Library 4 Kiddos Guidelines!

L4K Guidelines

Goal:

To make Reluctant Readers into Great Readers. To make Advanced Readers into Discerning Readers. 

Guidelines: 

Library 4 Littles

• For the Littles (ages 0-7), I will not recommend books with either text or pictures of any LGBTQ, occult, or mental health themes.

Library 4 Middles and Teens:

• Will recommend books that feature witches and wizards provided that the stories do not dive into the occult but are based on the elusive “magic.” (Think Narnia, LOTR, Chronicles of Prydain etc.). 
• For teens, I may recommend some titles that have occurrences of the occult *provided* it does not play a pivotal role in the plot and is shown as the evil it is. I will always go in detail about these plot lines so you can decide if it is something your teen should be reading. Feedback on specific titles is always welcome.
  
  
• According to Deuteronomy 18, what is considered an abomination to the Lord is divination, necromancers, calling people from the dead, in essence an attempt to be “divine,” or to have power over people, to have them do your will.
• Again, with teens I will probably be a little bit more lenient on this point but will let you know. 
  
  
• I’m of the same persuasion of Lewis and Tolkein in that it is important for children to be aware of the supernatural. In our postmodern, post Enlightenment era we tend to emphasize what we can see, touch, taste and hear as the only “real” thing. This takes away the reality of the supernatural. As such, I will be recommending books and series that have the elements of magic, and the supernatural. There is a theme running through new titles that deal with the occult (The Witch Boy, The Okay Witch etc). The biggest question I ask myself is: does this portray evil without contributing to it. We don’t want to put our children in a bubble but we also do not want to make wickedness look good. 
  
  
• There is also the theme of demons that is starting to show up in the Middle Grade age group. It is heavily featured in YA (young adult) and adult books where demons can be redeemed and are sometimes featured as protagonists or the love interest. I will not be recommending titles that have demons as redeemable protagonists or love interests for middle grade or young adult suggestions.
  

• LGBTQ Themes:
• I will not be recommending books for middle grade or teens that have main protagonists with homosexual crushes/relationships.
• I will consider recommending titles for middle graders that have very minor homosexual characters, provided they do not play any kind of pivotal role in the plot and are only mentioned in a paragraph or two.
• I may recommend titles for teens that have minor homosexual characters that play a bigger role in the plot provided there are no romantic scenes.
• I will not recommend books that have trans characters.

• Romance:
• I will recommend middle grade books (for ages 10-12, not 8-9) that have crushes in them, provided they do not go into detail about bodies or kissing.
• I will recommend teen books that have some kissing but no open door sex scenes.

• The point of L4K is not to shield children from certain aspects of the world but to be aware of what is in their literature and to discuss these things with them. If you need discussion questions or points, please email me and we can chat!
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• Diversity is important but it will be more about diversity of experiences, cultures and ideals, and less about skin color.

Unless specifically asked, I won’t read a whole series if the series is longer than three books. *For those series, I will do research and see if there seems to be anything questionable in it.