From: Steward, Celeste <csteward>
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 12:50:41 -0700

I am a children's librarian and parent too...Earlier this year, my fifth (going into sixth) grader asked me if she should read Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants...many girls in her class were reading and discussing it...I had read the book years ago and remembered that part of the story included one of the girls losing her virginity.

Needless to say, I had some reservations...

Immediately, I went into parent mode: I felt my first-born daughter wasn't old enough to read it but telling her no she couldn't or shouldn't didn't feel right. If I branded the book as forbidden, then she'd want to read it for sure...that's just human nature, right? Furthermore, I reminded myself that censorship went against ALL my professional philosophies too.

Ultimately, I decided she should make the decision herself. I asked her instead if she thought she should read it...

Well, she did...and after finishing the book, I asked her what she thought...I expected her to say something about the sex but instead, what she objected to were the swear words (which I had totally forgotten about! I assume the sex went over her head, LOL.

So, I agree, chidren will take what they can use and leave the rest behind...we must have some faith in their ability to monitor themselves and make their own small choices. It's a start.

Also, I think reading books you don't like will teach you about what you do like! Many years ago, I read the Exorcist when I was in eighth grade (my parents didn't know enough to censor me in the old days!). I have always regretted reading that book because I found it terribly disturbing...but I learned that I can't handle books that so graphically depict evil. On the other hand, my girlfriend at the time had no problem with the book's content. She and I went to see the movie too. For me, it was awful--for her, it was just another scary movie.

Would I buy these type of books for the teen section in my library? You bet!



Last summer my adult book club read Marjane Satrapi's memoir
"Persepolis," volume 1 (published by Viking), a book that we at the CCBC recommended in CCBC Choices 2004 for high school age. One of my friends told me that her then-year-old son, a voracious and very experienced reader, had started to read it. I remember feeling concerned when she told me, because of the intensity of some of the content. She does not censor what her children read, but she had cautioned him that some of the scenes within it were very intense and told him he might find it disturbing. She expected that he wouldn't finish it, but he did, and he liked it. When she asked him how he felt about some of the difficult parts of the book when scary things were happening, he said, "I just skipped over them."

So while Persepolis pushed my own comfort zone too far when I thought of it being read by a ten-year-old (even a very smart and well-read one who I knew had a supportive environment in which to talk about his experiences or concerns), I was once again reminded of young readers' ability to mediate their experience with literature so that they only take in what they can handle. This was a very conscious self?nsoring on his part, different than setting the book aside altogether, as he still wanted to experience the narrative, but on his own terms.

Former CCBC Inellectual Freedom Information Services Coordinator Carin Bringelson recently wrote about intellectual freedom for the Canadian journal School Libraries in Canada. In it she wrote, "In thinking about these concrete concerns of language, sexuality, and violence, I am reminded that there is a line. There is a line that we each get to draw. A line that marks the difference between what we think is acceptable, and what we don't. As adults, we get to draw that line for ourselves: 'No, I don't want to read S&M erotica.' 'Yes, I do.' As parents and guardians, we have the power to draw such lines for our
[own] children. I would even argue that it is our responsibility to help our young people decide for themselves what is comfortable for them to read and what is not*to help them determine where they draw the line. " I couldn't agree more, and it seems to me that it is in having access to a wide range of materials that we give our children and teens exposure to materials that will help them learn to make these decisions for themselves. (You can read Carin's full article and the rest of the issue at

http://www.schoollibraries.ca/articles/154.aspx )


Megan



Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706

ph: 608&2?03 fax: 608&2I33 schliesman at education.wisc.edu


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Received on Thu 23 Jun 2005 02:50:41 PM CDT