School Reinstates Controversial Book After Protests From Free Speech Groups

After the Dover-Sherborn (Massachusetts) Schools book review committee's decision to remove So Far From the Bamboo Grove from the school curriculum was met by a wave of protests from free speech groups and area residents, a Dover-Sherborn Regional School Committee voted on Tuesday to reinstate the controversial novel. According to the Boston Globe, the committee plans to restructure the English curriculum to more clearly show the story's historical context.

In November, the young reader's title by Yoko Kawashima Watkins (HarperTeen) -- which is based on the author and her family's escape from Korea in the aftermath of World War II -- was removed from Dover-Sherborn sixth grade classrooms by the book review committee after some parents complained that the book showed Koreans in an unfavorable light and presented an unbalanced account of historical events. The review committee's decision to remove the book from schools garnered strong objections from the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Association of Booksellers for Children, and a number of other organizations and individuals.

"The School Committee made a wise decision that addressed complaints about So Far From the Bamboo Grove without resorting to censorship," said Chris Finan, president of ABFFE, who noted that bookseller Carol Chittenden of Eight Cousins in Falmouth, Massachusetts, called this to ABFFE's attention. "We are delighted that sixth graders in the Dover-Sherborn schools will continue to be able to read a wonderful book."

On December 20, in a letter addressed to the Superintendent and the School Committee of the Dover-Sherborn Regional School District in Dover-Sherborn, the groups charged the school with censoring So Far From the Bamboo Grove.

The book had been taught in Dover-Sherborn schools for 13 years until the school book review committee recommended unanimously that the title be removed from sixth grade classrooms and replaced with an alternative book.

NCAC and ABFFE were joined in opposing the removal of So Far From the Bamboo Grove from Dover-Sherborn classrooms by Peacefire.org; Feminists for Free Expression; Eight Cousins Bookstore in Falmouth, Massachusetts; the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union; as well as Brenda Bowen, Editor-in-Chief at Hyperion Books for Children; and Amy Adler, Professor at NYU School of Law.