Some parents want several books to be removed from the library shelves at the Prairie Wind Middle School in Perham.
They don't want the books banned but moved to the high school library because of profanity, sexually explicit content and violence.
The issue started with "A Northern Light," by Jennifer Donnelly. The Junior Library Guild Selection book and Carnegie Medal winner is a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a 1906 murder. One of the middle-school students showed the book to her parent, who challenged its appropriateness in a middle-school library.
When a book is challenged, the library media director and either the principal, superintendent or another teacher review the book. They decide to move it to the high school or refer it to an ad-hoc review committee. The committee reads the book and makes a recommendation to the superintendent. Decisions can be appealed to the School Board.
When the committee reviews a book, it considers the language or situation in the context of the entire story, Perham Dent Superintendent Tamara Uselman said. So the committee may decide to leave a book in the library - even if it has inappropriate language - because it teaches a good lesson.
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The committee recommended moving "A Northern Light" to the high school library. Uselman said the decision was made mostly because of references to some of Shakespeare's writings, which middle-school students have not yet studied.
"Hoop Dreams: The True Story of Hardship and Triumph," by Ben Joravsky, was also challenged. The committee recommended it remain in the library.
Bridgit Pankonin, a School Board member and a parent who challenged "Hoop Dreams" and others, plans to appeal the decision. She said the book, which chronicles the lives of two ghetto youths who dream of playing professional basketball, is full of strong profanity and sexually inappropriate content.
She said it is not enough for parents to monitor what their children read because by the time a parent sees the book, their child has already read it.
"To me the standard should be no sexually explicit, no strong profanity in the middle-school library," Pankonin said.
Uselman said it's a challenge to stock a library for fifth- through eighth-graders.
"What might not be appropriate for a fifth-grader might be appropriate for a mature eighth-grader," she said. "So we do need to make certain that we don't short-change our mature readers, either."
School officials say they're taking steps to promote age-appropriate reading without denying more mature readers access to books. A few months ago, the media specialist started putting stickers on books indicating whether the interest level would appeal to upper-, middle- or lower-grade levels. Parents can request that their children not be allowed to check out certain books or certain book levels.
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But Pankonin said there are problems with the system. She said middle-school children are naturally curious, so they want to read the "flagged" books and some parents do not monitor their children.
"As a board, we have a moral responsibility to the children to provide age-appropriate material," Pankonin said. "No matter how many ways you flag books, there are parents who have no involvement with their children and we have to look out for them, too."
Others say the system is a good compromise that has been working well.
"My biggest thing with this whole process is it's not about banning books," said School Board Member Jim Rieber. It's about letting parents make parenting decisions by implementing a system that allows them to have input on what their children read, he said.
"What we think we have are some controls for parents who see this as a very serious issue, without taking away the rights and freedoms of those who want their children to have access to a huge variety of books," Uselman said.
