A Wisconsin school board member wants to ban a book written by Jim Henson in kindergarten classrooms because it’s too graphic about poverty. Their main concern is that the book features drawings of suffering children, including one of a kid living in a box in the rain.
“I just have concerns that it’s too graphic, even though these are Muppets characters,” said school board member Mary Carney. “Unfortunately in this world there is a lot of war and strife and poverty; I understand that. I just don’t know how appropriate that is to be teaching that to 5-year-olds.”
There will be a big vote that will occur next month that will vote to ban the book in every single school with a kindergarten program in the State of Wisconsin.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.