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How far is too far?
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From: Miriam Budin <miriam>
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 15:17:16 -0400
Are there books YA which give me pause? Sure. Some titles from 2004 include NO LAUGHTER HERE by Garcia-Williams, LUNA by Peters, and the wonderful, award-winning how i live now by Meg Rossof.
How do I treat these books (all of which have literary merit) in my professional life? One way is to consider the age of the characters, which often relegates the book to the YA collection. But sometimes the characters are young--children's room aged kids--as in NO LAUGHTER HERE, which deals with the subject of female genital mutilation. I agonized over that one. We ended up putting it in the "Parents'" collection where it is available for circulation should the need arise, but won't be stumbled upon inadvertently. I'm not entirely comfortable with that placement. To me it smacks of censorship and I hate being censorius! Still, I also hate the idea of some nice little third of fourth grader picking up what she thinks is going to be a school story and--BLAM!!--welcome to the real world, kid! So it's on the open shelves, but not the ones normally browsed by unaccompanied kids.
On the other hand, in my personal life I have never censored any of my three children's reading in any way. My feeling is that if you read something you are not equipped to understand then it will go right over your head (or right through it...) This is corroborated by the fact that I have frequently re-read a book I first read as a child and gasped, "I didn't know THAT was in there!" When adults are worrying about the reading choices their children are making I tell them about that by way of reassurance.
Miriam
-Miriam Lang Budin Children's Librarian Chappaqua Library, NY
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Received on Wed 22 Jun 2005 02:17:16 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 15:17:16 -0400
Are there books YA which give me pause? Sure. Some titles from 2004 include NO LAUGHTER HERE by Garcia-Williams, LUNA by Peters, and the wonderful, award-winning how i live now by Meg Rossof.
How do I treat these books (all of which have literary merit) in my professional life? One way is to consider the age of the characters, which often relegates the book to the YA collection. But sometimes the characters are young--children's room aged kids--as in NO LAUGHTER HERE, which deals with the subject of female genital mutilation. I agonized over that one. We ended up putting it in the "Parents'" collection where it is available for circulation should the need arise, but won't be stumbled upon inadvertently. I'm not entirely comfortable with that placement. To me it smacks of censorship and I hate being censorius! Still, I also hate the idea of some nice little third of fourth grader picking up what she thinks is going to be a school story and--BLAM!!--welcome to the real world, kid! So it's on the open shelves, but not the ones normally browsed by unaccompanied kids.
On the other hand, in my personal life I have never censored any of my three children's reading in any way. My feeling is that if you read something you are not equipped to understand then it will go right over your head (or right through it...) This is corroborated by the fact that I have frequently re-read a book I first read as a child and gasped, "I didn't know THAT was in there!" When adults are worrying about the reading choices their children are making I tell them about that by way of reassurance.
Miriam
-Miriam Lang Budin Children's Librarian Chappaqua Library, NY
-
Received on Wed 22 Jun 2005 02:17:16 PM CDT
