Two years ago in Watauga County, North Carolina, Isabel Allende鈥檚 House of Spirits was challenged for 鈥渟exual excerpts鈥� and pulled from MaryKent Whitaker鈥檚 sophomore honors English classes鈥攖hree days before she’d planned to start teaching the novel. And so began a six-month battle to restore the book to the classroom.
There were board meetings through three appeals, accusations (“It’s filth,” said Commissioner David Blust, quoted in the Wautauga Democrat. “For a 14-, 15- and 16-year-old to read this, to be forced to read this, I think is a joke.”), radio interviews, , a at the local college.聽 Isabel Allende And finally in April, the .
I was able to meet MaryKent and her daughter Hannah, who teaches in Colorado, in person for the first time at the 51猎奇 Annual Convention. They took a few moments to chat about why books like Allende鈥檚 House of the Spirits and Sherman Alexie鈥檚 Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian鈥攎ost challenged book in the nation right now that Hannah has just finished reading with her students鈥攁re so important to our students.