Book challenge
Stolen Children is being challenged at a school in Pennsylvania because a parent objects to the gun in the story. Ironically, I thought this book showed the danger a gun can present and made a strong case against a child using one. More than once, Amy, the heroine, thinks about the harm a gun can inflict and affirms that she would never shoot anyone, not even two low-lifes like her kidnappers.
When Amy sneaks into the cabin and retrieves the villain’s gun, she chooses not to use it. Instead she carries it to the stinky outhouse behind the cabin, and drops it down the hole. The gun is never fired. As in all of my books that have a bad guy, there is a threat of danger but no violence ever happens.
This school had a process in place for dealing with censorship, and those steps are being followed. The objecting parent first tried to have the book removed from the entire school district. That effort failed, so now she wants it removed from the library used by grades four-six. The librarian, a reading teacher, a school psychologist, a principal, and the assistant superintendent will be meeting soon with the district superintendent to discuss a recommendation. I regret that these people must spend their valuable time this way. I’ve always believed that parents have the right to restrict their own child’s reading material but I don’t think they have the right to decide what other children can read.
I’ve had many letters from young readers telling me that their favorite part of Stolen Children was when Amy got rid of the gun by dropping it down the outhouse hole. The kids apparently understand the book’s warning about the dangers of weapons, even if one parent does not.