GREENVILLE ONLINE
Lyn Riddle | January 3, 2013

Beverly James is a diminutive woman with a soft voice and a kind face.

In a wool suit, nicely accessorized, sitting in the boardroom of the Hughes Main Library, she looks every bit the librarian she is.

She’s also a woman who is standing up to a national backlash among organizations that fight book banning and from fans of award-winning author Alan Moore, who say her decision to take his graphic novel out of circulation at the Greenville County Library is nothing short of censorship.

Read on…

LA TIMES
Carolyn Kellogg | December 6, 2012

There was a reason Alan Moore’s “Neonomicon” was shelved in the adult section of the library in Greenville County, South Carolina: It contains adult content. And it was checked out with an adult library card — but that adult library card was in the hands of a 14-year-old girl.

When the girl asked her mother about an unfamiliar word she found in “Neonomicon,” the trouble started. The mother, Carrie Gaske, filed an official challenge against the graphic novel in June. An official decision has now been made to ban it from the library.

Read on…

Original NDLA IF Blog posting

THE INQUISITR
James Johnson | June 18, 2012

The Greenville Public Library Board of Trustees have come under fire from The National Coalition Against Censorship, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund after the board decided to hear a challenge regarding Alan Moore’s Neocomicon (Avatar).

The book which has come under challenge in Greenville, SC public libraries contains sexual acts and language for which one parent issued a challenge.

In a statement regarding the possible removal of the book a letter sent to the Library Board of Trustees reads:
“Removing the book because of sexual content not only fails to consider the indisputable value of the book as a whole, but also ignores the library’s obligation to serve all readers, without regards to individual tastes and sensibilities.”

A patron objected to the book after their teenage daughter checked it out of the library’s adult section. The teenage girl however was given an adult library card which ultimately allowed her to check out adult themed books.

The groups opposing the challenge warn that the books removal could lead to First Amendment implications.

Alan Moore is the acclaimed author of the graphic novels Watchmen and V for Vendetta both of which have been turned into Hollywood action movies.

The groups opposing the challenge call Mr. Moore “one of the most influential and acclaimed authors in both the graphic novel category and the larger literary culture.”

The book Neonomicon is being called an “essential work by an author who is indisputably a master within his field.”

AIKEN STANDARD
Rob Novit | March 16, 2012

In addition to a science fiction novel, a Schofield Middle School teacher now on administrative leave allegedly read excerpts from an Agatha Christie novel and a young adult novel set in the Old West, officials said.

The mother of a 14-year-old student filed a police report with the Aiken Department of Public Safety saying a book read in class contained material that she and her son described as pornographic. School officials have said that two books may have subject matter and swear words that may not have been age-appropriate.

It was not immediately clear if the teacher read the material from printed books or from an e-reader.

School officials are cooperating with the Aiken Public Safety in an ongoing investigation, said School Board attorney Bill Burkhalter.

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