The Effingham Helen Matthes Library Board in Effingham, Illinois voted unanimously to deny a request to censor Living Dead Girl, a novel by Elizabeth Scott. Local parent, Amy Hibdon formally requested that the book be removed from the library, or at least the teen section, after her 15-year-old daughter checked out the book and was reportedly upset by the content . Hibdon claims the physical and sexual abuse that the character is subjected to in the book is too graphic for teens. Living Dead Girl is written from the perspective of a 15-year-old who lives with her captor after being forcibly kidnapped and imprisoned at the age of 10.
“This is the first formal censorship request that has reached this point in the past eight years, according to Library Directory Jeannie May,” reports the Effingham Daily News. May told the board any decision made would set a precedence for the future. “I’m opposed to censorship,” said board member John Latta. “It is up to parents to censor the material they are reading, not the library.”