The principal of the West Middle School in Nampa, Idaho, has ordered the removal of several young-adult horror novels by Christopher Pike from the media-center collection because he found their graphic descriptions of violence and profanity to be age-inappropriate. “If this is the only kind of stuff some boys will read, it’s because they haven’t been introduced to other things,” Jeff Read told the February 15 Boise Idaho Statesman.
Read acted after having reviewed at least five Pike titles over Valentine’s Day weekend, including The Listeners, whose depiction of a chainsaw dismemberment and a woman’s torture prompted the mother of an 8th-grader who borrowed the book to complain to her son’s teachers. They, in turn, expressed concerns to Read.
The books were purchased as part of a 4,000-title order to be used with the school’s Accelerated Reader program, a software package that tests youngsters’ reading comprehension of books it recommends. From now on, Read said, an adult will read any book before the library orders it.
Posted February 21, 2000.