There were a lot of books and magazines on the shelves of the elementary school library when I was growing up, but not everything was age-appropriate.
The elementary school was for children from Kindergarten to Grade 6, and while it had an array of reading materials for all reading levels, there were also some adult-level books on the shelves.
One I remember was a book about building and racing hot rods.
I found this book when I was in Grade 3 or Grade 4, and I signed it out of the library.
There were some cool pictures of cars which had been rebuilt and designed for performance, and a lot of us would comment about those images.
The book also had some technical information about how to modify an engine to get better performance, more power and more speed — concepts far beyond what any of us knew at that time.
I was probably around eight years old when I saw this book. If I had taken this information and tried to do performance upgrades to the family car, it would not have ended well.
Still, there was no push back when I signed this book from the school library.
There were other works as well, including novels written for an adult audience and books offering an introduction to art, with nude images. They were on the shelves at the elementary school library, available for anyone.
It was much the same at the public library, a couple of blocks from the school. I could read anything I wanted.
One of the books I signed out, probably when I was in Grade 4, was How to Lie with Statistics, by Darrell Huff. This is a short book, written by a journalist, about how statistics can be manipulated.
While it was written for an adult-level audience, and while it dealt with subject material we had not yet learned, I was able to read it and learn a few things. This one is still worth reading today.
I also remember selecting other adult-level nonfiction at the school library, on topics as diverse as airplane hijacking, energy technology, astronomy, planets and evolution.
My reading also included a lot of fiction, at a variety of reading levels. I remember the Hardy Boys series, juvenile science fiction, mystery novels, religious fiction written for teens and more. And I was also reading a lot of adult-level books.
The librarians may have said, “Happy reading,” as I checked out my selections, but not once did any of them — at the school library or at the public library — tell me I shouldn’t be reading specific titles.
And not once were my parents contacted because of concerns about the books I had signed out. I could read what I wanted.
Why does this matter?
Today, there are some efforts to restrict the titles available to younger readers.
Alberta’s education minister is working to bring in rules to ensure only age-appropriate books are available in school libraries.
The minister raised concerns because of four coming-of-age graphic novels, dealing with LGBTQ+ themes.
In British Columbia, there have been plenty of challenges of books on the shelves at school libraries and public libraries. At times, there have been calls that certain titles remain available, but hidden from view, or that parents be informed of their children’s reading choices.
And across Canada, the number of challenges of books at libraries has been increasing in recent years. Often, books about sexuality are targeted.
My love of reading developed in part because I had the freedom to read what I wanted. If that freedom is removed or reduced, the next generations might not gain the same love of the written word.
John Arendt is the editor of the Summerland Review.
