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Literature without swear words?


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I need some book recommendations that do not contain swear words, at all.  I am teaching a literature class at a local Christian private school and not even the word a** is allowed. I am very frustrated and apparently limited in what I can give to these high school kids to read. I have 15 students - only two of them love to read.  I want books that will excite these kids about reading, but I am at a loss.  Help!

 

Is there a website that has reviews or information about content appropriate for Christian schools/students?  I personally allowed my kids to read just about anything that interested them. I didn't stress about language, violence or "witchcraft." Most of the students are boys and I would like books that would appeal to them.

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Cut out a bunch of UK literature from the start: 'ass' means 'donkey' as in 'silly ass'.  Our word for backside is 'arse'.  It's a shame, because a fun starter for those who don't love reading might be the Jeeves and Wooster books.  Otherwise.... most Victorian literature that I can think of will have 'Damn' in it.  Even Jane Austen has the odd 'Damn', I think.

 

L

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Most anything by Asimov.  The exclamations are things like "Galaxy!" and "By Space!".

Tolkien's books - same thing unless you think "By Durin's Beard!" would offend someone....

Time For the Stars?  A Wriinkle in Time?  The Giver (this one's a gross read though)

C.S. Lewis' fiction?  Though I think they refer to a donkey as an ass.....

Island of the Blue Dolphins?  Door in the Wall? These may be too young for high school though.

Pretty much anything by Agatha Christy. or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

 

While I in no way support anything on this site - it is a pretty thorough list of profanity/sex/graphic violence in young adult literature

http://www.thrivingfamily.com/Family/Media/book-review-archives.aspx

 

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You can try older translations of the Iliad and Odyssey. I think most of Shakespeare is probably out. In fact, the Bible would be out by those standards. Are there any anthologies or edited versions you could use? Maybe BJU or Abeka has something like that?

 

If worse comes to worst, could you get the text, run a search for the offensive words and sharpie them out? I realize that most teenagers would head straight to google, but that might allow you a wider range of classics.

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Thanks for the suggestions. The Focus on the Family website is very helpful. It is going to be very difficult coming up with a reading list.  The lady who told me there could be no profanity or things of a sexual nature, allowed her daughter to read The Fault in Our Stars and according to the FOTF website it has a lot of swearing and there are sexual situations. She also let her read The Notebook.... ???? I guess it is just a school rule.

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I need some book recommendations that do not contain swear words, at all.  I am teaching a literature class at a local Christian private school and not even the word a** is allowed. I am very frustrated and apparently limited in what I can give to these high school kids to read. I have 15 students - only two of them love to read.  I want books that will excite these kids about reading, but I am at a loss.  Help!

 

Is there a website that has reviews or information about content appropriate for Christian schools/students?  I personally allowed my kids to read just about anything that interested them. I didn't stress about language, violence or "witchcraft." Most of the students are boys and I would like books that would appeal to them.

 

I would ask what works have been used in the past.  I would also look at various Christian curricula-in-a-box and see what they are using.  

 

More importantly, I would ask some serious questions around what the school would like the goals for the course to be.  As an example, the normal "Brit Lit" course taken by most high schoolers, containing Shakespeare, Canterbury Tales, and so on, would be out of bounds - is that what they intend?  Are these college-bound students who will encounter a huge jump between the themes they explored in high school and those they will see in college?  Should the course contain serious literary analysis?  Or is the goal of the course more to simply get the kids reading for enjoyment?

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I would first clarify that a$$ meant to be a donkey is not out of bounds.  Or b!tch meant to be a female dog.  Etc.

 

I have inadvertently chosen a book for our co op with a sprinkling of off color words, such as the two above, mostly with some double entendre.  Also, there is one reference to "making love".  I am holding my breath for the fall-out and have alerted the leadership.  Sigh.  (My class is 6th-8th graders, and the book is A View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg.)  It is a Christian co op. 

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Mary, I was intrigued by this problem so I went and looked at the BJU high school lit books. They use excerpts, but they've got lots of good selections. They even used Romeo and Juliet in 10th grade. It's not as nice as reading whole books, but I think you can piece together a reading plan that will both encourage reading and broaden your students' horizons. I can't imagine the school would object to reading the textbooks, even if they didn't edit them completely. Do you have access to all four years worth of books or just one? Are you teaching all the high schoolers together or just a particular grade?

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In a situation like this, it might be useful to have the selections of a trusted "authority" to use as a cache of high school worthy texts to draw from.  I'm thinking of lists like the Veritas Press catalog or curriculum guides, Sonlight, the BJU texts, Stobaugh literature guides, even freshman reading lists for Christian colleges that some of the students might have as goal schools.  Perhaps even something like the Hillsdale Academy curriculum guides (conservative, but not specifically Christian).  Excellence in Literature selections are intended to be compatible with Christian homeschools and cover many classic works.

