FYI, Below is from the Valley Patriot.

I might not be the best person to comment on this ...

I don't remember any controversial books on my high school reading list back in the puritan ages (I do remember having to read six books each summer - pick any six from a list of about 25 - or was is pick three fiction and three non-fiction??).

I suppose I wouldn't mind these two books being optional but I certainly wouldn't require everyone to read them. And, I think it shows poor judgement since obviously these books offend quite a few students in addition to some parents (and maybe even yours truly). I'm guessing you could find some similar titles without the need to be so graphic. By choosing these titles as the only required summer reading for most 11 graders makes me wonder what gets taught in Literature classes these days.

Best wishes,
ahbgone

N. Andover: Rape and incest on summer reading list

The level I and Level II summer reading agenda for the North Andover High School 11th grade students has many parents up in arms, but the teachers have the support of Superintendent Marini.

The two assigned summer reading books are: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Parents are upset and questioning the appropriateness of these books in light of the adult themes and graphic details on topics of drugs, rape, suicide, masturbation, and incest to name a few. Specifically, in The Bluest Eye, the main character, an 11 year old black girl named Pecola Breedlove is raped and impregnated by her own father. She then yearns to be white with blue eyes. There is also a rape scene in The Perks of Being a Wallflower during an alcohol party involving 15 year olds and both rape scenes are quite explicit, disgusting and disturbing to read. There are also no criminal consequences with these rapists, which would have at least sent to the high school readers some positive message. With so many wonderful classic books out there for our young people to read, I wonder what the teachers at the North Andover High School were thinking and what kind of class discussions they have planned. Maybe the press, school committee members and parents will be invited to these discussions.

Having not read the books myself I can't comment. Tom Sawyer and other books (classics) at their times were also considered controversial. 11th graders are 16 - 18 year old students?

What controvery can you cite for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

Maybe it's because my mom was a librarian, but I've always been interested in the topics of book banning and censorship. In fact, a google search on "book banning" turns up over a hundred thousand hits. Here is one such hit, coming from the American Library Association:

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/frequentlychallengedbooks.cfm

The ALA put together a movie, back in the 70s, that in itself was controversial enough that 60 Minutes did a story on it. The movie was meant to provoke discussion about the topic of censorship, using a fictional Edward Teller-like figure as the subject of a near riot in a public school on whether or not he should be allowed to speak.

Unfortunately, I think this stuff happens all the time. Shortly after I moved away from my hometown, I heard that a certain faction gained a majority on the school board, and then proceeded to vote on books that should be banned from the school library. They also voted to revoke the National Honor Society membership of a young pregnant woman. Both of these topics became national news stories.

Google searching on "Tom Sawyer"+banned, turned up this link right at the top:

http://www.lib.fit.edu/pubs/librarydisplays/Banned%20Books%20website.htm

It cites 1998 as a more recent example of an attempt to ban it.

Just to be clear - I don't think anyone is talking about banning these books or any books.

I personally think that choosing books that are obviously offensive to a non-trivial number of people in town (and apparently with consulting with parents or whoever should be consulted) shows poor judgement.

Best wishes,
ahbgone

Here's the actual High School Reading list:
http://nahs.northandoverpublicschools.com/images/stories/documents/SUMMER_READING_LIST.pdf

SUMMER READING LIST
JUNE 2008
NORTH ANDOVER HIGH SCHOOL
430 Osgood St.
North Andover, MA 01845

Department of English

Freshman Summer Reading:
Honors: Black Boy, The Wave and The Life of Pi
College Prep: The Wave and House on Mango Street

Sophomore Summer Reading:
Honors: Wuthering Heights, A Prayer for Owen Meaney, and Gulliver’s Travels
Global Thought: Wuthering Heights and 1984
Level 1 and 2: Maus 1 and Gulliver’s Travels
Level 3: Maus 1

Junior Summer Reading:
AP & Honors: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Cold Mountain, and Ahab’s Wife
Am. Thought: Read 1 of 3:
Undaunted Courage
Nothing Like It in the World
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
OR
Read any 2:
Founding Brothers
Grapes of Wrath
The Dollmaker
The Jungle
Looking Backward
Gideon’s Trumpet
Sister Carrie
Babbitt
Exile’s Return
On the Road/Dharma Bums (one set)
Native Son
The Rise of Silas Lapham
Blue Highways
Winesburg, Ohio
The Great Gatsby
The Octopus
Travels with Charly/Travels with Lizbeth (one set)
Into the Wild

Levels 1 and 2: The Bluest Eye and The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Level 3: Montana 1948


Senior Summer Reading:
140: “Apology,” Plato
Notes of a Native Son, James Baldwin
“The Metamorphosis,” Franz Kafka
Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks
“Allegory of the Cave,” Plato
A Summer Life, Gary Soto
The Stranger, Albert Camus
Plainsong, Kent Haruf
150: The Source (chapters 1-6), A Hundred Years of Solitude, A Thousand Splendid Suns

