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California Mom Isn’t Laughing at Life Is FunnyIn response to a complaint from the mother of a middle-schooler, the Merced (Calif.) City School District has pulled the novel Life Is Funny by E. R. Frank from the shelves of two middle-school libraries. “It’s a book that I believe isn’t even appropriate for high school,” reacted Assistant Superintendent RoseMary Duran, who ordered the book’s removal after a February 28 phone conversation with complainant Necola Adams.Adams, whose 12-year-old daughter Hailey brought the book to her mother’s attention, objected to what she characterized as an “X-rated” passage describing two teens’ first experience with sexual intercourse. “There’s a lot of things influencing our kids. We don’t need it in the schools,” she said in the March 2 Merced Sun-Star, noting that she and her husband screen the music and movies they allow their children to enjoy. One of the titles on the 2001 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers list issued by the American Library Association’s Young Adult Library Services Association, Life Is Funny recounts through a series of vignettes seven years in the intertwined lives of 11 Brooklyn teens who deal with such issues as abuse, drug addiction, promiscuity, and pregnancy. “The reviews are very, very, very good,” Director of Curriculum and Staff Development Nanette Rahilly said, adding that officials “upon scrutiny” found the novel “highly inappropriate for our students.” She went on to speculate that school librarians probably ordered it as part of a preselected accelerated-reading list without having read it themselves. Posted March 3, 2005. |
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