Illinois board agrees to reinstate banned book to junior high

The Glen Ellyn (Ill.) Elementary District 41 school board has voted 6-1 to overturn a decision by the previous board that forced a junior high to remove copies of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" from eighth-grade literacy classrooms. The Daily Herald says that the book had been taken out of circulation at Hadley Junior High School earlier this year over concerns about sexually explicit content and language. The board was persuaded to reinstate the book after district administrators said they would revise a parental notification letter sent at the start of every school year to make clear to parents that their children might be getting access to mature content in classroom libraries. The push to reinstate the book was aided by a group of students that sought out children's author Judy Blume last weekend at a book festival in Chicago. Blume recorded a video asking the Glen Ellyn board to "keep the book alive."