CCBC-Net Archives

RE: Sex and the Library and Risks of Self-Censoring

From: sully_at_sully-writer.com
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 10:07:07 -0700
 
I think it's middle school librarians who probably struggle most with these issues. I've never been one to err on the side of caution so I added books to middle school library collections that I know many (maybe most) MS librarians would not for being too mature.
 
Some examples:
 
Lauren Myracle's Internet Girls books
Speak
M.T. Anderson's Feed
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Novels by Emily Lockhart--Boyfriend List, Fly on the Wall, some others.
 
One book I put in the collection that a lot of kids passed around and generated a lot of discussion is Prey by Lurlene McDaniel, about a teacher-student sexual relationship. It's not terribly explicit but the kids who read it found it quite shocking and it generated a lot of great comments. There was another novel out at the time that explored a similar theme, Boy Toy by Barry Lyga. That one is a lot more explicit and I didn't add it.
 
Another interesting experience I had was when I put Chris Crowe's book about Emmett Till, Getting Away with Murder in the elementary school collection. I knew it was pushing the envelope but I thought it was something 4th or 5th graders might read. A 4th grader, a biracial boy, came across it browsing and asked me about it. I told him what it was about, showed him some of the photos, warned him it was a really grim story, and he checked it out. His mother called a day later concerned about the appropriateness. I think a lot of her concern was rooted in racism she and her son had experienced over the years. I explained to her that I agreed it probably was too mature for most elementary students but I pointed out we had books on subjects like the holocaust, slavery, wars, and other dark subjects. I also told her what a great job the book does explaining how the Till lynching helped to galvanize the Civil Rights Movement. So after talking to me, she decided she would read it with her son. I could not have asked for a better outcome.

Edward T. Sullivan, Rogue Librarian
 
 
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ccbc-net] Sex and the Library and Risks of Self-Censoring
From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman@education.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, March 07, 2014 10:38 am
To: "ccbc-net, Subscribers of" <ccbc-net@lists.wisc.edu>

Thank you to Pam for pointing out her school district's strong commitment to following policies and procedures with regard to intellectual freedom, which is of course very relevant to our discussion.  Yes, there are horror stories and many cases of slipping and sliding away from the principles of intellectual freedom, but there are many schools, districts, and of course librarians with a strong commitment to making sure student have access to a wide range of materials for their recreational and informational reading needs.

We hear the bad things that happen--and we should hear about them--but when everything is working it doesn't make the news. And when you can walk into a library and find books like the one's we've been talking about on the shelves for children and teens, things are working.  Maybe not perfect, but it's a good sign.

But I"m curious--and I know this isn't often easy to admit--are there things that give you pause?   That you purchase but worry about? THat you hesitate to purchase when it comes to sexual content? 

If you're a teacher, are there books that you would hesitate to teach, even if you admire them?

I think it's a hard topic to talk about, but I'm a huge believer in the need to talk about it.  I think one of the greatest ways we can work through our fears, and avoid self-censoring, is to talk about it, realize we aren't alone when we struggle, and work through our concerns among colleagues we trust, hopefully getting the support we need. 

I'll throw out an example from my own reading for our annual best-of-the-year list, CCBC Choices.  One of the books we read and greatly admired last year was Margo Lanagan's "Yellowcake," another extraordinary collection of short stories by this author (U.S. edition: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013).  But there was one story--actually one scene in one story--that I struggled with.  "Catastrophic Destruction of the Head” offers an unflinching look at the violence of soldiering and war, and of the transformative effect it can have on a once-gentle soul.  There is a scene of sexual violence in that story that it took me a long time to come to terms with when it came to recommending this book. I had a strong personal response to it, and this both informed and was a barrier to my professional evaluation.   I could not have worked my way through it to come out strongly in favor of including the collection in CCBC Choices were it not for the fact that I was able to talk through  that story with colleagues.  I knew intellectually that I had to consider the scene in the context of the story and the collection as a whole, which I think is amazing, but in this case my emotional response was so strong that I couldn't do that without effort. It is my prefessional responsibiltiy to put in that effort, but I needed my professional colleagues as sounding boards to do it.

Megan




 
 -- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706 608/262-9503 schliesman@education.wisc.eduwww.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/My regular hours are T-F, 8-4:30.

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Received on Fri 07 Mar 2014 11:08:06 AM CST