Parents Bravely Fight Against Books

Blue Valley School District, pressured by a parent group, has dropped two novels by noted teen authors Tobias Wolff and Walter Dean Myers from its curriculem. The Red Badge of Courage was restricted to junior level advanced placement classes. The group challenged 14 books originally.

“It’s a small step in the right direction, and we hope that there will be many more steps like this made,” said parent Janet Harmon, who delivered the petition against the 14 books to the school board.

Also starting this year, the district will post information online about potentially controversial content contained in books on classroom reading lists.

Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels was replaced by Tim O'Brien's Going After Cocciato which was lauded by an Amazon reader as, "A war story women can read," because it lacks the violent content of most war stories. I'm sure teenage boys in Kansas City are rejoicing at being saved from reading about the violence of war from a black teen's perspective.