Expert commentary (in red) by Dr. Roy Fox, Professor of English Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia
Listen to the companion piece to this infographic: “In Republic, book challenges raise the question, ‘What should kids read?’”
Last week, Word Missouri examined the fallout when two books were removed from a high school in southwest Missouri. The removal raised the question of what books are appropriate for students to read in Missouri. Teachers who choose a book must consider many factors: literary merit, the community’s moral or intellectual standards, and accessibility to students at a variety of levels. Sometimes one of these factors outweighs the others, leading to controversy.
To explore the issue further, Word Missouri asked school districts around the state to share their reading lists with us. We’ve collected a sampling of some of these lists into this infographic, and included cases in which books were challenged or removed for comparison. We’ve also enlisted the help of Dr. Roy Fox to provide commentary on these choices.
If the interactive graphic below appears too small, view it here.
