Standing at his podium, Colonel Patrick McCormick observes his class reading and completing their assignment, he scans the rows of students reading Fight of Flight when he notices a young lady reading something different.

“I went over and took it from her so that she could get back on task,” McCormack said. “The Golden Hustla [the name of the book] by Wahida Clark, I was curious about what she was reading because I had seen people reading these kinds of books before. I ended up reading a little from the books and was surprised by how vulgar the book was.”

This style of book, popular with Washington High School girls, is known as Urban Fiction. According to blackbooksdirect.com, “It doesn't matter whether you call it urban fiction, hip-hop fiction, ghetto lit or gangster lit, this genre has had a profound impact on publishing similar to the way that rap music did in its early days. What is significant is that a new audience for books has evolved. The material may be crude or harsh, but many find it to be true to the experience that it depicts.”  

Girls from middle school to high school are reading books from this genre, devouring one book and going onto the next quickly. Titles like Payback Is A Mutha, Justify My Thug and Payback with Ya Life along with book covers showing woman in sexy lingerie provocatively posed has caught teacher attention.

“Questioning the student I asked her if her mother knew what she was reading. She said ‘yes she knows,” McCormack said. “I asked ‘where did you get this book, did your parents check it out for you?’ She responded ‘no I checked it out from the library.’ I had heard that girls could check these kind of books out themselves.”

This led McCormack to investigate into how young ladies could get access to books that he called ‘bad taste’.

According to the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library Access to Library Materials Policy .3.1 Restrictions by Parent/Legal Guardian. Parents or legal guardians who desire that their child be limited to borrowing materials from only the children’s collection shall designate such restriction on the application. This is only for children 11 years and younger.

Linda Bowman a librarian at the West Wyandotte Public Library in charge of the Young Adult Youth Services said, “It depends on what card you have, but restricted or not starting at the age of 12 you can check out everything in any section of the library with the exception of movies. The library does have restricted cards that parents can choose to limit children to only children books that means they wouldn’t even have access to Young Adult books.”

Due to a friends recommendation, freshman Davion Carter read the book Thug Lovin’ by Wahida Clark. “My friend had the book at the beginning of this year, and I asked her if I could read it and she said yes. She liked it a lot and even wrote a book report on it for class saying it was a good book. So I borrowed it and read it.”

Most media is regulated by a rating system that notifies the parent that adult content exists. Movies and video games are rated with an age appropriate rating. Albums have parental advisory stickers. Even television shows warn if adult content is present.

“I suggested that they [the library] put rating on books so that parents can know that this is an adult audience book,” McCormack said. “We know more about our video games, than books like this. A book like this would probably have stuff [referring to the sex, drug use, language and violence] that a child, by definition under 18, should not be able to check out for the library.”

Some students agree that books should be rated.

“Some of the books are to graphic and give too much detail,” said Evelyn Castel, sophomore. “They should rate books like the movies so that you know what to expect. I don’t want to know all those kind of things.”

Rating books is against library policy.

“Rating books would be too subjective and is against all policies that the library follows,” Bowman said. “It is against the First Amendment Rights and the Library Bill of Rights.”

The American Library Association [ALA] created the Library Bill of Rights. The ALA affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas.

The first policy of the Library Bill of Rights states that libraries are places of information and that their job is to make sure that people of the community no matter what age have access to books that will help them with what they want to know.

“When kids come to us and ask for books on a certain subject, we [librarians] will try to give them an age/mature appropriate level,” Bowman said. “If someone comes and asks for a specific author or title we [librarians] will take them to it.”

The fifth policy of the Library Bill of Rights states that books and material cannot be labeled or determined by anyone as to what is good or bad for all citizens. It is up to individuals to make the decisions as to what they feel is right or wrong for themselves to read or check out.

“It is up to parents to monitor what they feel their child/children should or shouldn’t read. If a parent is concerned it is up to them to be more aware of what the child is reading,” Laura Loveless, Branch Manager of the West Wyandotte Library said. “It is our job to provide the community with a good, diverse collection of materials. It is up to parents to decided if they want their kids to read that book or not, we cannot decided what would be appropriate for every child.”

