KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 15 (UPI) -- A Missouri school board has rejected parents' complaints the book "The Giver" is "twisted" and extremely violent, voting to keep the book on its reading list.
Blue Springs School Board members voted unanimously Monday, with one member absent, to keep the Lois Lowry book on the eight-grade reading list, the Kansas City (Mo.) Star reported Tuesday.
One parent, Cerise Ivey, noted the district's guidelines call for reading materials to be educational, decent, have social value and foster respect. "Not one of these guidelines is met with 'The Giver,'" she said. "To say that this book is OK because violence is out there, kids see it everywhere, is a warped sense of logic."
Mark Kover spoke in favor of the maintaining the book on the list.
"What really has us concerned is not only the attack on 'The Giver,' but what other actions might be taken by those who seek to wrest control of our kids' education from the direction of professional educators," he said.
