‘Teachable’ aspects of book censorship attempt

Among this week’s assigned readings for LIS 5250, I read an account by Kristin Pekoll, concerning a challenge in 2016 against This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, at Henning Public School in Henning, Minnesota. As highlighted by Pekoll, the challenge brought against This One Summer had several aspects that made it a teachable situation. It concerned a book for older readers in a one-building schoolhouse that accommodated preschool through 12th grade.

The first teachable aspect was that Henning Public School had no official selection policy. The ALA Council, in an interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights addressing “Access to Resources and Services in the School Library Program,” emphasizes that in order to “guarantee student access to a broad range of ideas,” a school’s governing board must adopt policies on collection development (AASL, 2018, p. 242).

Another teachable aspect was the issue of self-censorship. Henning Public School purchased This One Summer on the basis of reviews and awards (Pekoll, 2016). But a person that Pekoll interviewed by phone, indicated to her that if they had read This One Summer before buying it, they would not have purchased it for the library. Responding to this expression of after-the-fact self censorship, Pekoll pointed out that various reviewing entities assigned age-level readerships of 12 or 13 and older, and grade-level readerships of grades 8 to 11.

Figures such as these might justify not purchasing This One Summer for an elementary school library, because one could argue that younger readers are not the book’s demographic. (The ALA Council, in its interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, acknowledged that “the education level and program” of a school will shape its library’s resources and services [AASL, 2018, p. 241]). But in a single public school that includes middle- and high-school patrons all the way up to 12th grade, you have to expect that some of that library’s contents must serve an older clientele.

Pekoll also cited several lauding reviews of This One Summer as a potentially life-changing book for young readers, and rhetorically asked, “Can there really be another reason for excluding this book from a library collection?”

I previously mentioned the life-changing impact of Gender Queer for Erin Iverson (2022); how seeing their experiences reflected on paper, “changed everything” for them, and they realized that they were “not alone.”

Gender Queer and This One Summer both earned starred reviews from School Library Journal (Simon & Schuster, n.d.; Macmillan, n.d.). In one of my readings this week, I learned that SLJ takes its work “very seriously,” in publishing reviews that guide librarians serving young people “in making purchasing decisions and overall collection development” (Ishizuka, 2022). SLJ reviews are “more an art than a science,” as there is “not a checklist or tally” to decide a book’s grade-level readership (ibid).

A third teachable aspect of the challenge to This One Summer was the First Amendment rights of young people (Pekoll, 2016). In its interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights concerning “Diversity in Collection Development,” the ALA Council emphasized that “Library collections must represent the diversity of people and ideas in our society” (AASL, 2018, p. 247).

That issue might not be on the radar of someone who is used to being catered to as a member of society’s majority. Jessica Herthel, co-author with Jazz Jennings of children’s picture book I am Jazz, related during an intellectual-freedom webinar that “If you don’t have to think about it, it’s a privilege” (SAGE Publishing, 2016).

According to Herthel, “Listening to someone else’s story is the only way to expand a person’s own life experience beyond their own point of view.” Herthel’s wish when co-authoring I am Jazz was that transgender children would see themselves reflected and validated, while children who were not transgender would have an opportunity to “expand their empathy skill” (ibid).

In the case of Henning Public School and its library, serving a diverse and broad population was all the more vitally important because as Pekoll (2016) pointed out, “Henning’s closest public library is about 20 miles away.” (But in a comment, Peg Werner, director of the Viking Library System, pointed out that Henning has two bookmobile stops, including one at the school, which are provided by Viking Library System. Students can access books from other VLS libraries through its online catalog, and pick them up at the bookmobile, and nine copies of This One Summer are available through VLS.)

References:
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. ALA Editions

Ishizuka, K. (2022, March 6). SLJ Reviews Explained: Our editors field questions on grade levels and how ‘stars’ are made. News & features. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/slj-book-reviews-explained-our-editors-field-questions-on-grade-levels-and-how-stars-are-made-censorship

Iverson, E. (2022, Jan. 14). Representation is vital for everyone. Editor’s pick. Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. https://www.union-bulletin.com/opinion/opinion_columns/representation-is-vital-for-everyone/article_5d459694-7984-11ec-b6d8-8712de33f3a6.html

Macmillan (n.d.) This one summer [Product description page]. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781596437746/thisonesummer

Pekoll, K. (2016, May 4). This One Summer Banned in Henning, MN. Intellectual freedom blog. The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association. https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/one-summer-banned-henning-mn/

SAGE Publishing. (2016, Sept. 29). Battling bannings: Authors discuss intellectual freedom and the freedom to read [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/zkYadtg3tVQ

Simon & Schuster. (n.d.) Gender queer: A memoir [Product description page]. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Gender-Queer-A-Memoir/Maia-Kobabe/9781549304002