This post was written by Millie Davis,聽former director of NCTE’s Intellectual Freedom Center.
During the recognitions for Veterans Day this year, I began to think of books about war that are taught and that have been challenged. By far the most challenged war books are by Tim O鈥橞rien, by Khaled Hosseini, by Walter Dean Myers,聽 by Ishmael Beah, and by Markus Zusak. 起点传媒has for all these and many more.
Challengers complained about cuss words and violence and about sex and death, all feeling the books were inappropriate for their student鈥攁nd every other student鈥攂ecause of something in some part of the book. Challengers did not consider the entirety of the book, its plot and themes, or reasons for its inclusion in the curriculum. They didn鈥檛 seem to understand that neither the teacher nor school or even the book鈥檚 author was advocating that the readers鈥攊n this case, the students鈥攂ehave as the characters do.
The challengers, if they didn鈥檛 underestimate their own students, surely underestimated all the other students they wanted to prevent from reading the books. In general,聽 students are quite capable of reading and benefiting from the text that is being taught.
Our students deserve to have the opportunity to read and study books about war that complement our curricula and deserve to be on our classroom library shelves.
Aside from those mentioned here, there are many, many texts from which to choose:
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