One Day at a Time

Several book issues seem to have bubbled to the surface recently that offer the potential for interesting ramifications in a larger context.

First was the issue of The Higher Power of Lucky and the scrotum. I've blogged about the issue a couple of times, but part of the larger issue is also about how librarians have to choose "appropriate" books for "appropriate" ages, given limited funds, the mission of the library in question, the climate in the community, etc. The general consensus that I've seen around the net tends to be that people objecting to Lucky are in the vocal minority.

I came across the second issue in my email yesterday. Apparently some New England schools are concerned about Jodi Picoult's newest novel, Nineteen Minutes: A novel, to be released on March 6 this year. I love Picoult; most of her novels are in a split time continuum (past, present, past, present) that I enjoy, and her subject matter is always difficult. This particular novel is about the nineteen minutes of a high school shooting incident. Here is an article that describes the issue in greater detail.

I am a little confused about some of this, just because the article states that some of the schools "yanked her book, "Nineteen Minutes," from a mandatory reading list last week." What confuses me is the book has not yet been published. How can it be on a mandatory reading list???

Confusion aside, though, I'm not sure I completely disagree with this reaction. I always have a lukewarm reaction to mandatory reading lists, so I might be a little biased. But if we were to have a discussion of appropriate material for appropriate ages, would I fall into the more conservative category with this particular novel? I haven't read it, so I don't know how Picoult treats the material. And she's never failed me before, though I refuse to read My Sister's Keeper: A Novel. I'm not in favor of preventing high school students from reading Nineteen Minutes, but I might agree that it shouldn't be on a mandatory reading list.

Then, finally, today brought the third issue. It is about Whale Talk. Here's the article. Again, haven't read the book, but my understanding is this minister (not a parent, not a teacher, not a librarian) wants the book banned because of its language.

So, in the course of a couple of weeks, 3 different scenarios about reading and what may or may not be appropriate reading have come up. In the case of 1 and 3, I'll go back to my scrotum follow-up position, that we need to be talking about this, keeping the conservative minority at bay. Number 2, well, I just don't know.