Old Lyme library facing calls to ban two sex-ed books from teen section

A group of citizens has asked the Old Lyme public library to remove two adolescent-focused sex-education books from the library’s tween-teen section, Director Katie Huffman has confirmed.

The books, both graphic nonfiction, are “Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships and Being a Human” by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan and “You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender, Puberty and Other Things” by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth.

A letter, signed by 23 citizens of the town, was sent to the Old Lyme-Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library on May 25. The letter references “You Know, Sex.”

It reads: “In recent years, we have observed that the books the library carries have become increasingly focused on sex and sexual identity. There are topics (and often visuals) designed for far more mature audiences than youth and even teens … and yet they’re packaged with bright colors and sometimes cartoon styles.”

A second letter, signed by 135 citizens of Old Lyme and Lyme and sent to the library June 16, called to remove both books from the young adult shelves.

“One of the outstanding aspects of the (library), given its close proximity and close affiliation with Region 18 schools, is the ability for middle and high school students to visit the library independently after school and at other times,” the letter reads. “We do not believe that this material is in any way sex education and it is unbecoming of our community values.”

Region 18 schools serve students from both Old Lyme and Lyme.

The second letter states “We ask that you reconsider your decision on this book and its availability to children ages 11-19. If it is determined to be inappropriate, we request a proper review of the materials in the teen-tween room in hopes that no other content like this is available in that space.”

Signatories

Steve Spooner, a member of the Old Lyme Republican Town Committee, identifies himself on the second letter as the “lead organizer” of the effort to remove the books from the young-adult shelves.

Voicemails and emails left for Spooner were not returned.

Among the signatories on the second letter are Selectman Matthew Ward, Board of Finance Chair J. David Kelsey, Board of Finance member Maria Marchant, school board members Mary Powell St. Louis and Christopher Staab and library board trustee Tara Ward.

Kelsey has been a major library benefactor “for many, many years,” Huffman said. She declined to specify how much Kelsey has donated. Kelsey also was the subject of a CT Mirror article last election season, which reported that he contributed $2.2 million in the effort to unseat Gov. Ned Lamont.

Library reaction

On Friday, the library posted a notice on its website: oldlymelibrary.org:

“The Board of Trustees are currently reviewing these titles per the library’s collection development policy and established process. In the meantime, these titles will remain in circulation and are available to request via the library’s catalog.”

The board will meet on July 11 to discuss the issue, Huffman said.

The library has one copy of each of the books, she said.

In an interview on Monday, Huffman said over the last several years, people have made comments about some of the library’s content.

“This didn’t come as a huge surprise, with what is happening nationally, people looking at their libraries locally and assessing the collections and the content provided,” she said. “We weren’t expecting the letters necessarily but we weren’t surprised.”

Huffman said she also was not surprised that many of the signatories are not residents of Old Lyme, but of Lyme.

“We have a well-established group of Lyme residents who regularly use our library. Where it is located is geographically convenient for many of them,” she said. “Many Lyme residents consider this their primary library, especially because their kids are in the school system and they come here to pick up their kids after school.”

Book ban attempts

“Let’s Talk About It” was the target of a campaign to restrict access in Fairfield last fall. The town library’s board of trustees voted unanimously in October to keep it on the shelves in the teen section, with no access restrictions.

Fairfield Library Director Scott Jarzombek said the ad-hoc committee empaneled to deal with the book-ban request was swayed by public opinion.

“There was public support for not just the book but for the staff,” Jarzombek said. “Librarians are trained professionals. They have degrees in information science. There are policies they follow. We were pleasantly surprised by the support people had for the material and for the policies but more importantly for understanding the expertise of the staff.”

A review published last year in the New York Times called “You Know, Sex “an important book, and not only for the breadth of issues it covers. Silverberg portrays adolescence with tremendous honesty, and demonstrates a clear love for young readers.”

This spring in Newtown, the books “Flamer” by Mike Curato and “Blankets” by Craig Thompson were the focus of an attempted ban from the high school library. The effort sparked weeks of contentious debate, which prompted two school board members to resign. Seeing overwhelming public support for the books, the board of education voted unanimously June 1 to keep them on the shelves. That vote came with the condition that parents could ask the library to restrict access to their own children.

Attempts to ban books are spiking nationwide. According to the American Library Association, there were 1,269 attempted book bans in 2022, up from 729 in 2021. Books on LGBTQ subjects, and with nonwhite protagonists, are particularly targeted by those who want to ban books.

“We live in interesting times for librarians. It’s not fun,” Jarzombek said.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.