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Woonsocket, Rhode Island: Public Library Returns Challenged Book to Shelves
December 15, 2005
UPDATE: Woonsocket Public Library has decided to return It Stops With Me to its shelves. PEN USA would like to thank everyone who wrote letters of appeal in support of Charleen Touchette’s book and freedom of expression.
Story Continued...
PEN USA is deeply concerned that the Woonsocket Public Library Trustees are considering a request to ban It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl written by native Woonsocket author-artist Charleen Touchette. It is a story of survival and triumph as a victim of childhood abuse and was written for an adult audience.
A citizen request to ban the book was made at the Library Trustees’ September meeting. The Library Trustees removed the book from the Woonsocket Harris Public Library shelves after the September meeting pending a decision.
It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl, the latest work by author-artist Charleen Touchette, invites you into the provincial world of a French Canadian girl in Rhode Island who cannot tell anybody her family secrets. Years later when she has her first daughter she must relive her childhood to heal the future generations of her family.
Author Charleen Touchette is a member of the Author’s Guild, and a full member of PEN USA, advocates for the freedom to write worldwide. It Stops with Me has been praised by authors Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Randall, Ana Pacheco, and Winona LaDuke, and received a Foreword Book of the Year 2004 Finalist Award.
Stephen Rohde, a First Amendment lawyer and Chair of PEN USA’s Domestic Freedom to Write Committee said, “The First Amendment protects the spirit of free expression and open debate. It is tarnished when libraries elect to prevent access to books because of their own moral standards or what they think others might find offensive. If libraries decided what books to have based on political, social, religious, or other subjective standards - nothing controversial would make it to their shelves. And the American public would be the loser.”
Recommended Action:
Write to the Board of Trustees, urging them not to ban a critically acclaimed book from Woonsockets libraries, and condemning the censorship of books.
Woonsocket Harris Public Library Board of Trustees
Diane Rivers, Chair
Dorian Parker, Vice-Chair
Lisa Sparks, Secretary
John Pellizzari
Ernest “Buddy” DiSpirito
303 Clinton Street
Woonsocket, RI 02895-3214
Phone: 401-769-9044
Fax: 401-767-4140
Comments:
Woonsocket Public Library Director Leslie Page wrote TouchArt Books yesterday, December 21, 2005 that, “The challenge to “It Stops with Me” was withdrawn this afternoon. The book will remain part of the library’s collection.”
It is still unclear if that means “It Stops with Me” will be returned to library shelves where it will be accessible to readers.
TouchArt Books has asked for a clarification.