That’s incorrect.

maybe too adult for an 11 year old, but far from pornography

That said, I find it odd that people are fixated on the portrayals of sex and of Orlando’s gender changing.

The first thing that would have come to my mind as inappropriate for young people are the number of rapes and sexual assaults (both attempted and successful.) My feeling is that an eleven year old might be able cope with the sex scenes between Mina and Alan in Volume 2 (probably by skipping them) but the portrayal of rape might be difficult for a young reader not emotionally equipped to process it. Even the most mature of eleven year olds have a huge difficulty grasping irony and context: a kid might be able to process that Mina and Alan are having sex because they love each other, but that makes Griffin’s raping of the girls in the school, or Hyde’s rape of Griffin even more confusing to a kid.

I agree with arcee: in this sort of situation, i.e. dealing with other people’s children, it is best to act with caution. The point we also have to remember is that there are some stiff penalties for providing pornography to a minor, so if the librarians sincerely believed LOEG was pornographic (again, a proposition with which I disagree), then they would be understandably fearful of the repercussions of loaning the book out.

That said, the librarians, were they more graphic novel savvy, could have said, “This might be too grown up for you, but you might like Girl Genius!” which would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.

My opinion: I find it very disturbing that LEG is identified as pornographic by these employees. Adult themes and scenes, certainly. But pornographic is a bit of a stretch and I’m almost sure material of that nature, if it were in a public library’s inventory, would not be easily accessible to children.

It all feels like an over reaction on behalf of all parties but being a elementary school teacher myself, when dealing with another person’s child (and what is right and what is not) especially with potential legal action as a possibility, it is usually best (and safest) to follow regulations to the letter and when in doubt err on the side of caution.

Regardless of what one feels about the whole mess, that’s simply the reality of this type of situation.

On the other hand….a lot of parents don’t realize how graphic the content of comic books can be. I could see the story just as easily being ‘Librarians Fired for Giving Pornographic Material to Minor” after an angry call from some ignorant parent.

Either way, they were clearly in the wrong simply because it is not their place to decide what is and isn’t appropriate for ANYBODY to read.

So does a famous manga character when wet. It’s not an adult situation.

Most Libraries have two different card types that they issue. One for kids that will signify the limitations of what they can check out. And also an -Adult_ card that is for anyone and can be used to check out anything from the Library. The parents must sign a release before a child under the age of 15 (I think) can get certain material.

LOTG does have material that can be considered pornographic in some sense of the word.
There is Nudity and adult situations within every story.
there is also the character of Orlando who is a purely sexual character who switches between a man and a woman.

I would not let my kid read any of the LOTG books and I am pretty open to allowing people to explore and experience different things. But most of the subject matter from the stories is a bit deep for most kids.

Finally, while the parents should be the ultimate deciders of what thier child is exposed to, 90% of them couldn’t be bothered enough to get off of thier ass’s to see if something is appropriate for a young child or not.

Just look at the retail arm of the gaming Industry for proof of that. How many stores and employee’s faced legal action because some dumb assed parent bought thier seven year old a copy of GTA?

Actually, the second link posted says that many libraries across the country have similar policies.

However, I do have to throw this out there: Movie theaters are able to deny entry to a minor to a movie that features material that is considered “suggestive”. I’m not saying one if correct and the other is not, but I’d be curious what thoughts others may have on the dichotomy. One big difference, of course, is that there is a clear ratings system for films, that, while often illogical and arbitrary, does give an employee at a movie theater the authority to make that call.