Fielding parents’ complaints about summer reading programs
We just passed out information about our public library’s summer reading program, and a parent has already complained because it excludes 12-year-olds. She thinks this is a form of censorship. What’s your advice?
I assume that your summer reading program is for elementary school children. I hope that there’s a similar program for teens and preteens. My hunch is that even if there’s one for teens, that parent isn’t ready to turn her 12-year-old over to teen services. Middle-grade kids are sometimes very immature and aren’t ready to mingle with 16-year-olds. Libraries should offer some type of summer reading program that allows middle schoolers to participate wherever they feel most comfortable. One option is to ask them to volunteer to help out with younger patrons—that may satisfy some parents. Limiting a summer reading program to a certain age group isn’t censorship. But remember, libraries are all about inclusion.
Every month, teachers from the YMCA check out 50 books from our library to use in their early childcare program. Two of their parents have filed formal complaints about our Mother Goose books because they think they’re too violent. Now, our director is wondering whether it’s worth serving the Y’s program since we’ve gotten so many complaints. Those of us in children’s services would hate to drop the program.
First, congratulations for offering such a wonderful service to your local YMCA. What a model outreach program! Handle the challenge to the Mother Goose books the same way you’d handle any other challenge. Allow the complaints to go through the complete process. I’m certain those books will be retained.
Two challenges don’t sound like a lot, and I’d think that your library director would be more concerned about serving your community than avoiding parents’ complaints. Ask the YMCA’s childcare director if they have a book selection policy for their teachers to use. I bet they don’t. Offer to help them develop one that supports their program and the community they serve. I bet they’ll welcome your guidance. Finally, offer to conduct workshops that’ll show parents how to use all types of books with preschoolers, including Mother Goose books.
I’m a librarian at a K–5 school. A parent complained that her son’s fourth-grade teacher recommended that he read Neal Shusterman’s Unwind. The parent said that her son is a “gifted” reader, but he’s very immature. She decided to read the book and was horrified that a teacher would recommend it to a fourth grader. We don’t have the book in our library collection. She borrowed it from the public library’s teen section. Now the teacher wants me to defend her on the grounds that she was recommending books on a “higher reading level.”
At the risk of sounding flip, I’d suggest telling the teacher, “You’re in this one alone.” Unwind is a fabulous book. It’s a gripping, thought-provoking thriller. But it isn’t for fourth graders, regardless of how gifted they are. I seriously doubt that the teacher has read it. I’m curious about why she recommended that title. Did someone tell her about it? Did she read a review of it? Let the teacher and the parent know that libraries are filled with books for “gifted” nine-year-olds that’ll challenge them to think about complex issues—books like Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, and Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth to name just a few. Encourage the teacher to check with you before she recommends a book to her students, especially if it isn’t in your collection and it’s in the public library’s teen collection.
I work in the children’s room at a large metropolitan public library. A teenage girl was sitting at one of our tables when her cell phone rang. The ring tone was a song that has a string of four-letter words, including the “F” word. I’d never heard anything like it, and I didn’t know how to handle the situation. My tendency was to ask, “Does your mother know about that ringtone?” What should I have done?
Simple! You should have gone over and said, “Cell phones must be silenced in the public library.”