Target: Book challenges

[Charlotte Snyder <csnyder@BCPL.NET>]

Dear Friends:
I am in the position of having to defend some books to a parent who has
never been happy about her daughter's reading material. Last year the
daughter had _Maniac McGee_, among others. The mother was incensed that
her daughter learned the word "idiot," among others, and subsequently
called her brother an idiot. This is a girl who has been reading at at
least a sixth-grade level since second grade (she is now in fourth) and
who is a voracious reader.
The mother called the school administrtor twice this week, the second time
so angry that she wants to pick up her daughter early on library days so
that she won't come to the library. The problem books are _My Teacher
Fried My Brains_ (how could anyone use such a disgusting phrase?!), John
Bellairs' _Dark Secret at Weatherend_ (witchcraft, evil, etc.), and a Paul
Jennings book, _Listen Ear_ (disgusting, gross).
We are trying to arrange a meeting with the mother, me, and the
administrator. My problem is what to say to her that I have not already
said in past years: that children do talk like this, that behavior is not
learned only from books, that evildoers are punished in these books and
bad children get their comeuppance. I have suggested that this is the
perfect opportunity for her to have a dialogue with her daughter about
values, language, and personal ethics. We have suggested to her that she
may come to the library with the child and monitor her selection, but that
I cannot monitor one child out of a class of twenty-two. Anybody have any
pithy phrases or ideas?

Thanks,

Charlotte
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Charlotte Snyder, Librarian     *
* Baltimore County Public Library *
* Waldorf School of Baltimore     *
* 4801 Tamarind Road              *
* Baltimore, MD 21209             *
* csnyder@bcpl.net                *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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