English teacher, Miles Azzeh agreed that the rating system was not necessary.

“I don’t think erotic novels are on the same level as pornography,” Azzeh said flipping through the book ‘Til Death: A Novel by Miacha reading a few sentences here and there. “I hate that their reading it, but hopefully it will open them up to other books.”

Some teacher’s focus on the fact that students are reading and aren’t concerned with what they are reading.

“At the high school level there should be a pretty high level of student autonomy of what they choose to read,” said Cameron Bond, English teacher leader. “It’s not great literature by any means but that doesn’t mean you can’t read it. If you want to read it, then read it. That is great, if a book can get you to start reading then hopefully you will grow from there.”

Bond is not alone in his opinion.

“As an English teacher if it instills the love of reading I would rather have them read a book and learn,” said Azzeh. “Than have them go watch a crazy movie and see the same things.”

According to Bond instructional time is important, but what a student chooses to read during silent reading time is up to the student. 

“When a teacher is instructing a student shouldn’t be reading a novel like that or any novel for that matter,” Bond said. “If it was silent reading in the class and the student was reading something that was adult nature, as long as it was not impeding the class then they would be fine reading it.”

A disruption to class is the only time Bond would worry about the content of a student’s book.

“If the book had a pornographic cover or students were reading it out loud and the material is clearly sexual and is causing a problem then there is probably room for a conversation,” Bond said. “If it weren’t being read during lecture or causing a problem I wouldn’t engage in it.”

According to Carter if the teacher doesn’t want the book read in the classroom, just ask the student to put it away.

“I respect my teachers,” Carter said. “So if they don’t want me reading the book in their class, I respect their opinion. It is their classroom and I have time to read it out of the class if that is really what I want to do.”

Most students understand that the books they are reading are not for everyone.

“Some kids my age don’t understand or are not at the same maturity level,” Carter said. “They take the books the wrong way. They pass it around the classroom like ‘ahhhh look at this, look here read this.’ It depends on the person because some have not reached that maturity level yet.”

According to senior Miesha Piggee, another student caught reading an urban fiction book in McCormack’s class, teen girls are attracted to the books content because it’s “real”.

“I think some people underestimate younger people because they don’t think that we could possibly know what was going on inside the book,” Carter said. “We do know what’s going on inside the books, we read the books and understand because we see it on TV and in real life.”

For Carter, the sex scenes aren’t the main focus of the books.

“Some of the sex scenes don’t go in full fledge details, they say it and move on from it. When they do kind of go into a little bit more detail, I’m like ok moving on and just read past it,” Carter said. “I don’t pay attention to it. Teenagers understand it because some of them do have sex. I understand why a parent would be a little shocked and not even want a teen to read that because they don’t want them to get ideas. But we are around it so the idea is already there and if it is that’s not because some book put it there.”

For other students the interaction between characters teaches them about relationships.

“I like these books because they give you more information than you would think,” said Yessica Carmona, junior. “You learn more than just the sexual stuff. You see the cause and effect of other people’s lives. Information that shows you how to prevent certain things from happening to you, seeing how characters deal with a situation can help you.”

Without a rating system for books, parents must be active in knowing what their children are reading.

“I just think parents should be aware of what their children are being exposed to just like in movies,” McCormack said.

If parents are interested in finding more out about what their children are reading they can review the books on Amazon.

Also, websites like Common Sense Media offer media reviews, including books.

“As a parent I have used Common Sense Media to see what movies are about for my children,” Bowman said. “All I say is to form your own opinion on if you think this is a book your kid should or shouldn’t read. Most kids know what they can and can’t handle because their parents have taught them. Kids know what they are ok with, talk to them about it.”

According to library policy, students are free to read what they want.

“A Public Library is built on the First Amendment. You have the right to read what you want and I have the right to read what I want,” Loveless said. “I don’t care what you’re reading, I just want you to read. If we can hook kids up with books on topics they like or want to read about and they find that love of reading then I have done my job.”