John Green says library controversy over teen books is bad for business, students

As author John Green scrolled on social media one day in early August, he discovered his book, "The Fault in Our Stars" no longer resided on the Hamilton East Public Library's teen section shelf.

Green's books had been banned before, but this was in his home state. The discovery launched Green, along with several other authors, to publicly challenge the library board’s policy that led to their books being moved.

Green posted on X, sent a letter to the board and sought conversations with leadership in Fishers. He pushed for the library's board to return all the young adult books moved as a result of the policy. The board first decided to move TFIOS, as it is known, back to the Young Adult section and then last week at the monthly meeting suspended the policy all together.

But Green, who does not view himself as an important part to this story, said everything could have been prevented if the board had just listened to the experts from the beginning.

"We never would have been in this situation if the majority of the board had listened to librarians and their constituents," he said in an interview with the IndyStar. "There were people sounding the alarm about this long before I did. For whatever reason my sounding the alarm got a lot of attention."

During the HEPL board's Aug. 24 meeting board members picked apart Green's book. One, Ray Maddalone, even read the book's lone sex scene aloud to make a point about how it did not violate the policy.

What happened last week?: Library staff have been reviewing and reshelving books for months. Now the policy is suspended.

Ultimately last week, board members paused the collection development policy as pressure built outside the library’s walls.

"I really dislike having people read my work out of context or any work of fiction out of context," Green told IndyStar. "To read a single page from a 280-page book and claim that page can somehow exist outside of the context of the novel when it will only ever be read by teenagers inside the context of the novel is really troubling to me. That really upsets me."

IndyStar's Rachel Fradette sat down with the New York Times bestselling author, to talk about his work, recent news from the Hamilton East Public Library and what it means for public libraries across the country. His answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Ten years ago, Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars” was at its height of popularity and made into a film.

Question: What do you think the HEPL controversy says about where we are now?

“It's clear that something's changed, right? Because 10 million people read the book between 2013 and 2015. If they were exceptionally harmed or even minorly harmed by it, I think we would have seen that by now probably. I find the idea ludicrous. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of what books are and what books do and what they exist to do. I don't think fiction is primarily in the business of establishing a set of ethics one way or another. I think it's more in the business of exploring values and exploring our profound interdependence upon each other.

My own personal feeling is that books should make the argument that humanity is good news and that chief among that good news is that the people who we've treated as outside or lesser, should no longer be treated that way. If that's like having a moral mission, then I suppose that my books do and a lot of the books that I love do, but I don't think that books are there to tell you when or whether to have sex.”

Question: What did you think of the HEPL board meeting last week? Your book came under scrutiny.

“What's important to me is that librarians are able to keep their jobs and do their jobs and it seemed like a step in that direction. It's not the end of that journey, but it seemed like a significant step in that direction. I think that's good news. I remain concerned about the overall tenor of these conversations. It's really hard to do your job as a teacher or a librarian when a significant minority of people are accusing you of abusing children because of the books that you're shelving. It's unfair and it's inaccurate. I'm quite confident that my books are not pornography, but I'm also very confident that many of the books on that list are not pornography because I've read them.”

Question: Has this whole situation hurt you because you're here in Indiana or is it giving you a sense of ownership?

“No, it's definitely been a bummer. It's definitely been a discouragement.”

Question: Looking to the future, what might this generation lose in this tug of war over where books belong?

"There’s so much that’s potentially lost. There is a chilling effect that accompanies this level of book banning that we’re seeing in the United States today. It makes it harder to reach young readers on every imaginable level."

Question: What do you say to the people that don't view this as censorship?

“Making a book harder to read is a form of attempting to censor it. If they're (the HEPL Board) not making books harder to read, I don't understand what they're spending $300,000 on. Part of the surreality of this is if your definition of censorship is make impossible to read, then as long as there's an internet the books can't be censored or banned, because if you Google “Looking for Alaska” PDF, the very first link is to a full and complete copy of “Looking for Alaska” that's available for anyone to read for free. Now, it's illegal, but it's available.”

Question: Are you noticing this targeting your colleagues?

“As challenging as it's been for me, it's been so much worse for some of my friends and colleagues who are YA authors, especially queer people, women, people of color. The vitriol is extraordinary. Sometimes, I feel like they only include me on those lists to say ‘Look, we also go after white guys’”.

Question: How do you feel about this happening in your backyard in a state you often defend?

“I love Indianapolis. I love Central Indiana. And I love Fishers ... I really want people outside of Indiana to see the Indiana I see ... One of the points I tried to make in my initial letter because I understand the priorities of the government in a town like Fishers is that this is really bad for business. It's really bad for students. It's really bad for everything that you're trying to celebrate about what makes Central Indiana cool.”

Rachel Fradette is a suburban education reporter at IndyStar. Contact her at rfradette@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter at @Rachel_Fradette.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: John Green on Hamilton East Public Library moving ‘The Fault in Our Stars'