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‘The Fault in Our Stars’ by John Green might be repositioned in the young adult department of the Hamilton East Public Library

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Fishers, Indiana – It’s possible that “The Fault in Our Stars” will return to Hamilton East Public Library’s young adult section.

The book was taken out of the young adult section of the library as a result of “an error in the implementation of the Collection Development Policy,” according to a statement from HEPL Board President Laura Alerding.

Last week, the news that HEPL had decided to remove “The Fault in Our Stars” from their young adult section broke, garnering widespread media attention. John Green, a native of Indiana and the author of the novel, eventually commented on HEPL’s action on social media.

“This is ludicrous,” Green said after learning of the decision. “It is about teenagers and I wrote it for teenagers. Teenagers are not harmed by reading TFIOS. This is such an embarrassment…”

When the new Collection Development Policy went into effect, Green’s book was just one of numerous others that were taken out of the HEPL’s young adult department. The goal of the policy is to guarantee that young adult books include “age-appropriate” content.

“The Fault in Our Stars” depicts a teenage cancer patient and teenage cancer survivor falling in love and eventually losing their virginity to each other. The Collection Development Policy was designed to keep books containing sexual content from being placed in the young adult section of HEPL.

“Upon reviewing the page(s) of “The Fault in Our Stars” book that were the basis of the Director’s and review staff’s reason to move the book out of the Teen section, I believe there was an error in implementing the Collection Development Policy and that this book should be moved back to the Teen section immediately,” Alerding wrote in a prepared statement. “The Board of Trustees will discuss further what went wrong with the review process at the next public board meeting.”

The young adult section of the Hamilton Public Library had 1,385 titles removed as of Friday. The cost of the Collection Development Policy might reach $300,000 because the library needed to hire more employees to sift through the books already kept in the young adult department and determine whether information is “age appropriate.”

The Hamilton East Public Library has not provided any new details or updates regarding “The Fault in Our Stars” or its collection development policy. It’s unclear what impact the “The Fault in Our Stars” debate will have on Hamilton East Public Library’s collection development guidelines. Officials have not said whether more books will be added to or taken out of the HEPL’s young adult section.

The HEPL’s next board meeting is planned for August 24.

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