NORFOLK – A Norfolk woman says Al Gore’s book on global warming isn’t appropriate reading for fourth graders.
The book, An Inconvenient Truth, is on the Norfolk Public Schools’ recommended summer reading list for fourth graders.
"It shows the different things in the planet erupting and visual disturbances in the book itself. I have skimmed through it, there are frightening things in there. His whole point to that book is to shock people," says Laura Brown.
Also are the list are more standard fare – like Matilda or The American Girl.
School officials say the list of books is just a suggestion as recommended by the American Library System.
Board vice chair Karen Squires Jones says she has no problem with Gore’s book, but says it's likely better material for high school students.
She also believes some people are opposed to Gore and his viewpoints so they won't see his book as being factual.
In England, the High Court ruled the film, which won two Academy Awards, could be sent and used in schools - if accompanied by guidance giving the other side of the argument.
Parents can fill out a form challenging instructional materials.
Anastasia Krupnik
Blubber
Bunnicula
Don't Read This Book, Whatever You Do! Poems About School
Emma's Journal: The Story of A Colonial Girl
Encyclopedia Brown
Frindle
From The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Her Seven Brothers
If You Lived In Colonial Times
If You Lived In The Time of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Just So Stories
Lion To Guard Us, A
Magic School Bus
Matilda
Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman
Pink and Say
Rex Zero and the End of the World
Remembering Mrs. Rossi
Shoebag
Swamp Angel
Where The Sidewalk Ends
Yang The Youngest and His Terrible Ear by Lensey Namiak by Shel Silversteinby Anne Isaacsby Mary James by Amy Hest by Tim Wynne-Jones by Patricia Polacco by Alan Schroeder by Roald Dahl series by Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen by Clyde Robert Bulla by Rudyard Kipling by Ellen Levine by Ann McGovern by Paul Gobleby E.L. Konigsburgby Andrew Clements series by Donald & Rose Sobol by Marissa Moss by Kalli Dakos by Deborah & James Howe by Judy Blume by Lois Lowry
RECOMMENDED SUMMER READING FOR GRADE 4:
American Girl series published by Pleasant Company, such as Dear Addy and Meet Samantha
An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming by Al Gore
