Roger Sutton

>To its credit, ALA has tightened up and made very clear what it considers a challenge: "a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness." It used to be that a simple oral objection would count.

I'm bothered, though, that ALA does not tell us how these challenges were decided, which is surely more salient than the challenges themselves. After all, ALA encourages libraries to have in place a procedure for handling challenges, and it advises that a written complaint by the petitioner should be key to the process. So the fact that people use this procedure should be expected, not grounds for outrage.

Posted : Oct 04, 2007 06:59

Anonymous

>Until I read this I didn’t realize that a “challenged” book was simply one about which someone has written a cranky letter. I feel a little used, ALA!

Posted : Oct 04, 2007 06:00

Andy Laties

>Goodness I always keep a healthy selection of appalling books in my inventory. The caveat is that they have to be brilliant along some dimension or other. Genius and nastiness are certainly not mutually exclusive.

In the case of my current store at Eric Carle Museum, this means that any appalling books in stock feature significant and powerful illustration.

What's interesting of course is that customers disagree about what's appalling. What I find appalling turns out to be perfectly acceptable to part of my customer base.

Eric Carle has two books that have been regularly banned: DRAW ME A STAR which features adult nudity, and THE GROUCHY LADYBUG which is sometimes banned because it supposedly encourages bullying!

Posted : Oct 03, 2007 08:23