The Boone County School Board voted unanimously Thursday night to keep a book on the shelves at a Union elementary school after a parent said the book was harmful to minors and requested it be removed from the library.
The book, called “Endlessly Ever After,” allows readers to choose their own adventure.
Longbranch Elementary School parent Amy Yates, who filed the complaint, said the book promotes sexual contact for a small child to kiss an adult, “which is pedophilia.”
Amid a packed house, roughly 16 people who spoke during the public comment section favored keeping the book on the shelves.
In the end, board members said they did not consider the book to be harmful to minors according to the Kentucky Revised Statute, which Yates cited in the initial complaint.
Longbranch Elementary School librarian Chantel March spoke at the meeting in support of the book. March has been a school librarian for 18 years, three of which have been at Boone County Schools.
March said she ordered the book because it was nominated for a Kentucky Bluegrass Award for grades three through five. She said students were instantly engaged and intrigued by the idea that they could interact with the story to determine how it ended.
“The pages in question are being made into something they’re not,” March said. “The definition of being harmful to minors is not met in any way within these pages.”
Yates also spoke at the meeting.
“While I was given the opportunity to put this book on a do not check out list for my daughter other parents are not aware that their children are reading this book,” Yates said. “Most library books that are checked out at the school library are read at school without a parent knowing its contents.”
Her issue with the book came from a page where the reader comes across “a gentle maiden” whose “lips are waiting for a kiss.”
The page continues, “Now what, Rosie? Are you really going to kiss some strange sleeping woman in a frozen castle covered with roses? Seriously?”
The reader then must decide what to do. The options in the book are, “Yes, life’s an adventure!” or “No, ew! Of course not. Kissing’s for teenagers.”
In the initial complaint Yates submitted to the principal of Longbranch Elementary School on Dec. 1, 2023, Yates said the principal concluded that the book was not harmful to minors as defined in the KRS statute because “the act of kissing is not inherently sexual” and, therefore, she did not believe it falls under the definition.
The complaint was escalated to the school board, which, in the end, agreed with the school principal.
North Pointe Elementary School fifth-grade student Mandy Wolfe spoke as an elected student council member to represent the voice of the school. She questioned why the school board would consider banning the book.
“Why would you ever consider banning this book?” Wolfe said. “Is it because Little Red Riding Hood kisses a princess? Is it because of the ages? Is it because the audience is elementary school? We are living in 2024. This is a time when the era of book banning has long since passed. The embracing of diversity and inclusion are at the core of our value system.”
None of the board members commented on the matter, but Boone County Schools Superintendent Matthew Turner did.
“I just want to reassure our district parents that we take the selection of books that are included in our school libraries very, very seriously,” Turner said. “We select books of the highest literary and artistic quality that enrich what has been taught in the school curriculum and support the personal and varied interests of our students.
“Parents, if at any time you have questions or concerns about what your child is reading in school, please reach out to your child’s teacher or your school principal to start a conversation so that we may reach a common understanding of our students and family’s needs.”