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We actually have both the teacher and the librarian towing the "age appropriate" line. DS7 has been incensed that they will only let him read "stupid baby books."

BUT - somehow DS cracked the code the other day. He tried for the hundredth time to check out a Percy Jackson book. Librarian said "no ... age appropriate ... reading level ... blah, blah, blah." DS - in an astonishing moment of self help said "can I read you some pages?" Apparently he read a few pages, and then the librarian talked to him about some of the content that could be troubling, and then somehow was satisfied! So the book came home.

Teacher, however, still will not let DS have the book in his book bag or read it in class. There he is still stuck with "stupid baby books." Ah well - at least he can go to the library at lunch.

And he is a great self-censor, knows when something is upsetting and just drops it. E.g. - he got up and demanded to leave the classroom when his K teacher started to read the third version of Hansel and Gretel. "DON'T YOU REALIZE THEY ARE BURNING THAT LADY ALIVE! WHY ARE YOU READING US THIS HORRIBLE STORY?"

Related note - DS has been asking me why I see violent movies if I don't like violence (e.g., DH and I saw Hunger Games over the holiday). I told him that there are stories that are valuable that have violence in them. I pointed out that you can't have a book about war without violence in it.

Then we talked about learning about ourselves and others through stories. Even learning about the hard stuff.

Then we discussed the expression "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Then we discussed the fact that I still cover my eyes in the violent parts (true).

I'm sure we aren't done with this conversation. But for DS - it helps to understand that violence in stories - and how people deal with it - are useful for illustrating part of the human condition.

Sue
P.S. And yes - chicken that I am - I'm glad the questions about love and sex haven't really come up yet.

Um, no, I confess I thought about sex...

Actually, my 8 year old does hang out at the public library by himself. It's a one room suburban division housed in the elementary school where he happens to have music lessons, and he goes there after his lessons to wait to be picked up whenever it is convenient for us. In theory, I could control what he checks out when I pick him up, but in fact he is too anxious to be adventurous, and would hardly move out children's nonfiction or beyond the famous five if I did not explicitly encourage him. I have to admit that I'd want to be given a heads up by the librarian if she thought he was checking out anything she considered unsuitable, but of course it isn't her decision, it would make me mad if a school librarian felt it incumbent upon her to enforce grade levels! Isn't this the school that's also houses the districts gifted program his sister is already at?! She should be familiar with out of level readers!

How utterly strange. If a book is too difficult for a child, presumably he'll figure that out in short order by actually reading it. Why would the librarian even intervene at all? It's not like an elementary library will be stocking erotic or graphically violent literature.

DS came home with basically the same books from the school library for 3 years (JK, SK and grade 1). At one point I asked him why and he said he was only allowed to pick from a limited section which were all baby books so he stopped looking. They never did book reports on those books or anything so it didn't matter that he never read any of them. We had more pressing issues so I never brought it up.

Last year they finally let him take out a book from anywhere in the library. It was like Christmas day!!!! He was so excited to be allowed into the non-fiction section.

During all of this we just went to the public library. That and he would dig through our bookshelves at home. He would often make us read our old university physics books for bedtime stories.

Yes. I know! It's not like she's never met a gifted reader before.

Here's the funny part: I mentioned it to his teacher, without the name of the book, and the librarian copped only to withholding a *different* book (for being "inappropriate"). Good grief.

I'm depressed that this is a common practice. It makes me wonder if this is taught to librarians?

This has been our experience. DD was 7 when she finished reading Harry Potter independently and decided to move on to Hunger Games... but HP had been bedtime stories since she was 5, with her looking over my shoulder, so all of the harder words were familiar, and I'd had a chance to explain anything new. She came across too many unknown terms in Hunger Games (she pointed out "apothecary" as an example), and she decided to move on to something else.

I think that librarians are often trying to protect the children from a confidence setback. DD did have that kind of experience, but we were quick to point out how quickly she was learning, and that this book may be too hard now, but that's only a temporary condition.

Fast forwarding two years, she probably finished off Catching Fire last night before lights-out.

Um, no. These bizarre stories are really hard to read, and help remind me that however frustrating our school situation is there are things to be thankful for. I/my kids have never encountered any limitations on book choices; we have found the opposite, in that the librarians we know, both at school and in the public libraries around here are happy to listen and help kids find what they are looking for. We have found this to be true in classroom libraries, as well.

Independent reading has got to be the easiest way to accommodate different abilities in the elementary classroom- thank goodness some teachers (and librarians) get that, and sorry to those of you who have to work with those who don't get it.

Thanks - I think this is exactly the point I was trying to make.

btw school in NZ (public anyway) does 1-5 so kids are 5 to 10 years of age, def no older kids materials in the library, but there is harry potter, LOTR etc.