Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 26, 1995 TAG: 9509260030
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ADRIANNE BEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
Nita McNerlin wanted the book, about a boy who visits his homosexual father and the father's lover, moved to another, more supervised section of the library. She said her objections to the book were based on legal grounds, that the book contradicted community standards and condoned illegality [sodomy is a felony in Virginia].
Others, like Ernestine Frith, spoke out against "Daddy's Roommate" for moral reasons, saying the book should not "be put in the hands of innocent children."
Daddy and his roommate, however, did not have to find a new place to call home. The book remained in the children's section after a 5-3 vote by the library board.
"They were trying to paint me as a book censor when the book would still be there," McNerlin said this week. "I was asking them to be responsible." McNerlin was disturbed that there was no way for parents to monitor preschoolers' reading with only one teacher for 25 children.
This week, the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library is sponsoring several events to focus attention on book challenges and banning as a local issue, as well as a national one.
April 1992. In Carroll County, some local parents led by radio evangelist J.B. Lineberry challenged "The Floatplane Notebooks" by Clyde Edgerton. They said the book, which covers several decades in the lives of a fictional North Carolina family, contained profanity and descriptions of sexual activity that they did not want their children to read.
Marion M. Goldwasser, who taught the book in her 11th-grade honors English classes, became the target of the book-banning effort. The book was dropped from the class until Goldwasser filed a grievance, saying the county School Board had not followed its own policy on removing such material. The book was then studied by the board, a hearing was held and "The Floatplane Notebooks" ended up being taught in senior honors courses only.
Goldwasser, voted Carroll County's Teacher of the Year in 1991, ended up in Mount Airy, N.C., at a new teaching job by her own accord. According to a follow-up report, Goldwasser said she appreciated those who supported her and that she approves of parental involvement in choosing the books their children study. She objected, she said, to a small group imposing its values on everybody else.
Regardless of where people stand on the issue, the reality may be that banning books only makes teen-agers want to read them more.
"I think that's the best sell we can do for a book," said Pat Scales, library media specialist at Greenville (S.C.) Middle School and a member of the American Library's Intellectual Freedom Committee.
Some seniors at Auburn High School in Montgomery County remember last year they had the choice of reading "Catch 22," "Their Eyes Were Watching God" or "Catcher in the Rye." The four students, John, Tony, Kelly and Yasemin - who asked that their last names not be used - all picked J.D. Salinger's controversial book "Catcher in the Rye."
There may be a factor in the decision more important than any controversy. Yasemin says she chose the book "because it was short."
John said he chose the book because it talked about issues teen-agers have to deal with. Students 16 or 17 years old, he said, are mature enough to decide what they want to read, old enough to decide what's right and wrong for themselves.
"But for the younger kids ... it should be a group decision with parents, teachers and kids deciding, you know, young kids shouldn't be reading this," he said. "In a few years, OK, but not now."
Sex and four-letter words are not alone in drawing opposition.
Some feminist groups object to text and imagery in books and magazines that they believe to be "demeaning toward women or a form of violence against women."
And friendly or not, Casper is a ghost, and to some people that means he is part of "the occult." Glenda the Good Witch of "The Wizard of Oz"; "Hamlet," with the hero speaking with his father's ghost; the three witches in "Macbeth" - all have been under fire by those who deem "such images are anti-religious because they are not in the Bible," according to a recent New York Times article.
Then there are the modern-day witches who object to the portrayal of members of their religious sect, WICCA, in such stories as "Hansel and Gretel."
Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" never fails to pop up on lists of challenged books. Questioned for the use of racial slurs such as "Nigger Jim," the attacks bring up the question of context. When "bad" words are underlined, "offensive" pages photocopied as in the controversy over the Edgerton book, the work as a whole can be forgotten in the furor over certain excerpted passages.
Even Dr. Seuss almost got the ax from parents working for a local logging company in a Laytonville, Calif., school district. They said his book, "The Lorax," "offered a negative portrayal of the industry."
"To some, much of modern literature is shocking," reads a joint statement by the American Library Association and the Association of American Publishers. "But is not much of life itself shocking? ... Parents and teachers have a responsibility to prepare the young to meet the diversity of experiences in life to which they will be exposed, as they have a responsibility to help them learn to think critically for themselves."
Apprehension about giving children knowledge of their own bodies is a prevalent theme in the banning of books. A book entitled "What is a Girl? What is a Boy?" was moved into a section where only adults have access in a regional library in Gwinnett-Forsyth, Ga.
"Libraries provide ideas and information from all points of view to anyone who wants or needs them," according to the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom. "Anytime a book is removed, ... or put in another part of the library where it is harder to find, the freedom to read is curtailed." The complaint of one person has prevented thousands of readers access to library materials, according to the group.
by CNB