Of Mice and Mansfield:
Steinbeck Stays on the Shelf
The board of the Mansfield (Tex.) Independent School District voted unanimously June 26 to retain the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Of Mice and Men on district library shelves and reading lists. Parents Leta and Michael Overton had challenged the book after their 16-year-old daughter Natalie showed them excerpts; their pastor supported them from the pulpit. Some 175 people, many from the Arlington Christian Church, attended the school board meeting, according to the June 27 Arlington Morning News.
Noting that the novel ranked number five in ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom list of most challenged books in 2000, Leta Overton remarked, “I fail to understand why, if this book has caused so much controversy, it would be part of a public school curriculum,” adding that she would object to “any book that contains the same profanity, obscenity, blasphemy, and violence.” Trustee Jeff Pemberton replied, “It is our duty to educate our children in all aspects of literature, all aspects of history.”
The Overtons’ 16-year-old daughter Natalie was assigned an alternative title after she refused to read the Steinbeck classic, which is the story of two downtrodden migrant workers in 1930s California.
Posted July 2, 2001.
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