to have their legitimate experience of what a family is reflected in books they find at their public library. I am certain that these preschoolers do not regard books such as Molly's Family, by Nancy Garden as a kind of calculus, but as a faceted reflection of their own experience; other preschoolers from mommy?ddy families, or single parent families, or any other kind of family, most likely do not regard this title or others like it as beyond their reach either. These books do not present children with "choices they are too young to make," but rather depict reality. How a parent may choose to explain any reality depicted in a book to their child is their choice. One would hope that the depiction of a lifestyle different from one's own would prompt a meaningful discussion between parent and child.

A couple of hours ago, a woman asked me to help her find books dealing with trains that would appeal to a seven year old. When I handed her David McPhail's Moony B. Finch, Fastest Draw in the West, she said she had never heard of David McPhail and wanted to to know if the book I was handing her had good moral values. I said that that was for her to decide. She flipped open the book, saw an illustration of outlaws with guns, closed the book, and said no, that book wouldn't do because of the guns. That is her judgment to make, of course, although she might have made a more informed judgment if she had actually read the book.

The question of "good moral values" is a subjective one, and I would no more exclude McPhail's book from my collection because someone might object to the depiction of guns, than I would exclude a well-written, meaningful book about any other subject written for children or young adults just because someone might deem it not to have "good moral values."
 

So back to the point of how far is too far in YA literature---works with integrity that respect their audience and depict the rich variety of experiences (real or fantastic, humorous or serious) of the world in which we live, whether written for preschoolers or teens, are all fair game as far as I'm concerned.

Rachel

Rachel Q. Davis Children's Librarian Thomas Memorial Library 6 Scott Dyer Road Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107 207y920


wfkig at comcast.net writes:
Received on Thu 23 Jun 2005 01:36:50 PM CDT