At its July 22 meeting, the Lyon County Library Board of Trustees denied an appeal from a
Dayton resident asking for a book to be removed from the library collection.
Dayton resident Fred Schroeder had filed a Request for Reconsideration for the book ‘Me and
Earl and the Dying Girl’ by Jesse Andrews. After Lyon County Library Director Wynne Prindle
decided that the book meets the requirements of the Library’s Collection Development Policy
and should be retained in the Young Adult Fiction section of the library, Schroeder filed an
appeal of Prindle’s decision to the Library Board.
‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’ is a popular young adult novel published in 2012 about an
awkward high school senior whose mother insists he befriend a girl with leukemia. The boy and
his friend make a film for the girl. The book has been challenged in school and public libraries
across the country in recent years because of concern about sexually explicit content and vulgar
language.
In his Request for Reconsideration, Schroeder objected to what he called “sexually explicit
dialogue and pervasively vulgar references” on 13 different pages.
“Due to the vulgar language and sexually explicit nature of much dialogue, I desire to have it
removed from the library catalog, so children and young adults won’t be exposed to it,”
Schroeder wrote.
In his testimony at the July 22 meeting, Schroeder said the book targets children and young
adults by creating a funny high school story.
“Why is it necessary to have all this vulgarity and sexual language?” he asked. “It obviously
targets our children and young adults. That’s my opinion of why it’s there.”
Library Board member Patti Palmer suggested putting the book into a higher age range, where it
wasn’t available for 14- and 15-year olds to read.
Prindle said the library categories are easy, juvenile, young adult and adult, and young adult is
ages 14 and older.
“To be frank, though, younger kids don’t go in that section,” she said.
Trustee Jan Schardt said when a child or young adult has a library card, their parent has to sign
for it and it’s their responsibility to monitor what their children read or watch.
“So, I think that really, this is a moot point because of that,” she said.
Schardt’s motion to retain the book in the collection passed unanimously.
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