The headline is much more dramatic than the article.
Headline: Tulsa library receives 45 complaints about books and DVDs in its collection
To which I thought: OH NOES! It's like Fayetteville all over again!
But then I read the article and discovered that it was apparently a slow news day at Ye Old Tulsa World, as there'd been 45 complaints since 2008, and the article was just a round-up of some of the reasons behind the challenges.
Relatedly: The hilariously-named Lancaster Online (Okay, not so much their name: But their icon reads LOL!) has an article about Manheim Township High School's decision to release a annotated list of all of their required reading. The annotations will include an explanation as to why the book is on the syllabus, whether or not it meets AP and national curriculum standards and a note if the book has been challenged locally or nationally.
It seems like a decent compromise — they aren't providing ratings, reasons for book challenges or any sort of other subjective information on the list, and this way parents concerned about content will have a litmus test ahead of time.
Of course, just because a reasonable compromise happens doesn't mean that everyone is finished worrying about what everyone else's kids are reading:
"We were happy with the solution, so long as it's kept in front of people," she said, expressing a concern that parents may glance at the book list and then discard it.
So what? You have your list! Use it and let everyone else use theirs as they see fit. Yeesh.
Ag.