IFRT Members Community (Open)

Hi,

One of the US Army's Morale Welfare & Recreation libraries has received a formal request for reconsideration of the book Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human, by Erika Moen. This is not the first time this book has been questioned and we believe it's on a "list". 

We will be keeping the book on the shelf.

If you have had this particular title challenged our committee would be interested in your decision/results. We are in the process of crafting our reply. We've not had to deal with a formal challenge in a very long time. 

If you have a response letter specifically for this book (or one similar), would you be willing to share it? We have policies, regulations, ALA code of ethics, and other items we will include. But, we are interested in how you worded your response. 

Thank you very much for your assistance. 

Hi,

One of the US Army's Morale Welfare & Recreation libraries has received a formal request for reconsideration of the book Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human, by Erika Moen. This is not the first time this book has been questioned and we believe it's on a "list".

We will be keeping the book on the shelf.

If you have had this particular title challenged our committee would be interested in your decision/results. We are in the process of crafting our reply. We've not had to deal with a formal challenge in a very long time. 

If you have a response letter specifically for this book (or one similar), would you be willing to share it? We have policies, regulations, ALA code of ethics, and other items we will include. But, we are interested in how you worded your response. 

Thank you very much for your assistance. 

Hello Paula, 

Firstly, sending you and the library team our thoughts. Though becoming, sadly, more common, dealing with challenges can be extremely stressful and emotionally taxing. 

Secondly, given the exceptional number of recent challenges that have specifically targeted comics and graphic novels (including New Kid, Maus, and Gender Queer) the ALA Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table has created an Addressing Comic Challenges Toolkit that provides strategies to proactively fight these bans and challenges specific to the comics and graphic novel format BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER they happen:

https://www.ala.org/rt/gncrt/preparing-and-addressing-challenges-comics-library-committee

In terms of crafting a letter to respond to the challenge, I reached out to Addressing Comic Challenges Committee members and while no one has (yet) experienced a challenge for this particular title, they have experienced other similar challenges (especially for Gender Queer and other titles like Sex is a Funny Word) and their recommendation was to: 

(1) report the challenge to OIF and other partners such as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), Freedom to Read, National Coalition for Censorship, and your state's branch of the ACLU (*I might also alert the publisher, Penguin Random House, as publishing houses are trying to keep track of challenges and use their influence to push back)

(2) utilize the template letters on OIF's site to create a response back: https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/selectionpolicytoolkit/complainant

(3) Committee members also noted that when responding back they will include a copy of their library's Challenge Policy as well as copies of the Right to Read, Right to View, and Library Bill of Rights.

With comic and graphic novel challenges one of the most specific things we are noticing is how images from the text are taken out of context and/or utilized to alert and inflame critics. A picture truly is worth a thousand words. Lastly a few of the reasons why comics and graphic novels have been disproportionately challenged include: 

• Accessibility: A strength of comics and graphic novels is their ability to, in a single panel, share a multitude of information and emotional resonance with their readers. This makes them powerful, accessible, and, when taken out of context, easily misunderstood.
• Misunderstanding the medium: For a variety of reasons, misperceptions persist around comic books and graphic novels, two of the largest being that "comics are for kids" and/or that comics are for "reluctant readers." We see this in A LOT of challenges against Gender Queer. Though published as an adult graphic memoir, many challenges have included their perceptions that Gender Queer's 'colorful pages' will 'entice' young (kid) readers. You can read more about the obscenity case levelled against Gender Queer in the state of Virginia here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/virginia-obscenity-proceedings-against-two-books. Importantly, this case was struck down. 
• Historical bias: Many have forgotten that comics - the most popular reading material of children in the 1940-50s - were also censored, restricted, and, in many countries, banned under the criminal code in the 1950s. Worry, fear, and restrictions of children's reading sadly is not new. And though the research behind this 1950s comics moral panic has been successfully disproved (by Dr. Carol Tilley), the stigma around comics remains for many in schools and libraries along with decades of normalized gatekeeping and restrictions.

Hope this helps! 

Kind thanks, 

Amie 

Hi,

One of the US Army's Morale Welfare & Recreation libraries has received a formal request for reconsideration of the book Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human, by Erika Moen. This is not the first time this book has been questioned and we believe it's on a "list".

We will be keeping the book on the shelf.

If you have had this particular title challenged our committee would be interested in your decision/results. We are in the process of crafting our reply. We've not had to deal with a formal challenge in a very long time. 

If you have a response letter specifically for this book (or one similar), would you be willing to share it? We have policies, regulations, ALA code of ethics, and other items we will include. But, we are interested in how you worded your response. 

Thank you very much for your assistance.