Re: Q: R.L. Stine--who's got him?

[Phyllis Schafer <pschafer@UMD5.UMD.EDU>]

 Dear Judy,
        I am a retired Baltimore County Media Specialist, who has taken a
position as librarian in a Baltimore County parochial school.  When I
arrived, I was shocked to find the nonfiction collection had a copyright
date averaging 15 years old, but a complete collection of R.L.Stine
books.  The first thing I did was to remove the Stine's from the shelf
and to send them packing to the organization called Baltimore Reads.
There were howls of protest from the 7th and 8th graders, and one
enterprising young man even went so far as to write a letter to the
principal demanding my replacement on the grounds that I was "censoring"
their reading.  My constant reply was that censoring was not what I was
doing, since I was not limiting what they could read (after all, they
could purchase a Stine book in any bookstore or borrow one from the
public library), rather what I was doing was exercising my professional
judgment in what I chose to have on the library shelves as a collection
which when all is said and done is a reflection of the professionalism of
the one developing the collection.  There are more books that are better
written that those.
        Someone still asks about Stine and my answer remains the same
but the staff and the parents are happy.  In fact, when I showed some
parents a few choice passages from his books, they appreciated having
someone with professional criteria making mature decisions.
                                Phyllis Schafer

On Tue, 12 Dec 1995, Judy Ermlick wrote:

> I don't have him--my excuse has been centralized purchasing that doesn't
> do paperbacks--BUT, I'd begun to feel guilty about the kids  who couldn't
> buy, so I made a "paperback exchange" basket--Stine,Babysitters,ninja
> turtles, and even some  non-series fiction that kids have thrown in--Also
> I did print from Scholastic's homepage the list of the books used in the
> TV show--so everyone knows I'm not "against" any books--just don't happen
> to have 'em...
>