Bess, the new­ly elect­ed pres­i­dent of the sixth grade, has many won­der­ful ideas to improve stu­dent life at her school. One of her plans is to encour­age the love of read­ings among her school­mates. With the encour­age­ment of the admin­is­tra­tion, the fac­ul­ty, and the Par­ents Orga­ni­za­tion, she installs a book-vend­ing machine in the school library so stu­dents can choose books for spe­cial occa­sions and have increased access to books year-round.

There is only one snag in Bess’ well-con­ceived pan: some par­ents don’t feel that stu­dents should have access to books that might be con­tro­ver­sial or dis­turb­ing in any way. This includes books about the Holo­caust as well as oth­ers on the non-approved list.

With the sup­port of her par­ents and some of her friends, Bess under­takes an ener­getic fight for uncen­sored although appro­pri­ate read­ing mate­r­i­al. She cam­paigns for freer access to books and infor­ma­tion that will open the worlds of her class­mates and oth­ers. Her friend June, the class vice-pres­i­dent, does­n’t exact­ly dis­agree with Bess, but June’s strong­ly opin­ion­at­ed moth­er heads the com­mit­tee to restrict the books, putting both June and Bess in uncom­fort­able positions.

How Bess, her friends, and sym­pa­thet­ic adults resolve the issue makes inter­est­ing read­ing and pro­vides much food for thought. The top­ics that arise are ripe for dis­cus­sion among mid­dle grade read­ers either with or with­out adult input, and this would be a great title for a book club or read­ing group. The issues at the core of the sto­ry are brought to light in a clear, sym­pa­thet­ic man­ner that high­lights the impor­tance of good com­mu­ni­ca­tion, the val­ue of thought­ful read­ing, and the under­stand­ing of oth­er points of view while stand­ing firm­ly and proud­ly for your own val­ues and opinions.