Is a single book supposed to be all things? Should children be allowed discussion and intellectual pursuit....or do they need to be protected from books?
School committees in Massachusetts are grappling with whether to ban an award-winning book from the curriculum after complaints from parents that the book is racist and sexually explicit.
"So Far from the Bamboo Grove" is a book by Yoko Kawashima Watkins. It is the story of an 11-year-old Japanese girl whose family has to flee Korea in the aftermath of World War II. The book is based on the real-life experiences of Watkins, whose father was a Japanese government official.
In one "contested" paragraph, the sister of the main character says: "We must get out of Seoul. I saw several Korean men dragging girls to the thicket and I saw one man raping a young girl. . .The girls were screaming for help in Japanese." The book has won multiple awards and is used extensively in middle schools across the country.
2006-11-12
19:06:48
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