‘We’re not about banning the books:’ 40 books pulled from Pender school libraries

PENDER COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) - Dozens of books are no longer available on the shelves of Pender County Schools’ libraries.

The list of books was created by the group Concerned Citizens of Pender County, and the school board ultimately agreed to review the books after hearing numerous concerns from the community.

“We got this grievance together, we put a lot of time into it,” said Patricia Koluch, who has grandchildren in Pender County Schools. “We were pretty confident when we sent it to the board that we had compiled enough information to convince them that there needed to be a book committee of some sort or even them deciding ‘hey, these books are over the top, we need to pull them.’”

The list of 40 books included a range of titles, like “Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl,” “13 Reasons Why,” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue.” They ranged in topics from the LGBTQ community to self-harm and suicide. The group of concerned citizens created a 28-page document explaining why they believe the books aren’t suitable for school library shelves.

They also argue the books may be considered child pornography and therefore would be illegal.

“I was finding them all in my school,” Koluch said. “I started reading them and then I was just getting, I couldn’t read them anymore, I was getting nauseated.”

A similar issue came up when a group of parents in Wilmington filed a complaint with the New Hanover Sheriff’s Office last year, making the same allegations of obscene or pornographic material in schools. District Attorney Ben David ultimately determined the first amendment protected the books and the staff who provided them.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Pender County Schools told WECT the school board had not received a formal challenge to any of the books that were pulled for review. Formal challenges are submitted through the Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Resources page on the district’s website.

However, after numerous concerns from the community, the board asked the district’s Media and Technology Advisory Committee to review the content. While that review is in progress, the books will not be available to students.

“I was happy that children weren’t being subjected to that without their parent permission and without the knowledge of the community knowing what they were looking at,” Koluch said.

Whether the books will eventually return to library shelves is at the will of the committee. Koluch said she just wants to make sure the titles are age appropriate for the students who have access to them.

“We’re not about banning the books,” she said. “Looking at some of the books, we’re like, well, parent permission, possibly. Does it belong in the middle schools? No.”

The books include:

A Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Silver Flames - Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas
All Boys Aren’t Blue - George M. Johnson
All the Thing We Do in the Dark - Saundra Mitchell
Allegedly - Tiffany Jackson
Are You My Mother? - Allison Bechdel
Boy Girl Boy - Ron Koertge
Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas
Crank - Ellen Hopkins
Damsel - Elana Arnold
Darius the Great Deserves Better - Adib Khorram
Dreaming in Cuban - Cristina Garcia
Empire of Storms - Sarah J. Maas
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
Forever... - Judy Blume
Gender Queer - Maia Kobabe
George - Alex Gino
Go Ask Alice - Anonymous
I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter - Erika Sanchez
Identical - Ellen Hopkins
Last Night at the Telegraph Club - Malinda Lo
Lawn Boy - Jonathan Evison
Looking for Alaska - John Green
Me Earl and the Dying Girl - Jesse Andrews
Melissa - Alex Gino
None of the Above - I. W. Gregorio
Out of Darkness - Ashley Hope Perez
Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
Rethinking Normal - Katie Rain Hill
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Sold - Patricia McCormick
Speak - Laurie H. Anderson
Speak: the graphic novel - Laurie H. Anderson
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian - Sherman Alexie
The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
The Black Flamingo - Dean Atta
The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher
This One Summer - Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
What Girls Are Made Of - Elana K. Arnold
When I Was the Greatest - Jason Reynolds”

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