The Willow Glen Resident

Tough Decision: A committee had to review 'Crazy Lady' to see if it was an appropriate book for San Jose Unified School District's elementary school curriculum.

S.J. Unified District will keep disputed book in elementary curriculum

Any parent can request child read substitute

By Cecily Barnes

In Jane Leslie Conly's bookCrazy Lady, Vernon, a sixth-grade boy living in a poor neighborhood, makes friends with an unusual family and learns some important, complex lessons. Vernon comes from a large family without a mother, and his neighbor, Ronald, is mentally retarded and has an alcoholic mother. Called the "crazy lady" throughout town, Ronald's mother suffers from violent mood swings that take her from an intelligent, caring woman to a mean and belligerent drunk. The boys' friendship is prematurely severed when a social worker forces Ronald to leave his mother and live with relatives in a faraway town.

Conly writes the story with descriptive language and realistic, sometimes profane, dialogue. The book earned a Newbery Honor for excellent children's literature.

The San Jose Unified School District board voted Dec. 11 to allow teachers to continue assigning Crazy Lady in district elementary schools, with the stipulation that parents would be notified in advance that the curriculum included a book with some profanities.

"Any parent can ask that their child not read a book and have a substitute book selected for them," said Danielle Wheatley, the young adult librarian at the Rose Garden Library and a member of the oversight committee the district assembled to look into the appropriateness of Crazy Lady.

Two months ago, a fifth-grade teacher at Terrell School assigned Crazy Lady as supplemental reading for her class. According to San Jose Unified spokeswoman Maureen Munroe, the teacher, who had a child with Down's syndrome in her class, thought the book would be helpful since it told of a friendship between a retarded boy and a healthy child. The teacher held a meeting to inform parents about the book, but one parent who did not attend later challenged the book as inappropriate, Munroe said.

"There was a mother who was not at the meeting, and when the child brought home the book, she objected to it strongly," Munroe said. "She said the book was pornography."

Approximately five times in the book words such as "damn," "hell," and "bitch" are used. However the award-winning book comes highly recommended by many teachers. While members of the book oversight committee agreed children should not be taught swear words, they also agree the book was extremely valuable.

"Teachers came in and told us what they thought the book's value was for their fifth-grade class, and the person who challenged the book came in and told us what she found offensive and why she didn't want her daughter reading it," Wheatley said. "We decided, that, yeah, it was all right, but it would be good for parents to know.'"

"It's not the kind of language we're encouraging students to use, but in the real world this is the kind of language children hear all the time," school board member Rich Garcia said. "Our committee thought the overall value of the book, the lessons in the book are greater than some of the questionable language. It promoted understanding, empathy and concern. Those are some values that, if we can instill in our children, we'll be much better off, and our schools will be much better off."

Three copies of Crazy Lady occupy the shelves at Willow Glen Library, but none are available at Willow Glen, Schallenberger, River Glen or Booksin elementary schools. Librarians at the elementary schools say they did not specifically reject the book from their shelves; it was just never presented. If it were, librarians say they would review it and decide if it is appropriate.

"We do not happen to have that book on our shelves, but we very possibly could. It just so happens that we don't," said Nancy Messinger, Willow Glen Elementary School's librarian. "I thought it was a good story, and it would lend itself to some wonderful class discussions, but I can see that there were some things in the book that parents might question."

According to Kathy Boyd, the children's librarian at the Willow Glen Library, that branch included the book in its collection since it was awarded a Newbery Honor.

"It was reviewed for third- to sixth-grade books in School Library Journal , and it is a Newbery Honor book," Boyd said. "Those are traditionally the ones we put it in that section."

In the past five years, San Jose Unified has not pulled any books from the classroom or libraries, spokeswoman Munroe said. Once at Schallenberger Elementary School, librarian Jill Prober handed over the school's copies of Jacob Have I Loved to the middle schools, deciding its subject matter was more appropriate for that age group.

"I took it home and read the book, and after reading it I agreed it was more appropriate for a middle school," Prober said. "A young girl makes friends with an older man, and there is some indication that there might be something going on between them, but it is really just a book about friendship and caring."

School librarians, teachers and parents all spoke tentatively and nervously about Crazy Lady and the larger issue of which books should be excluded from the school curriculum.

"Anytime you get into censoring or banning books, you're really treading on some sensitive areas of free speech," board member Carol Myers said. "We don't want to offend anyone."

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