Before getting too smug about the first part of today’s In Other Media, Canadian readers, who tend to see themselves as more liberal than Americans in their attitudes about what children should be allowed to read, should check out a story in the Toronto Star. In the story, education reporter Tess Kalinowski reports that the Toronto District School Board, the largest board in the country, is making Deborah Ellis’s Three Wishes off-limits to children below Grade 7. The book features interviews with children caught in the firing line of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but the Canadian Jewish Congress wrote to the board claiming that the book’s lack of historical and political context made its contents unsuitable for children in Grades 4 to 6. The board agreed and the book will now be unavailable in junior school libraries. (The book has also been removed from contention for the Ontario Library Association’s Silver Birch Award in some jurisdictions and from the library shelves of York’s public school board because of complaints from the CJC.) Toronto school board chair Sheila Ward assured the public that the book is not being banned, as children can still get Three Wishes from their local library or bookstore. At least for now….
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Read the article in the Toronto Star
