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So my son is going to be in 10th grade next year, and as usual, is required to read a book from a list of 10 over the summer.\u00a0 It\u2019s not clear to me whether there\u2019ll be any sort of graded assignment in the fall based on the chosen book, but I\u2019m, well, not too happy with the list.<\/p>\n
The books from which the students are to choose consist of :<\/p>\n
Born a Crime<\/em>, by Trevor Noah, a memoir of the The Daily Show host, born in South Africa as a mixed race child under apartheid.\u00a0 Mature themes & language.<\/p>\n I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter<\/em>, by Erika L. Sanchez, about an immigrant girl.\u00a0 Mature themes & language.\u00a0 An Amazon commenter says, \u201cfoul language, on-page sex, underage drinking and drug usage, a suicide attempt, and some other violence.\u201d<\/p>\n The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight<\/em>, by Jennifer E. Smith, on the surface about a teen girl meeting \u201cthe perfect boy\u201d on a plane, then by coincidence reconnecting with him.\u00a0 On the surface about their romance, deeper down, according to reviews, about her reconciling with her father remarrying.<\/p>\n Need<\/em> by Joelle Charbonneau, a thriller in which social networking site draws teens in for ever darker deeds.\u00a0 Mature themes & language.<\/p>\n Scythe<\/em>, by Neal Shusterman, a dystopia in which, in the future, all causes of death \u2014 hunger, disease, etc. \u2014 have been eliminated so that the scythes<\/em> are tasked with killing to keep the population under control.\u00a0 Mature themes & language.<\/p>\n We Were Liars<\/em>, by E. Lockhart, a thriller with a \u201chorrific\u201d twist (per a publisher\u2019s review on Amazon).\u00a0 Mature themes & language.<\/p>\n Salt to the Sea<\/em>, by Ruta Sepetys, about four people fleeing East Prussia ahead of the Red Army at the close of World War II.<\/p>\n The Hate You Give<\/em>, by Angie Thomas, in which the protagonist\u2019s best friend, unarmed, is shot by police.\u00a0 Mature themes & language.<\/p>\n The 57 Bus<\/em>, by Dashka Slater, about a hate crime (claimed to be a true story but the characters\u2019 full names aren\u2019t given so I\u2019m not entirely clear if it really is or if it\u2019s just portrayed that way) perpetrated by a poor black boy upon an \u201cagender\u201d rich kid.\u00a0 Mature themes & language.<\/p>\n Long Way Down<\/em>, by Jason Reynolds, told in poem format, in which a boy decides whether to murder his brother\u2019s killer.\u00a0 Mature themes & language.<\/p>\n So, all told, 10 books, 8 of them with a \u201cmature themes & language\u201d advisory.\u00a0 Except that one of the two without that advisory, I\u2019ve been told separately, contains a rape within the first 20 pages, and violence and abuse scattered throughout.\u00a0 (Why did they not flag this book?\u00a0 Was it an oversight?\u00a0 Did the faculty figure that parents would be too upset by having precisely one book without this advisory?)\u00a0 Which means there\u2019s only one book without that advisory, a fairly girly-seeming book.<\/p>\n And, yes, it\u2019s clear that the faculty selecting these books are very interested in \u201csocial justice\u201d issues \u2014 immigration, race, gender minorities.\u00a0 I suppose they felt the need to throw in a few teen thrillers to accommodate kids who wouldn\u2019t read a book from another genre.<\/p>\n