Silver Birch selection felled by school board
The Toronto Star reports this morning that Deborah Ellis’s Three Wishes, a book that featured conversations with Israeli and Palestinian children, is causing controversy in the York Region District School Board, near Toronto. Education reporter Tess Kalinowski reports that the book, which made the Ontario Library Association’s list of finalists for the Silver Birch award (the winner is then voted on by nine- to 11-year-olds), has been dropped from the school board’s selection list. The article points to a Feb. 8 letter from the Canadian Jewish Congress that outlines some of the concerns about the book. “The letter says the book portrays Israelis as ‘brutal occupiers,’ and Palestinians as ‘murderers who are so intent on killing Israelis that they are prepared to blow themselves to shreds,’” Kalinowski writes.
CJC director Len Rudner told the Star: “What you’re left with is a book where, in a fair number of instances, you have kids saying: Maybe suicide bombing is a viable alternative, or maybe it’s understandable or maybe it’s a career choice for me. It either convinces children that maybe blowing up your enemy by strapping explosive devices to yourself is not such a far-fetched thing, or it advances the message these people are crazy and people like that can’t be trusted. Just imagine how those kind of messages can play themselves out in a schoolyard.”
Other area school boards, including the Toronto District School Board and the Durham District School Board, are going to review the book in the near future. The Peel District School Board has already conducted a review of Three Wishes and deemed it suitable.
Related links:
Click here for the Toronto Star article
Click here for Q&Q’s review of Deborah Ellis’s Three Wishes
