Censorship
Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher is about the Cutter High School Mermen, an unlikely swim team of misfits trying to earn their letters. The team is put together by The Tao Jones, better known as TJ, one of the three mixed-race people in his town, and coached by a teacher who started the team to avoid having to be the assistant wrestling coach. Along with being an unlikely group of athletes, the swimmers don’t even have a pool of their own. They swim in a too-small pool at a local rec center. They also face the harassment of a town...
Lois Lowry’s The Giver will stay on eighth grade reading lists in Blue Springs, Missouri (Link might require registration). The school board voted six to nothing to keep the book on the lists. Parents who objected to the book say it’s “lewd,” “twisted,” and “extremely violent.” Did you have to read this book in school? What do you think?...