I was contacted by a newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania who told me Stolen Children was being challenged by a parent who thought it was too violent for elementary age students. I did an email interview with the reporter, and answered a few follow-up questions the next day.
One question was, “Has this book ever been challenged before?” I couldn’t remember for sure, so I looked in my files and learned that it had been challenged once before – in the same school! Last March, the school librarian defended Stolen Children at the School Board meeting when a parent filed a challenge. The Board voted to keep the book in the school library.
The reporter was as astonished as I am that this is happening again in the same school. I don’t know if it’s the same parent, but if it isn’t, it’s almost certainly her friend or relative.
I don’t get many complaints about my books and they are rarely formally challenged, so it upsets me when it happens. This time it will be interesting to see what transpires. I wonder how often a book is challenged more than once in the same school.