Teh One Who Knocks
11-26-2013, 12:06 PM
by Mary Stegmeir - The Des Moines Register
http://i.imgur.com/avlfONC.jpg
Classroom copies of a novel about a 9-year-old boy whose father died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were removed last week from an Ankeny school following questions from a parent about the book’s content.
Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” contains profanity, sex and descriptions of violence, according to the American Library Association, which tracks challenged, restricted, removed and banned books.
Assistant Superintendent Jill Urich said the novel was removed from ninth-grade classrooms at Northview Middle School because the title had not received school board approval for use in the district’s English curriculum.
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” published in 2005, continues to be available in the school library, she noted.
“It was not pulled for the content; it was pulled because it had not yet been board approved,” Urich said.
The district is in the process of developing a new curriculum approval process, she said. The earliest the book could go before the board for consideration would be in two months.
About 60 students had been assigned copies of the book to read for a class project. Those students will be given alternate materials, district officials said.
“They had to stop reading the book, in part, because it hadn’t followed the right initial (approval) process,” district spokesman Jarrett Peterson said.
In “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” — which inspired a 2011 Oscar-nominated film starring Tom Hanks — protagonist Oskar Schell finds a key that belonged to his father, who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.
A trip across New York City ensues as the boy tries to discover what the key opens.
The book was used in Ankeny classrooms for the first time last school year, Urich said.
According to the American Library Association website, the novel’s use in a 10th-grade honors English class was challenged in 2010 by a group of parents in Richland, Wash. The incident resulted in a school board mandate that class descriptions include warnings if any required readings contain profanity, sex or violence.
Northview parent Kara Hadley hadn’t heard of the Ankeny incident when contacted by the Register, but she said she thought the district’s actions were appropriate.
“It’s better that they sort it now, rather than later,” said Hadley, whose son is in eighth grade at the school. “... I think that’s the wiser choice.”
http://i.imgur.com/avlfONC.jpg
Classroom copies of a novel about a 9-year-old boy whose father died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were removed last week from an Ankeny school following questions from a parent about the book’s content.
Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” contains profanity, sex and descriptions of violence, according to the American Library Association, which tracks challenged, restricted, removed and banned books.
Assistant Superintendent Jill Urich said the novel was removed from ninth-grade classrooms at Northview Middle School because the title had not received school board approval for use in the district’s English curriculum.
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” published in 2005, continues to be available in the school library, she noted.
“It was not pulled for the content; it was pulled because it had not yet been board approved,” Urich said.
The district is in the process of developing a new curriculum approval process, she said. The earliest the book could go before the board for consideration would be in two months.
About 60 students had been assigned copies of the book to read for a class project. Those students will be given alternate materials, district officials said.
“They had to stop reading the book, in part, because it hadn’t followed the right initial (approval) process,” district spokesman Jarrett Peterson said.
In “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” — which inspired a 2011 Oscar-nominated film starring Tom Hanks — protagonist Oskar Schell finds a key that belonged to his father, who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.
A trip across New York City ensues as the boy tries to discover what the key opens.
The book was used in Ankeny classrooms for the first time last school year, Urich said.
According to the American Library Association website, the novel’s use in a 10th-grade honors English class was challenged in 2010 by a group of parents in Richland, Wash. The incident resulted in a school board mandate that class descriptions include warnings if any required readings contain profanity, sex or violence.
Northview parent Kara Hadley hadn’t heard of the Ankeny incident when contacted by the Register, but she said she thought the district’s actions were appropriate.
“It’s better that they sort it now, rather than later,” said Hadley, whose son is in eighth grade at the school. “... I think that’s the wiser choice.”