(Columbus) The Republic
The latest chapter in the stale yet ongoing saga of library censorship in Indiana made for some terrific reading.
Up in the hoity-toity northern suburbs of Indianapolis, people who think they know better than trained librarians which books kids should be allowed to read had been imposing their will, but they went too far and it backfired on them.
The Hamilton East Library Board in Fishers had been moving hundreds of books from its young adults section to the adult section. This was, Fox 59 reported, part of a new policy “to review materials available in their children and teen sections in order to ensure the books are ‘age appropriate.’”
You’d think that would be the trained librarians’ job. Hoosier favorite John Green thought that, and he said so. Loudly.
One of the books that got moved out of the young adult section was Green’s beloved young adult novel “The Fault in Our Stars.” Many experts, not to mention generations now of young adults and their parents, consider “TFIOS” a fairly recent masterpiece of YA literature. It has sold millions of copies and was made into an acclaimed hit Hollywood film in 2014.
It’s about kids with cancer. It’s about love. And uncertainty. And coping. And empathy. And mortality. And much, much more.
But Hamilton East’s library board picked TFIOS as one of hundreds of books it felt like young kids shouldn’t be allowed to read. And it picked the wrong huckleberry when it removed Green’s book from the young adult section, where it belonged.
Green unloaded on the library board with an incendiary screed of righteous indignation that may be among the finest things he’s written.
“… I am absolutely horrified by the decision of some members of your board to override a huge body of expertise and deem hundreds of books – including mine – inappropriate to be shelved as Young Adult Literature,” Green wrote in a letter to the board he posted on social media, also listing multiple award-winning books that suffered similar indignity.
“And more to that point,” Green wrote, “librarians and teachers in our community – the highly-trained experts Fishers and Noblesville pay with public money – agree that these books should be shelved as Young Adult literature, which is precisely why they were until your shameful intervention.
“It’s political theater of the lowest and most embarrassing order, and it’s an awful way to have Fishers and Noblesville make national news.”
That’s what the kids call a mic drop.
Days later, the plot thickened. The Noblesville school board voted to remove the library board president, who, after Green’s complaint had become a viral internet sensation, said a “mistake” had been made. Duh.
Green calls this political theater, but it’s also a tragicomedy. Because Hamilton Southeastern says it spent $300,000 reviewing and moving books just because a few killjoys complained.
What a waste of time, money and resources.
We have instances of attempted censorship still going on here in Bartholomew County. Let the example of Hamilton East serve as a lesson to our community.
How’s this for a policy: Let the librarians put books where they belong, let students decide what to read, and let parents decide what is appropriate for their kids. Period. Otherwise, the fault isn’t in our stars, but in ourselves.
