Another summer reading complaint.

From the Intelligencer:

By page four, Joellen Greenwood was offended by the profanity in her son’s required summer reading for his North Penn High School English class next year.

The district decided to examine the entire summer reading list after Greenwood complained about “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” at Thursday night’s school board meeting.

I know it's silly, but I am surprised every time someone takes issue with this book.  Not because I loved it (which I did), but because when it came out, practically every single Little Old Lady who comes to my library (and there are a lot of them) read it and they all raved about it.

Also, the kid whose mother made the complaint?  Yeah.  He's an incoming senior.  As always, that makes me wonder what will happen when he goes away to college.

Comments

[Tom]

That is such a good book. I recall a little profanity but less than a kid in high school hears from his friends on a regular basis. In any case, the book is so well written and tells such a unique story that a few bad words is not a big deal. I gave it to my fourteen year old daughter after I read it and she enjoyed it as well.

[Kristopher]

Curious Incident was picked as the school-wide read for next year where my dad teaches. He’s already had two complaints about it.

Luckily, because it’s a Catholic school, they’re less likely to change the curriculum due to a few complaints. Also, he gets to say the Earth is 4.5 billion years old.

[Shrieky]

So why do you guys have required summer reading in the States? I just don't get it. Anyway, I think we read a Curious Incident in Grade 10 or 11 during school and as far as I know there haven't been any complaints about it at my school. I haven't read it yet but I don't get what the big deal is. It's not like highschoolers don't use profanity every single day, mostly cause they think it makes them look cool but whatever.

[Marcie]

His mom will complain in college too. I think they call them helicopter parents--still hovering. But you know what? I laughed when I read your post. I just got an e-mail today saying that my alma mater is using this for summer reading for their first year students and faculty.
http://web.roanoke.edu/x13221.xml?refurl=x13221.xml

Marcie
World of Words
http://marcieaf.blogspot.com

[orange]

I loved that book. the only thing I remember about it is them mentioning "doing sex" a few times. but it was really great. god, I read it the summer before seventh grade. some parents...