WILSONA SCRUTINIZES BOOK LIST.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LAKE LOS ANGELES -- Wilsona School District trustees removed 10 books from lists submitted by Vista San Gabriel and Wilsona elementary schools and sent them back to be re-evaluated in light of new book selection guidelines.

The guidelines were adopted this summer following the board's controversial decision in February to remove 23 books including the latest ``Harry Potter'' from a list recommended for Vista San Gabriel's library.

``They approved a lot of books. They did select a few not to approve,'' Superintendent Ned McNabb said. ``All the ones not approved, we sent them back to be reviewed by the committees again.''

The 10 books were not approved at the Aug. 17 meeting, three from Vista San Gabriel's list, and seven from Wilsona's.

The three struck from Vista San Gabriel's list were ``The Burning (Guardians of Ga'hoole, Book 6),'' a fantasy story about the owl world; ``The Eye of the Warlock,'' which a school committee member described as a ``fractured version'' of Hansel and Gretel; and ``Becoming Naomi Leon,'' about a girl finding her heritage while overcoming abandonment, anxiety and disappointment.

The Vista San Gabriel book committee on its own pulled four books from its list so that they can be re-reviewed.

They were ``Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,'' ``Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code,'' and two other books from the Artemis Fowl series, whose namesake character was described in reviews as a boy-genius anti-hero and criminal mastermind.

The seven taken off Wilsona's list were ``The Eternity Code'' and six books from a series about the holidays Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Thanksgiving.

``(Board president) Sharon Toyne wanted to make sure that these books were properly depicting those holidays,'' McNabb said.

The board reasoned that ``The Eternity Code'' should be taken off Wilsona's list since the same was done at Vista San Gabriel, McNabb said.

As for the ``Ga'hoole,'' ``Warlock,'' and ``Naomi Leon'' books, ``they just felt that they hadn't been sufficiently reviewed,'' McNabb said.

Those three books, plus the Harry Potter and two of the Artemis Fowl books, were among the 23 that were removed by the board Feb. 16 from a list of 68 that had been recommended by a parent-teacher committee for the Vista San Gabriel Elementary School library.

Trustees said one rejected book contained an unsavory hero who was a bad role model for children; another was about a warlock, which they said was inappropriate; and others were books with which they were unfamiliar and didn't know whether they promoted good character or conflicted with textbooks.

Other rejected titles included three bilingual Clifford the Big Red Dog books and ``Disney's Christmas Storybook.''

At a March board meeting, trustees indicated that the Clifford and Disney books were not objectionable but had been lumped in with the rejected books. The Clifford and Disney books were approved at the Aug. 17 meeting.

Evaluating books can be subjective, as seen in the differing opinions of two trustees on a set of books on the Wilsona list, according to the book committee minutes.

Trustee Marlene Olivares felt the subject matter of four ``Cartoon History of the Earth'' books ``was more for seventh grade'' and suggested the books be donated to Challenger Middle School.

Board member Linda Poirier, however, felt the books were aimed at younger students and ``probably wouldn't get circulation at'' Challenger, the minutes said.

The new book-selection guidelines, which were approved June 22, were developed by a committee consisting of McNabb, Toyne and trustee Patricia Greene.

Under the guidelines, books now cannot depict drinking alcohol, smoking, drugs, sex, including ``negative sexuality,'' implied or explicit nudity, cursing, violent crime or weapons, gambling, foul humor and ``dark content.''

In some instances, an occasional inappropriate word may be whited-out rather than rejecting the entire book, the policy said.

``Materials must not encourage students to identify with violent or amoral characters. In some cases, students don't always finish the entire book so, for example, we might choose to avoid a story that seems sympathetic to negative behavior in the beginning even when the lesson is learned in the end,'' the policy said.

The book policy also states that library materials must be age-appropriate, taking into consideration the different maturity levels of district students who range in age from 5 to 14.

``For example, most of our elementary students are not dealing with issues of puberty and we do not want to encourage them to try to identify with characters that are,'' the policy said.

``However, even at the middle school level, there can be a wide range of maturity. Materials for the middle school level should therefore be selected with appropriate limits in mind. An example: romance stories are out -- puppy love is OK.''

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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