I want to complain about school book choices!

[Anon150]

My dd is between year 9 and year 10.
We are not in the UK
She is at an all girls school

So far for English she has read a book about teenage pregnancy which she said was dull, today she tells me the book they are reading next term involves a graphic description of how someone committed suicide.

Youth mental health is a big problem and a huge focus. Where we live it is illegal for the news to give details about the method of suicide.

I am quite cross with the school and want to write and complain that they have exposed the kids to this when really it isn’t allowed, I think for vulnerable youth it’s a really poor decision.

I admit I am traumatised by being made to read a book in school that I still find the contents ‘difficult’ I was talking to my Mother (ex English teacher!) about it today and it literally brought tears to my eyes. However I also think the book choices for dd are poor and dull (English teacher Mother agrees!) I’m conflicted whether I should write and complain or not. I don’t want to be “that” parent but the choices are really poor, they have not been chosen for literary merit. Dd loves school but not English!

This one! It was dreadful. Apparently she's generally a good writer but I've never been able to bring myself to try anything else by her again. I assume it was some sort of arty literature attempt that backfired or is so high brow that you can't get the joke without a phd in literature

The books we did for English at school were awful - depressing, violent, bleak social commentary- I don't remember any discussion of the 'issues', only hating the books and I have avoided serious literature ever since. How does reading about a 19th century character dying slowly of a what's now a treatable cancer help me understand literature?

Both excellent books that I enjoy. No matter what text choices I make I will never have a whole class love one particular text. Some of my out going year 11s hated Frankenstein others think it’s the best thing they’ve ever read and get passionate in defence of it.
A former student once sat there and randomly announced ‘Shakespeare, miss, he’s just so…good.’ Others thought he was mad.
We won’t please everyone ever. Very few people complain about topic choices in Geography, but more feel they can in English.

The topic choices in Geography put me off for life. Living in a small town in the UK i do not and never have given any shits about hill sheep farming in Western Australia.

Luckily I could quit after Y9. Can’t do that with English…

I thought it was excellent, a really well constructed description of psychological dissolution in a failed blended family. It's unpleasant and none of the characters come off as particularly symmpathetic, which makes it challenging, but it's very clear what the author is trying to do and she does it well.

It was wasted on 15 year olds, even ones who got straight A*s! Perhaps I should try it again.

I was a straight A 15 year old when I read it for the first time - I grew up in the Netherlands but was completely bilingual, so my English curriculum at secondary was flexible. I'm sure I got more out of it rereading it when I was older, but my 15 year old self absolutely recognised what was going on with the two main characters and the parents.