Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Books / Chapter & Verse World Book Night: cops are called as Idaho teen hands out challenged book
CSM ^ | Molly Driscoll

Posted on 04/28/2014 3:09:05 PM PDT by Oliviaforever

World Book Night and challenged books became intertwined on April 23, the 2014 celebration of WBN, when a high school student began distributing copies of Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” which had been taken off a reading list at her school due to complaints from parents.

(Excerpt) Read more at m.csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Idaho
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 04/28/2014 3:09:05 PM PDT by Oliviaforever
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Oliviaforever

I hadn’t heard of this one, but it looks interesting. And it’s doing very well on Amazon.

I wonder why some parents object? Politically correct? Politically incorrect? I couldn’t make out from the comments at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-True-Diary-Part-Time-Indian/dp/0316013692/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398724565&sr=1-1&keywords=the+absolutely+true+diary+of+a+part-time+indian


2 posted on 04/28/2014 3:41:27 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cicero
I haven't read the book, but the banning controversy is discussed here.
3 posted on 04/28/2014 3:51:14 PM PDT by Lurking Libertarian (Non sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Cicero

One of the people who objected said what upset her was a line by one character in the book that if God hadn’t wanted boys to, umm, pleasure themselves he wouldn’t have given them thumbs.

There may be other things in there, but she didn’t mention it.


4 posted on 04/28/2014 3:53:46 PM PDT by GrootheWanderer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Oliviaforever

Even when I was in school, the very idea of “teen reading” I found to be both patronizing and obnoxious.

Invariably leftist in their blatant slant, students who were intelligent, middle class, suburban and white, and most of whom intended to go to college had crapola foisted on them like “The Outsiders”, which had zero relevance to their lives.

Our collective opinion of those urban street thugs was that their destiny was either prison or the cemetery, and the sooner the better.

While the vast majority of students just found it to be a stupid waste of our time, at least the Mormon bloc, both students and parents, had enough intestinal fortitude to tell these purveyors to go bugger off.


5 posted on 04/28/2014 3:55:41 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (WoT News: Rantburg.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cicero
I haven't read it either, but comments from parents suggest it might be a good book for kids over 16, with parental input. It's got a lot about a thoughtful, honest, somewhat confused Indian kid overcoming the limitations of a reservation environment and using his talents to make something of himself (good)---

.... but also degrading behavior, drunkenness, assaults, pages and pages on horniness and masturbation, vulgar language and detail, etc.

Wouldn't be surprised to learn it was realistic. But not as REQUIRED reading for pre-teens and early teens.

6 posted on 04/28/2014 3:58:01 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. (I am large, I contain multitudes.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o

.... but also degrading behavior, drunkenness, assaults, pages and pages on horniness and masturbation, vulgar language and detail, etc.

Wouldn’t be surprised to learn it was realistic. But not as REQUIRED reading for pre-teens and early teens.

That just sounds awful for school children to be forced to read. You can bet there are no Christian themes or conservative political values in the entire book.


7 posted on 04/28/2014 4:13:07 PM PDT by Oliviaforever
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o

Yes, I agree. That wasn’t obvious from the reviews I read at Amazon. There were a lot of reviews, and I only went through some of them. But from what you and the others say here, it doesn’t look like suitable school reading.

On the whole, I would prefer that my kids read the classics in school, frankly. Then they can catch up with the current popular books on their own.


8 posted on 04/28/2014 4:13:12 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o

I posted a thread about this last week and am glad that some others are on board.

As I understood it, the book was one on a list of five that could be read for extra credit or some such. I don’t know what the other 4 were.
I haven’t read this book but know it is much adored by librarians. I have read two other Alexie books, Indian Killer and Reservation Blues. I consider him to be overrated, but that’s just my opinion.
I simply believe that these two ladies from Seattle are meddlers who need some business of their own to mind. How far would somebody from Meridian get coming over to meddle in their public school affairs? And believe me, the Seattle School district has no shortage of problems.
This may be neither here no there, but I think that I read that Brandy Kissel is cousin of somebody who leads an alternative news organization in Seattle. I will give you 3 guesses as to the political leanings of that organization and the first two don’t count.
This may neither be here nor there, but Sherman Alexie is a big lefty. For example just this morning I read one of his tweets saying that not all Republicans are racists, but all racists are Repblicans, or something like that.
The comments in the Seattle PI after one if the pieces on this contained insulting language I wouldn’t even repeat, referencing the people of Meridian. As far as a lot of Seattlites are concerned, they are inbred, illiterate, toothless, bigots, and of course too Christian.
And I still think some of this publicity may be ginned up because Sherman Alexie may replace Stephen Colbert.
They’ve started using the term “challenged” because people like me griped too much over the word “banned.”


9 posted on 04/28/2014 4:23:15 PM PDT by crazycatlady
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Oliviaforever

We’re talking Sherman Alexie. I can almost guarantee that there are no conservative political values, unless they’re being held up to ridicule.


10 posted on 04/28/2014 4:25:06 PM PDT by crazycatlady
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Oliviaforever

Is it about Elizabeth Warren?


11 posted on 04/28/2014 4:36:23 PM PDT by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

Brandy Kissel is cousin of Chris Kissel of Publicola. I may have spoken too soon about the bias of Publicola, however. I may have it confused with something else.


12 posted on 04/28/2014 4:37:09 PM PDT by crazycatlady
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson