One of the three choices for required summer reading for Hillsborough High School students drew three ‘no’ votes from Board of Education members on April 25.
The list was approved, 5-3, drawing negative votes from board members Greg Gillette, Jennifer Haley and Thomas Kinst.
Students in grades 9-12 can select one of the following:
— “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford;
— “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, or
— “Looking for Alaska” by John Green.
The three dissenters were reacting to the “Looking for Alaska” book, which was published in March 2005. It won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association.
The so-called “coming of age” novel includes sexual material and graphic language, but addresses issues with which young adults must deal, like drinking and driving, peer pressure and coping with death.
According to the Cliff’s Notes website, “The Kite Runner” is the story of Amir, a Sunni Muslim, “who struggles to find his place in the world because of the aftereffects and fallout from a series of traumatic childhood events.”
“Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” is historical fiction about the love and friendship between a Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl during the internment in World War II.
