Oh, Alice! You're always in trouble.

In Washington:

LEAVENWORTH -- Too much sex talk may send the book "Alice on Her Way" out of Icicle River Middle School, pending a school district review.

Parent David Winters asked the school district to pull the book three weeks ago after he preread the book picked by his 13-year-old daughter from the school library.

I read down through the Amazon reviews of Alice on Her Way (which I have read -- it was the mention of the sexuality class at her church that jogged my memory), and I was fascinated to learn that not only is Mark Twain is alive and well in the Northwest, but that he is horrified by Alice McKinley and her friends.

Seems like it would really stink to have half a series in a school library, but then have to tell the students, "Oh, sorry, no -- the rest of the series is up at the high school."  It's great that the challenger is paying attention to what his daughter is reading, but it's too bad that he's not comfortable with allowing other parents and students to make up their own minds.  It's sure not like middle school kids don't deal with sexual issues.  I'm certainly not saying it isn't difficult -- but there's a huge difference between a sixth grader and an eighth grader, and it isn't fair to simply stock a school library with books for the sixth graders.  That's my take on that, anyway.

So how does your library shelve the Alice books?  All together or split?  At my library, they're split -- the younger ones in the children's room and the older ones upstairs in the YA section.  I have no idea when they decided to split them or if it was even a conscious decision.  It's been like that since I've worked there.  What about the Harry Potter books?  Ours are all together in the children's room, though the last few seemed much more YA to me.  Well, regardless, they're all in the same building, and anyone can check 'em out.

Wow, ramble much, Leila?  I do love the Alice books, though I haven't read the most recent few.  Time to get caught up, which means I'll have to start all over again from the beginning.  Oh, the agony*!

*Get it?  Get it?