By Delayna Earley
The Island News
OKATIE – Seven books will be returning to Beaufort County School District (BCSD) library shelves and one book, Identical by Ellen Hopkins, will be going back into the book review process due to a tie vote following the book review committee meeting on Thursday, May 11, 2023, at Okatie Elementary School.
The committees reviewed eight books in total on Thursday night – Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher, Fade by Lisa McMann, Fallout by Ellen Hopkins, Foul is Fair / Golden Boys Beware by Hanna Capin, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero, Identical by Ellen Hopkins, Push by Sapphire and Tricks by Ellen Hopkins.
Four books, Almost Perfect, Fade, Fallout and Tricks were previously available to students in Grades 6 through 12. Of those books, Fallout by Ellen Hopkins will be returned to circulation without any additional restrictions, whereas the other three books will be returned to library circulation for Grades 9 through 12 only.
Ryan Copeland, librarian at Battery Creek High School, participated in the committee tasked with reading and deciding on Tricks, and he said that there were differing opinions in his review group but followed that by saying that it is OK to have differing opinions because “that is the process.”
“The book was not a happy story, more like a cautionary tale,” Copeland said about the book, “But you have to get the context of it.”
Genie Brainerd, a school improvement council member who has participated on three different book review committees, said that she felt misled by Almost Perfect, the book her committee reviewed. Brainerd, who described herself as being more conservative but against book bans, said she does feel that the committees that she has been a part of have been respectful.
“Up until this book, every book that I’ve read that has been questioned, I just was like, why?” Brainerd said. “But with this book, there is some uncomfortable stuff in there. You know, as a parent of young children, how much of my kid’s innocence do I want to be lost early, but when they get to high school – it’s a little bit of an evolving story.”
The other four books, Foul is Fair / Golden Boys Beware, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, Identical and Push were all originally available for Grades 9 through 12, and all but Identical have been returned to those grade levels.
Of the 97 books that were originally removed from BCSD libraries, 54 have gone through the review process. Of those, three books have been removed from school district shelves – It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult and The Haters by Jessie Andrews – and one book – Identical by Ellen Hopkins – will be returning to the review process due to a split vote.
There are still 44 books that need to go through the review process, including the book that is being re-reviewed.
The review process, which has so far taken eight months, will continue into the summer according to BCSD spokesperson Candace Bruder. Review committees will meet twice during the school district’s summer break, but those dates have not been finalized.
As for the book that is being re-reviewed, Bruder said that a new committee will be selected through “randomized computer-generated process,” just like the other book committees are, and a re-review date has not yet been determined.
Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She spent six years as a videographer and photographer for The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette before leaving the Lowcountry in 2018. After freelancing in Myrtle Beach and Virginia, she joined The Island News when she moved back to Beaufort in 2022. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com
