MICHAEL WHELAN • I would like everyone to know that the teachers in...

I would like everyone to know that the teachers in the English Dept at Alamogordo HS do not agree with the knee jerk reaction of pulling Neverwhere from the Dept. library. It has been successful as a supplemental novel and since our goal is to get students engaged and encourage their thinking, this novel is a keeper — the students love it. The passage the parent is referring to is not graphic, but it is an adult type situation…a very briefly visited one.
I am sorry our school administrators did not stand up and support the material the way we all would have expected them to do. Also, as much as we hate to expose anyone for not speaking the truth, this parent had publicly stated that the school was “forcing” her student to read the novel (not true), and she also stated that the school never offered her daughter an alternate selection when she objected to Neverwhere. This statement is one that we will vehemently deny. The mother is stating inaccurate comments publicly. I work with the teacher in question – a very capable and intelligent young woman that is an asset to the English Dept.- and she immediately provided an alternate novel to the student as soon as the mother made the first known objection to Gaiman’s novel.
We simply cannot stand for banning a book for hundreds of students this year and in the years to come because a single parent objected over one brief passage on ONE page. Making inaccurate comments about the teacher (whom the parent chose not to even meet, but publicly disrespected her and questioned her credentials in spite of that), saying we forced anyone to read a text she objected to, or stating that no alternative assignment was offered is absolutely false. Teachers are sensitive to the needs of their students.
Our students have enjoyed Gaiman’s novel for almost ten years, and it saddens us to think that our future students will not have the same opportunity.
The teachers in the English Dept are opposed to any form of censorship. This situation is being handled incorrectly, it makes our school and our town appear as if we are fine with suspending the use of a book that is used by middle and high schools across the country and around the globe. We are not fine with it, and we want people to know that.

Kathy Wallis commenting in School Library Journal on the banning of NEVERWHERE at Alamogordo High School, New Mexico.

The original article reported from the parent’s point of view has gotten nationwide play, can we boost the signal on this as well please?

(via shellytotter)

Neverwhere is a treasure of a novel. Just the mention of it brings me back to my own discovery of London Below. I felt it was Gaiman’s best until Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Teenagers need books like this to challenge them. It’s what turns them on to reading. Classics (especially the socially acceptable kind) rarely have that appeal.

Don’t ban the book. Honor the teacher that assigns such engaging work.

~MJ

(via joehillsthrills-deactivated2019)