An Alamogordo school district has decided to once again allow the fantasy novel “Neverwhere” by Neil Gaiman to be used in high school English classes.
The district superintendent’s office made the announcement Friday after a review of the book’s content.
The book was removed from use about two weeks ago after a parent pointed out a passage that described a sexual encounter and used a curse word. The book is about an Englishman who is drawn into an alternate reality of London’s abandoned subway system and sewer tunnels.
School officials say the review found the book to be educationally suitable, balanced and age-appropriate for high school students.
English teachers at the school are said to be relieved after one, Pam Thorp, told Newspapers that taking the book out of the students’ hands amounted to censorship.
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We’re wondering, did you get to read any fantasy novels when you were at school?
Jennie Ivins
I just have to shake my head. I graduated from this particular high school and recall not only some good SF and Fantasy in English classes from junior high on up, but good selections in the school libraries despite the segments of the town’s population that tend towards promoting censorship. There was even a good number of the classic titles protested against in my elementary school library and I had a 6th grade teacher that set aside time weekly to read books to the class, including as I recall ‘A Wrinkle In Time’, which for some odd reason seems to get protested against from time to time in many areas. Of course, I graduated in 1990, and while I would like to think that times might change for the better, reality often proves to be disappointing.
I think one of the saddest things about this sort of thing popping up in New Mexico is that the state is a great region for art and is home to what many who often forget our state even exists might find surprising, particularly the number of science fiction and fantasy authors. Of course, if having good authors live in or near a region had any lessening effect on censorship attempts, we might have a whole lot less censorship.
I meant to say that many would find the number of authors that live in NM surprising. Sometimes editing comments using a screen reader can lead to some interesting errors in grammar.
Sadly, the only fantasy novels I got to read in high school were ones I picked myself for independent reading projects. Still, that was better than nothing. I loved it when we could deviate from standard high school reading fare and pick out something of our own to read and do reports on instead.