Levels 1 and 2: A Hundred Years of Solitude, A Thousand Splendid Suns
Level 3: The Alchemist

Paul Gregoire
Dept. Chair, English
Summer Reading Coordinator
(978)794-1711 x1020 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

What was the controversy with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

I find this fascinating, especially because it's been going on for hundreds of years:

http://www.beaconforfreedom.org/about_project/history.html

Forgive the digression, but it might make sense in a moment. Also, back in the day when such classics as "Catcher in the Rye", sex education and evolution versus creation were hot topics, I had a very interesting (and feisty) 7th grade health teacher. She announced that we'd be doing a unit on sex education.

Her very first assignment was to give us a list of terms to define, which we took home. It wasn't until years later that I understood her motive. She knew we'd have trouble looking up and understanding these terms in a dictionary. She was attempting to force us to *ask*. Without us knowing it, she was attempting to force a dialog, in this town filled with many parents who had values not necessarily aligned with the public school teaching of sex education.

Contrast that with three years later, when my biology teacher announced, at the beginning of the year, that we'd be doing a unit on evolution and creation. Somehow, we never did get around to that unit during the school year.

A few years later, book banning and votes revoking National Honor Society membership.

Strange town, huh?

Guy,

I'm sure there are many cases of teachers doing their own thing where it works out wonderfully and the townsfolk are none the wiser. There are also cases where it doesn't work out so wonderfully.

You seem to be implying that when a town demands accountability of a certain fashion of its teachers - its censorship. When the town - you and I - pay for the proverbial megaphones, its not censorship if we decide to police what is said over the megaphones. These problems don't occur in private schools because if you don't like what's going on in the school, you change schools. No matter how ill informed some residents of the town may be about certain topics (I have my own list of topics where the town is out to lunch), they have a right to complain about what is being taught in their schools when it goes against their values. And although a majority rules in most cases, I don't think its wise to antagonize a segment of the town by choosing these books and only these books for our (level 1 and 2) 11 graders.

Best wishes,
ahbgone

Honestly, I don't think you should be trying to guess at what I am trying to say, or assigning a "straw man" argument to me ( "you seem to be implying" ).

Please, and I am asking this in terms of intellectual honesty, ask any specific questions you like about how I feel or what I believe, or what I am trying to say, and I will be likely to give a polite, considered opinion. Until then, please suffice it to say that with everything I've heard, read, studied and discussed about censorship (going back maybe 35 years), I have strong opinions on the subject.

Guy,

Sorry if I offended you - I didn't intend to be intellectually dishonest in any way - Please accept my apologies. I was just trying to give my opinion and hint where it might be different from yours.

Please don't stifle your strong opinions on my account and correct me whenever I went wrong or you disagree.

I also have many years of experience in certain matters but, unfortunately, all I can honestly admit to is being old.

Best wishes,
ahbgone

I'm finding this topic thread very interesting, because I belong to a mother's book group that reads only novels written for young adults. The original intent of our group was to see just what types of books our kids were reading, but over the course of the past two years we've discovered some great literature.

As for the Morrison book, I'd never heard of it. I went to the Barnes & Noble website and read through a ton of comments posted there. They overwhelmingly praised the book. They did note the sexual content and the emotional upheaval they went through reading the book, and some readers felt that they may have understood it better if they had waited until they were a bit older to read it, but reader after reader claimed it was the best book they had ever read. Only one comment was posted that took major offense to the content.

Next, I went to the American Library Assoc. website and read the list of banned books. Much to my amazement, several books were listed that I have read, recently, without the slightest hesitation.

So I'm adding this new book to my "need to read" list. What's objectionable is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case, in the eye of the reader. I'll have to read it for myself.

I did ask my nearly sixteen year old daughter what she thought of this discussion. She told me she thought the adults are being naive if they think the material contained in the book would be new to the students. She rattled off enough movie titles, music titles and electronic games examples to clearly make her point.

Oh, by the way, the book "March" chosen by the Stevens Library for the adult town read this summer has mild sexual content too. But I'm finding it's a well-written, enjoyable read. I'm very pleased with their choice.

Sincerely,
Sandy Gleed

Please accept this as sheer embarrassment -- in no way did I intend for what I wrote to be interpreted as accusing you of intellectual dishonesty. And I am certainly not offended. So, instead, please accept my apologies.

I've seen way too many discussions on this forum get sidetracked in terms of rhetoric, and I what I did in a most bumbling manner is to attempt to ask that we stick to specific questions and issues and answers, rather than digress into rhetoric. That's what I meant by "in terms of intellectual honesty", not that I felt you were lacking in such.