School Committee Votes to Ban Lowry Book In a 7-4 decision, media panel elects to remove "Anastasia Again" from the library; five other works are spared.By Andrew Dunn
The LedgerLAKE WALES -- Spook Hill Elementary's school media committee voted Wednesday to ban one of the six books by Lois Lowry that a parent found objectionable.
The book, "Anastasia Again," will be removed from the school's library and sent to the district office. The story, a chapter book for children 9 to 12, is the second in a series about the trials and tribulations of the title character, Anastasia Krupnik, a precocious preteen girl.
In "Anastasia Again," Anastasia finds out that her family is moving to the suburbs, much to her dismay.
The 11-member committee voted 7-4 to remove the book from the school's library. It voted to retain the other five books.
Lowry, the author, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Kristi Hardee, the parent who filed the complaints to have Lowry's books removed from the school, attended the meeting but declined to comment on the committee's vote.
However, in her complaint she objected to the book's references to beer, Playboy magazine and Anastasia making light of wanting to kill herself.
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In the most controversial passage of the book, one Hardee and several committee members cited, Anastasia and her friend discuss a home movie her friend and another girl appeared in. The two girls ran on a beach with no clothes while one of their fathers filmed.
"Yeah, I remember," Anastasia tells her friend. "It wasn't [pr0n0] or anything, though. You were only seven years old, for Pete's sake."
"Actually it was probably a pretty good movie," her friend replies. "The sun was coming up and everything, and we were the only people on the beach. Except birds. Nobody ever got to see it, though, because my father made him destroy the film."
Spook Hill principal Matt Burkett, who serves on the media committee, objected to the passage.
"This flashback scene at the beach, that's the one that bothered me the most more than anything else," Burkett said. ". . . I am real bothered by that particular section."...
I read the Anastasia books when I was a kid, and loved them dearly. They felt real and they spoke to me and to my life in a way that many other books didn't. The idea that anyone would want to ban them just boggles me. People can be really small minded, and being parents or administrators doesn't make them any less so. If you don't want your child to read it that is fine. Why prevent everyone else's children from reading it?
I also muct say that I am bothered by the fact that a school principal said he was "real bothered". Should understanding of basic grammar be a requirement for the job? If 3rd graders are expected to know the difference between an adjective and an adverb, and when to use them, shouldn't their principal? It reminds me of the principal I met last year that used the word "confrontationy".
