At a March board meeting, trustees indicated that the Clifford and Disney books were not objectionable but had been lumped in with the rejected books. The Clifford and Disney books were approved at the Aug. 17 meeting.

Board member Linda Poirier, however, felt the books were aimed at younger students and "probably wouldn't get circulation at" Challenger, the minutes said.

The new book-selection guidelines, which were approved June 22, were developed by a committee consisting of McNabb, Toyne and trustee Patricia Greene.

Under the guidelines, books now cannot depict drinking alcohol, smoking, drugs, sex, including "negative sexuality," implied or explicit nudity, cursing, violent crime or weapons, gambling, foul humor and "dark content."

"Materials must not encourage students to identify with violent or amoral characters. In some cases, students don't always finish the entire book so, for example, we might choose to avoid a story that seems sympathetic to negative behavior in the beginning even when the lesson is learned in the end," the policy said.

The book policy also states that library materials must be age-appropriate, taking into consideration the different maturity levels of district students who range in age from 5 to 14.

"For example, most of our elementary students are not dealing with issues of puberty and we do not want to encourage them to try to identify with characters that are," the policy said.

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