This week is banned books week, a celebration of the freedom to read books of one’s choosing.
As a journalist, I wholeheartedly support this freedom. As I parent, I have a few caveats.
When my daughter was in kindergarten, she brought home the book “The Little Match Girl.” She liked the picture on the cover. She brought it to me to read with her.
I wouldn’t.
My father had passed away not long before this, and our dog had died. I wasn’t going to read a story with my child that ended in a child’s death when she was simply too young to understand. Together, we picked a different book from her own bookshelf and she was content.
When she was a little older, she read it. And thanked me on behalf of her kindergarten self.
I am a voracious reader, and I am proud to say my daughter is too. She is 19, but there are still some books that I would prefer she didn’t read.
And some that I would welcome her to read, if only to shed light on a terrible issue, and to have her talk to me or a trusted adult about what she had read.
One of those books, for example, is called “Living Dead Girl” by Elizabeth Scott, a book I’ve been told is in the library at Floyd C. Fretz Middle School.
I read the book. Within the first few pages, you learn the story’s protagonist is a 15-year-old girl who has been held captive for five years by a pedophile.
I’m quoting passages from the book itself: “You’ve pulled your skirt up to your waist, arms resting by your sides, palms up and open. Waiting.
“‘Good,’ he says and lies on top of you. Heavy and pushing, always pushing. ‘Good girl, Alice.’
“Afterward, he will give you the water and a container of yogurt. He will sit with one hand curled around your knee. You will watch TV together. He will let you know how lucky you are.”
Does that passage make you uncomfortable? It’s on page 4.
On page 11, the young victim gets her genitals waxed, because that’s what her rapist demands.
On page 20, the story describes her post-rape, having to clean herself up. My original version of this column had a quote from the book, but after discussions with my editor, we thought it might be too graphic for our readers.
And I remind you, this is a book at Fretz Middle School.
While I can say I don’t support banning any book, I can certainly say I would feel more comfortable knowing the book was at the high school rather than the middle school.
There are no graphic depictions of assault, but there is a gripping and horrifyingly sad sense of hopelessness and self-loathing.
I won’t tell you how the story ends, but I, for one, didn’t find it a happy ending.
So what I am saying is this: I am not in favor of censorship. I am in favor of parents paying attention to what your child is reading — or watching, or playing on video games, or listening to.
I’m not asking parents to stop their children from having freedom of choice. I am asking parents, or grandparents, or adults in a child’s life, to have a conversation with your kids.
Ask what they are reading. Read it yourself. Talk to them about it.
Or at least, look it up on the Internet. Wikipedia often has synopses of books.
Maybe with your guidance, what a child is reading can help shape them into a caring adult, sending them down a path to help others.
If you aren’t sure how to talk to your child about stories like “Living Dead Girl,” call the librarian, or McKean County Department of Human Services or the Children’s Advocacy Center of McKean County.
Reading is so important for so many reasons. And a book can be banned or challenged for any number of reasons. Find out why. Determine if that’s what you want your child to be reading. Use it to start a conversation.
Someday, your child will thank you for it.
(Schellhammer is the Era’s Associate Editor. She can be reached at marcie@bradfordera.com)
