Wow... That's a tough call!

The committee makes a good point when it asks whether or not middle school students have the "emotional maturity" to handle the language and subject matter in a few instances.

Back in my middle school days, we had a young teacher who came to us for a semester because our regular teacher was injured in an accident. Our new teacher spoke openly about Life - and it was refreshing to hear such views that were close upon what we were then facing. ...And then she told us about Fred. Fred was the name she gave her vibrator. She basically told us that there was no real need to face issues of sexuality behind veils of secrecy - and she gave us some personal insight so as to prove her point.

Well, we ended up losing this teacher pretty quickly. Rather than stay with the school for the remainder of the year, she left swiftly after our finals for that semester. On her birthday, it seems the principal was handed a note. He announced that our teacher was wished a happy birthday by her 7th Graders "...and a very special wish comes from Fred." I remember the classroom erupting into madness when that announcement was made - I kind of chuckled awkwardly myself, not really sure how to react. Well, our teacher turned beet red, and you could see her face - the way she looked about to cry from humiliation, and she just left the room quickly. She left, and the room fell dead silent, and we could hear one of the other teachers down the hallway (who had no idea what the significance was of the announcement) asking innocently, "So who's Fred?"

That's a snapshot of the "emotional maturity" of middle schoolers, at least in my experience.

I think that Ariel's point - that the genre of the book makes it easier for parents to browse through and find objectionable material - is completely valid. What the article doesn't mention, however, is that it's just as easy for students to locate it, since graphic novels are well-known for their ability to entice reluctant readers as well as avid ones. Traditional books often feature language and situations far more graphic than what's in Stuck in the Middle, but students and parents alike have no idea because the words are swamped amidst many other words that aren't so obviously questionable.

I hate to see that the book has been banned. It isn't as if it's some gratuitous tome like Barry Ween: Boy Genius or anything - this is a book that's got every intention of reaching out to its youthful readership, much the same way my teacher did in 7th Grade! At the same time, I would much rather have the book made available to a select few students rather than to an entire school. Stuck in the Middle touches upon many of those elements that affect middle-schoolers on an average day in school - I mean, I could see myself within these pages, and wishing that I had friends like these folks to get me through instead of having only myself to rely upon those torturous, torturous days...

A school library, though, differs from a public library in many senses. But I think that Stuck in the Middle would be more appropriately placed in a public library rather than in a school setting, where it would be more accessible to students who actively look for the book. You have to be careful with what you put into the hands of minors... It's that age when certain elements make themselves known within their own bodies and minds, and others may still have a ways to go before they have their own epiphanies.

I love the book myself. I wish I'd had it when I was at that critical age. But I've got a niece starting middle school this year, and I wouldn't give it to her. That's because she's not yet at that level where she could understand the contexts, and accept that the book represents a sense of "realism" - and it would most likely offend her more than help her to understand what she's going through herself. It's an individual thing, not an en masse decision that I'd be making - for some kids, this book seems custom-made, and I'd have no qualms about them reading it. One of my nephews could have used it, and had the book been available back then, I'd love to have bought him a copy!

The book, as it stands, is perfectly fine for many middle school students, but not all middle school students. But the thing about school libraries is that all students have access to the books there, including those for whom Stuck in the Middle would not be appropriate. You can't defer to parental judgment, as a teacher or school librarian, and turn some kids away while allowing others to borrow books requiring a greater level of "emotional maturity."

Case in point? Our Human Health course textbooks - which we borrowed from the school each year - were littered with hand-scrawled names of fellow students when it came to such topics as homosexuality (pages which were later expunged from the books - *and* the course, which helped no one) and alcoholism/drug abuse. We didn't *all* see the humour in slamming other people who may have benefited from the information provided, but the material simply became another avenue for anonymously harassing the least popular amongst us. I spent many hours scanning through texts for references to myself, actually finding them, and fastidiously erasing them (yes, the ones written in ink, too) in hopes that no one would associate me with the topic being discussed.

That lack of "emotional maturity" is a bitch, for certain - but another of middle school's various "realities" sadly portrayed within Stuck in the Middle.