John Green Addresses 'Fault In Our Stars' Ban in California School
Frank Augustus Miller Middle School banned John Green's "The Fault In Our Stars" deeming the book to be inappropriate for middle school.
According to reports from The Press Enterprise, the school district's book reconsideration committee voted 6-1 to pull all three copies of Green's book from library shelves.
"I just didn't think it was appropriate for an 11-, 12-, 13-year-old to read," parent Karen Krueger told the Enterprise. She didn't agree with the novel's subject matter on teenage death, use of crude language and teen sex. "I was really shocked it was in a middle school."
The Southern California school district will require parental consent for students to read the book.
On John Green's Tumblr page, a fan asked him about the recent ban of the #1 New York Best Selling Novel.
"I guess I am both happy and sad," he wrote. "I am happy because apparently young people in Riverside, California will never witness or experience mortality since they won't be reading my book, which is great for them. But I am also sad because I was really hoping I would be able to introduce the idea that human beings die to the children of Riverside, California and thereby crush their dreams of immortality."
The author is not new to the ban of books as his two other novels, "Looking for Alaska" and "An Abundance of Katherines," was banned to some schools also.
Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas banned Green's "An Abundance Of Katherines" because of its "sexual situations," according to The Daily Dot. The school made their decision during this year's "Banned Books Week."
"Looking For Alaska" has lately listed on banned or challenged books since its 2005 publication. Green won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association for the novel.
