"Twilight" banned in Capistrano Unified School District

If you were one of those who thought book banning was in the past, here's an article to read. While the banning was eventually rescinded, it is humorous that this would happen during Banned Books Week.

The article began:

A series of fantasy novels about a vampire and his teenage girlfriend were banned Friday from middle school libraries in the Capistrano Unified School District over concerns about age-appropriate content, but reinstated four days later without explanation.

The books are still under review. Here's more:

"There's a process that we go through to determine the appropriateness of placement of library books, and we will go through that process to determine the best placement for these books," Hatchel said.

Here's your magical trick question of the day: How many teacher librarians work for Capistrano Unified?

That would be none.

Banned Books Week

It seemed important this year to do something for Banned Books Week in my library given that one of the candidates for the vice-presidency of the United States wanted to ban books. Loyal readers will note that I rarely infuse my politics on this blog, but this is not about politics. This is about wanting to force your opinion on others by removing their ability to research and to read and to decide for themselves.

This issue goes beyond conservative and liberal, beyond Republican and Democrat. I think this goes to the very core of what it means to be an American and to believe in the principles on which this country was founded.

What am I going to do? Not a lot really. I have pulled about 40 books from the collection and put them on display. I will then use the announcing system to let students know that books adults don't want them to read are now on display in the library. I will then stand out of the way.

By the way, there is actually a group on Facebook called "I Read a Book Sarah Palin Wanted Banned from the Wasilla Public Library."

Sebastopol librarian fired revisited

More on the firing of Sebastopol librarian Richie Partington. For me, it offers more questions than answers. The administrator involved appears to give the impression that Partington was fired for a number of things, but gives no examples as to what those might have been.

Bellevue schools book dispute ends in firing


I think ultimately Partington's undoing was his not meeting with the principal. As an employee, he does not have that choice. Given that article, I don't believe we have the entire story yet. Will we? Hard to tell.

Sebastopol Librarian fired over opposition to book banning by principal?

Was a librarian fired because he opposed the banning of a book by the principal of a school and because he spoke out in opposition to that banning? While I do not know both sides, I urge you to read the story below and come to your own conclusions.

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A day after informing the District Superintendent that he saw no reason to meet with the principal who had banned a highly-regarded children's book -- until the principal had actually read the book that he had banned -- Sebastopol librarian and author Richie Partington was fired from his position as Library Consultant to the Bellevue Union School District in Santa Rosa, California.

Partington, a part-time member of the faculty in San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science, and author of the popular children's book review website Richie's Picks, expressed his shock disappointment over what had happened. "Last week I was booktalking at District schools and literally had students fighting over who would first get to read the books I was presenting. The administrators must have thought that there must be something wrong with the books if the students wanted to read them so badly."

The book in question is, ironically, about a young hero in a society where nobody reads anymore. Rodman Philbrick's The Last Book in the Universe has been selected for inclusion by the American Library Association on its list for adolescents of "100 Best of the Best Books for the 21st Century" and has been subsequently nominated for numerous state children's book awards.

Partington, who is active in the American Library Association, had recently been appointed as one of fifteen librarians in the country to serve on the committee that will read thousands of new 2008 picture books and determine the winner of the ALA's prestigious Caldecott Medal.

Partington is best known for his reviews of soon-to-be-published books for children and adolescents that are regularly distributed to more than 8,000 librarians, teachers, and publishing executives worldwide and archived on his website at http://richiespicks.com. He is also known for having initiated in Sebastopol the nation's first No Name-Calling Week, which was based upon events in a children's book by James Howe titled The Misfits. No Name-Calling Week subsequently became a nationally-commemorated annual event with nearly half a million school children across America participating in last year's observance. (See http://www.nonamecallingweek.org/cgi-bin/iowa/home.html)