Comic Artist at Center of Library Battle
Not many works on the American Library Association’s list of frequently challenged books — a distinguished roster including “The Great Gatsby,” “Catcher in the Rye,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Beloved” — include cartoons. But “Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics From an Unpleasant Age”, an acclaimed compilation whose clear-eyed, candid cartoons confront adolescent traumas, is at the center of a battle between a Maine parent and her local school board, the state’s Sun-Journal newspaper reported this week.
“There’s sexual content and foul language. I want the correct approach to this book. (Having it in the library) is a very lazy way to teach criminal behavior,” said Becky Patterson, the parent who objected to the book’s availability in the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School library. “It’s very demoralizing to little girls.”
The book’s editor, Eisner-nominated cartoonist Ariel Schrag, is one of 18 artists featured in the Yeshiva University Museum exhibit “Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women”, which I curated and the Forward is sponsoring.
“I’ve received many e-mails from both adults and teens whom the book really resonated with. One mom told me that her pre-teen son always asked to read ‘Stuck in the Middle’ for his bedtime reading. A lot of pre-teens especially relate to Eric Enright’s piece, ‘ANXIETY,’ about depression and alienation,” Schrag told the Forward.
Booklist, in a starred review, hailed “Stuck in the Middle” as an “honest, acutely perceptive compendium” whose comics “hit the mark in terms of emotional content.” Its contributors include award-winning cartoonists Daniel Clowes, Joe Matt and Lauren Weinstein, another “Graphic Details” artist.
In a statement to the Sun-Journal, Schrag said, “My intent in editing this book was to help children who may be experiencing some of the things the characters in the book experience — bullying, rejection, acne, depression, etc. — to feel less alone… In terms of foul language, sexual content, and teen smoking in this book, all the authors strove to present teens and pre-teens in a realistic light.” Schrag also told the paper she’s aware of two other challenges to the book, both in North Dakota.
While the Buckfield school board will issue a final ruling on January 9, a committee charged with reviewing the situation this week “recommended to the RSU 10 board Monday night that the book remain in the library. A student may take it out with parental permission,” the Sun-Journal said.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
