A Public Service Announcement! ;)

A Public Service Announcement! ;)

Friday, November 13, 2009

Another Graphic Novel Pulled from Libraries

ICV2 reports that Stuck in the Middle: Seventeen Comics from an Unpleasant Age has been removed from two middle school libraries in Souix Falls, South Dakota.

"The school district averages about one complaint per year concerning library material, but this is the first time since at least 2001 that a book has been made unavailable to students.

A committee that reviewed the graphic novel said unanimously that it's inappropriate for middle school students. The book's editor says the cartoons are true to life and could help struggling teens and pre-teens understand that they're not alone," states an article on the event from ArgusLeader.com (see link above). Also, Ariel Schrag, who wrote the book centering on teen angst and issues of sexuality that young teens often confront, has defended the book while respecting the thoughts of parent Shelly Miller, who complained and drew attention to the text, apparently in relation to her sixth-grader's response to it.

1 comment:

Ben Villarreal said...

All in all, this seems like a more reasonable response from both sides than the whole Dragon Ball thing. At least they didn't get rid of the books--as a teacher, I would be happy for the addition to the staff stacks ;-)

But the whole "Teenagers won't get these inferences and will only look at the graphic stuff" is pretty naive I think. That's like saying that the only reasons teens liked John Hughes movies was to see kids skipping school or showing off girls' panties in the restroom :-/

Still, I love that this happened at a school named for Patrick Henry . We should make this into a TV movie where at the climax the kid recites "Give me liberty or give me death" :-)