13 Plus Library Materials

Families,
Please read the information relating to library materials and utilization of the Destiny library system.

13 Plus Library Materials at Discovery Middle School

13-Plus is a Discovery Middle School designation given to fiction books recommended for 8th grade readers and beyond. These books are determined to be 13-Plus by using age, maturity and interest level recommendations from multiple reviewing resources including, but not limited to Titlewave, Common Sense Media, School Library Journal, and Booklist. The committee made the determination based on several reviews. The materials determined to be 13-Plus are marked with a blue sticker.

13-Plus is a broad category, which may cover the exploration of problems and concerns that teenagers may be exposed to in their daily lives. Examples of fiction books that could fit into the 13-Plus category could be portrayals of major violence, mature humor or slang, as well as some horror fiction and mature relationships. Fiction books determined by the committee to be 14-plus were removed from the DMS library.

The books in the DMS collection have been chosen to help meet the diverse needs of students ages 11-14. Students in 8th grade will be able to check out 13-Plus books. In order for a 6th or 7th grade student to check out a 13-Plus book, parent/guardian permission must be granted.

If families wish to permit their 6th or 7th grade child to check out 13-Plus books, this 13-Plus form should be completed and submitted by September 30th.

• After the school receives the information the parent/guardian will receive a confirmation text and an email indicating the DMS staff have received and processed the parent/guardian permission form allowing the 6th or 7th grade student to check out books listed as 13-Plus.

• It may take up to two school days for the form to be processed and entered.

Parents/guardians of 6th and 7th grade students who wish to add permission after September 30th, please contact Heather Timm, DMS Principal, at htimm@alexschools.org

**Note: More than one form must be completed if you have more than one child in grades 6 or 7 and you wish to provide permission for each of them to check out 13 Plus categorized books.

Destiny

https://www.northstarcatalog.org/

Reviewing What Your Child has Checked Out

To see what your student has checked out:

1. Login to ParentVue (either by the app or by logging on to your Alex Schools Portal)

2. On the left side menu, click on “Library Activity”.

3. Click on the large box “Library Activity.”

4. You will then see titles listed that your student currently has checked out. You might also see technology that is checked out to your student.

5. If you would like to know more about the titles your student has checked out, you can go to our online catalog at:

https://www.northstarcatalog.org/

***Select your school and go to the catalog. You can then search specific titles.

If there are specific titles in the media center you would not want your child to be able to checkout the following is the process:

• Send an email to the principal of the building containing the title and author of the book you would like to flag for your child not to be able to checkout. The email must be from the parent/guardian.

• It may take up to two school days for the information to be set up in Destiny.

• The requestor (parent/guardian) will receive an email when the information has been set up in the student’s account.

• If the requestor has not received any information after two days, please reach out again to the principal to ensure the email was received.