MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – From books about Halloween to sports - for the Allbritton family, going to the library is a tradition.
“We love coming to the library; tons of books, tons to choose from,” Krystal Allbritton said.
Soon, bookshelves at all seven Montgomery County libraries will look a little different after county commissioners voted unanimously to prevent people under 18 from checking out books considered explicit or questionable.
At a July 11 meeting, they also voted to group children’s book into like-minded themes and add more conservative books to its collections.
“If I can look at it, review it, then I’d be okay with it, but it’s good to have an extra level of security for our kids,” Allbritton said.
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However, some have questions.
“That’s my concern on who is determining what is questionable and what is explicit,” Teresa Kenney said.
Kenney is the owner of Village Books. She says it could mean a slippery slope for access to diverse reads.
“If you can’t go the library and pull out a book that someone else your age is reading because somebody else has defined it by their own rating system to be questionable, that’s who it hurts,” she said. “It hurts the kids and families who cannot afford to buy the books themselves.”
KPRC 2 reached out to county commissioners for more context on what’s considered explicit and questionable but didn’t hear back.