Book subject of controversy in SD schools

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A cartoon anthology filled with teenage angst, four-letter words and some drug and sexual references has been pulled from the student library collections at two Sioux Falls public middle schools after a parent complaint.

A school district committee that reviewed the graphic novel unanimously agreed to restrict Ariel Schrag’s “Stuck in the Middle: Seventeen Comics from an Unpleasant Age.” The school board agreed.

The book is the work of 16 cartoonists who recreated true tales from their middle school years. Shrag says the cartoons could help struggling teens and preteens. She thinks it is easier to “demonize” graphic novels, which have pictures.

Teachers at Edison and Patrick Henry middle schools still will be able to access the book and use it in class.