High school students and teachers review books the Community Library Network is considering restricting from minors

The Community Library Network in Kootenai County, Idaho, is considering a list of 140 books – many of them young adult novels – to possibly add to its mature content collection that will be kept in a room at Post Falls Library with adult access only.

Spokane-area high school students and teachers familiar with some of these books shared their thoughts.

Sola Dimodica, a 17-year-old junior at Lewis and Clark High School, read the novel “Glass,” by Ellen Hopkins, and though poetry isn’t her typical style of reading, Dimodica is considering finishing the series.

Drug abuse, the effects of it on families and other mature topics are woven throughout the novel, but Dimodica doesn’t believe that “Glass” promotes any of the behavior seen in the characters.

“There’s a warning on each of the books, saying that it was written purely out of the author’s experience and to raise more awareness,” she said. “I don’t think they should ban this book, because it’s pretty big in kids’ lives today, because they might have family members also struggling with these problems.”

Dimodica believes the themes explored throughout this novel may aid minors in navigating their emotions, along with benefiting their social development and education, but older teenagers might appreciate it more.

“Despite its light poetry feel, it’s dealing with very mature topics that might fly over someone’s head,” Dimodica said.

Ella Mckinstry, 17, also a junior at Lewis and Clark, remembers the recurring themes of rebellion in “Ignite Me,” by Tahereh Mafi.

“I think it’s one of those books that’s good for development as a kid, like when people read ‘Hunger Games,’ ” McKinstry said.

She believes the intended audience of the young adult novel is minors, so it shouldn’t be restricted from those who want to read it.

“It’s like a building block, I guess, for reading. I feel like if you read it as an adult, the writing wouldn’t seem as mature, because when you’re an adult, I feel like you evolve into reading better-quality books.”

“I don’t know if, like, a 14- or 15-year-old reading it is a big deal. I feel like waiting until you’re 18 to read something like that is when it’s not even descriptive, it seems pointless in a way,” McKinstry said.

“They’re probably already in health class, their friends probably make sexual jokes all the time. It’s not something they haven’t heard or seen before.”

Molly Gross, senior at Gonzaga Prep, read “To All the Boys I Loved Before” by Jenny Han.

“It is a completely normal book for teenagers,” Gross said. She feels such restrictions are dangerous, because “who is making these philosophies, and, more importantly, why?”

By placing certain books in a room considered inappropriate for youth, Gross worries they may be discouraged from age-appropriate and important literature.

Hawwi Jebena, another senior at Gonzaga Prep, read “Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky.

She feels “it’s an important novel,” especially for students of her age. While she recognizes the deep and emotional elements might be abrupt, especially for young readers, the experiences explored in the novel reflect those of many teenagers – it’s for this reason that she values such works.

“My first reaction was sadness,” Ashley Byrne, an Advanced Placement English teacher at North Central High School, said after seeing the list. “My second reaction was fear. I don’t know all the books on the list, but I know a few of them, and the ones that I do know I think are really important texts for students to have access to.”

One book to which Byrne was particularly drawn was “Speak,” by Laurie Halse Anderson, about a young girl coming to terms with her traumatic sexual assault. Byrne taught the book for most of her 19-year teaching career at both Mount Spokane and North Central high schools.

“Every year that I’ve taught it, some student has come forward to tell me in private about their own experience with trauma of some kind,” Byrne said. “When ninth-graders read that story, they either just appreciate the text or they relate to it, and many have related to it.”

Byrne’s teaching of the novel has included guest speakers talking to her classes about issues such as consent and the impact of sexual assault, and she said she would be “devastated” for students who needed these discussions to be barred from reading about them.

“Just because a book challenged the way we think about the world, or our religion, or the things that are our norms, doesn’t mean they’re bad, it just means it’s a challenge,” Byrne said. “If we remove the opportunity to learn about different perspectives, then we never get to have our own beliefs challenged. … Knowledge is powerful, and we should not attempt to silence that.”

Jennifer Showalter, a teacher of African American literature at Lewis and Clark High School, has read several of the novels: “The Hate U Give,” by Angie Thomas; “Speak,” by Anderson; “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Chbosky; “Looking for Alaska,” by John Green.

But one title stands out to Showalter: “I am the Messenger,” by Markus Zusak, “is one of my favorite books of all time,” she said.

Showalter appreciates how these books acknowledge the complexity of adolescence. She shares that the main character in Zusak’s novel is a relatable, real and ordinary person who has a unique opportunity to make small changes in the world around him that have monumental impacts on the lives he saves, and the main theme is self-sacrifice.

“When I got to the end of it, I remember just sobbing, because any story where there’s a person who is sacrificing themselves, even in the smallest way for another, just hits my heartstrings,” Showalter said.

She said students need access to a wide variety of viewpoints.

“We want kids to be independent thinkers and also have complex thoughts that are more than just black and white, or one-sided,” Showalter said. “Yeah, some of the descriptions of maybe his sexual fantasies or swearing or whatever, are not things you want your kid to maybe say out loud to you, but it doesn’t hurt them at all to hear them, and it acknowledges the reality of being a human being as well as a young person.

“If a conservative Christian opposed access to the book via a ban or sequestration in a public library, they would literally be denouncing the core message of their Christ quote, ‘as I have loved you so must you love one another,’” from the Gospel of John, Showalter said. “So putting a book like this behind the counter like it’s a porno mag in a 7-Eleven is blasphemous.”

As for the sexual references, Showalter asked, “what harm is going to happen if a kid, 8 years old, reads it? They’re not gonna understand it anyway.”

Showalter, a high school educator of 25 years, believes that kids will find empowerment in not being spoken down to and hearing a raw and unsimplified story of life. She said students can benefit from reading at a level that they can comprehend without struggling.

“Some of them are adults, but that’s what kids witness every single day, so why not make that an open window, rather than some secret taboo area?”

Making information harder to access could have the opposite effect of what lawmakers and library officials intend, she said.

“Sex sells,” Showalter said. “It’s always been something that people want to hear and listen to and find out more about. And you know, if it is off limits, then by golly, I want more access to it. So the more that they try to restrict something, the more it’s going to be wanted.

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“Any opportunity that a person gets to read expands their empathy for the human condition, and I think that is a goal of life.”