[CALIBK12] High profile local librarian fired over oppositionto book banning by principal

Sun Nov 25 10:22:01 PST 2007

I echo the shock and dismay that has been expressed. Richie's posts are a highlight and his web site and book reviews are MUST reads for many of us in the profession. It is doubly shocking that the book that is targeted so clearly exemplifies the power of reading!

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to support the freedom to read in this instance.
Susan Dubin
Off-the-Shelf Library Services
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Spielman, Kathy 
  To: BudNotBuddy at aol.com ; calibk12 at listproc.sjsu.edu 
  Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2007 7:57 AM
  Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] High profile local librarian fired over oppositionto book banning by principal

  Shocking, absolutely shocking. What a sad day to realize how little is done to protect our right to read. How sad that the very people we expect to stand up for children's rights, stomp them down instead. When our administrators are not willing to stand up for our rights, why are they administrators? Are they so afraid of a complaint that they are not willing to go through the process of a challenge, or could it be they have no idea how or that there even is a process? I'm quite sure they are ignorant to the fact that there is a process. 
  The fact that the principal in question has not even read the book, shows that he is not interested in the right to read. How ironic is it that this book, The Last Book in the Universe, is being targeted. I loved it, and even more importantly, the students love it!

  If someone has addresses we can send letters or e-mails to, I would love to send a letter or two. I would love to start spreading the news of this catastrophe!
  Richie's Picks and his listserv are so important to me as a library media technician. I admire him and his commitment to the profession immensely.

  Kathy

  Kathy Spielman
  Middle School Library Media Technician
  Yorba Linda Middle School
  4777 Casa Loma Ave.
  Yorba Linda, CA 92886
  (714)528-7090 ext.7062
  kspielman at pylusd.org

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  From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu on behalf of BudNotBuddy at aol.com
  Sent: Thu 11/22/2007 4:38 AM
  To: calibk12 at listproc.sjsu.edu
  Subject: [CALIBK12] High profile local librarian fired over opposition to book banning by principal

  A day after informing the District Superintendent that he saw no reason to meet with the principal who had banned a highly-regarded children's book -- until the principal had actually read the book that he had banned -- Sebastopol librarian and author Richie Partington was fired from his position as Library Consultant to the Bellevue Union School District in Santa Rosa, California.  

  Partington, a part-time member of the faculty in San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science, and author of the popular children's book review website Richie's Picks, expressed his shock disappointment over what had happened.  "Last week I was booktalking at District schools and literally had students fighting over who would first get to read the books I was presenting.  The administrators must have thought that there must be something wrong with the books if the students wanted to read them so badly."

  The book in question is, ironically, about a young hero in a society where nobody reads anymore.  Rodman Philbrick's The Last Book in the Universe has been selected for inclusion by the American Library Association on its list for adolescents of "100 Best of the Best Books for the 21st Century" and has been subsequently nominated for numerous state children's book awards.

  Partington, who is active in the American Library Association, had recently been appointed as one of fifteen librarians in the country to serve on the committee that will read thousands of new 2008 picture books and determine the winner of the ALA's prestigious Caldecott Medal.

  Partington is best known for his reviews of soon-to-be-published books for children and adolescents that are regularly distributed to more than 8,000 librarians, teachers, and publishing executives worldwide and archived on his website at http://richiespicks.com.  He is also known for having initiated in Sebastopol the nation's first No Name-Calling Week, which was based upon events in a children's book by James Howe titled The Misfits.  No Name-Calling Week subsequently became a nationally-commemorated annual event with nearly half a million school children across America participating in last year's observance.  (See http://www.nonamecallingweek.org/cgi-bin/iowa/home.html) 

  Richie Partington, MLIS
  Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
  Moderator, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/
  BudNotBuddy at aol.com
  http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks
  Caldecott '09

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