 

I'm wondering if these types of lists might give a reference and assurance that not all works have to be in the Elsie Dinsmore mode.  I had a church elder who was also a college literature professor point out that believing that the Jesus was The Truth didn't mean that non-Christian works of fiction presented no truth. Her suggestion was that in many cases, you can learn more from a literary example of poor choices than from one that is wholly good (and thus, often without conflict).

 

In other words, just as the Bible contains words like hell and damned as well as choices like murder and adultery that aren't held up as models of behavior, a work of literature can have bad choices and unsavory characters and be a good reading selection.  I'm not suggesting American Psycho as model literature.  I am saying that perhaps the defining quality could be the quality of the literature and how it helps students think rather than just a straight word count of forbidden words.

 

But then I'm a pretty omnivorous reader and have picked a few books because I want my kids' first encounter with a concept or author to be when I'm around to discuss it with them, rather than a college classroom free for all. 

 

It may be that these musings are all things that you've already thought of.  In which case, I guess you go to the reading lists above and try to find works that don't offend.

 

 

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In other words, just as the Bible contains words like hell and damned as well as choices like murder and adultery that aren't held up as models of behavior, a work of literature can have bad choices and unsavory characters and be a good reading selection.  I'm not suggesting American Psycho as model literature.  I am saying that perhaps the defining quality could be the quality of the literature and how it helps students think rather than just a straight word count of forbidden words.

 

 

 

This entire discussion is giving me flashbacks to my own high school experience.  Horrid little Christian school run by an independent, fundamentalist Baptist church.  I am sure the OP's school is better than this one, but my school had this same rule.  We did frequent book reports even in high school, and I was frequently told that my first choice was unacceptable and to go back and try again.  Anatomy of a Murder, Tess of the d'Ubervilles and even James Herriot did not make it through the rigorous screening process (do you know how hard it is to find a curse word in James Herriot???), yet my classmates could read Grace Livingston's Hill's worthless POS Christian romances and give reports on them all day long.  Not that I'm bitter. . ..

 

OP, best of luck.  We did read the Scarlet Letter and Hamlet, so perhaps those would work.  Many schools lately seem to be reading Agatha Christie, especially Murder on the Orient Express, and I remember most of her books being bad-anguage-free.

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Last year the only book they read was Pilgrim's Progress and they took all school year to do it.  Grades 9-12.  The curriculum is BJU, but I am allowed to supplement it and I don't have to do the complete textbook.

 

 

:eek:   And people pay for this?!

 

Hmm...  Maybe some Dickens would work?  Not sure if you're looking for fiction only, but if nonfiction is okay, then maybe Emerson and Thoreau would do?

 

Short stories may be easier to scan quickly so you can buy yourself some research time....

 

Tough project.  Good luck!

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Mary, I was intrigued by this problem so I went and looked at the BJU high school lit books. They use excerpts, but they've got lots of good selections. They even used Romeo and Juliet in 10th grade. It's not as nice as reading whole books, but I think you can piece together a reading plan that will both encourage reading and broaden your students' horizons. I can't imagine the school would object to reading the textbooks, even if they didn't edit them completely. Do you have access to all four years worth of books or just one? Are you teaching all the high schoolers together or just a particular grade?

 

I currently have the Fundamentals of Literature and American Literature only.  I have four 9th graders, one 10th grader, seven 11th graders and three 12th graders.  We are going to do several of the short stories, but I wanted to do some whole novels.  I am also using Art of Poetry from CAP.

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I have a 1979 edition of HBJ's Adventures in American Literature.

 

There are a lot of essays and short stories.  Some things that might be worth looking at.

 

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Washington Irving - I read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to my kids a few years back.  Rip Van Winkle could be another choice.  They are short stories, but they are pretty long.

 

Edgar Allan Poe - The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart (these might have some swearing - of course people are being murdered too).

Melville - Bartleby the Scrivener (another one that is between novella and short story)

 

Mark Twain - I suppose that Huckleberry Finn wouldn't work?  What about A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Willa Cather - I confess I haven't read her, but I see My Anonia and O, Pioneers on a lot of lists.

 

Essays by E. B. White are amazing.  Detailed, complicated language.

 

I keep thinking of reasons why someone would object, but

Uncle Tom's Cabin - best refutation of slavery as a necessary evil or as something that God accepts.  I don't remember swear words.  However, the evils of slavery are depicted without flinching.

Red Badge of Courage - can't remember if there is objectionable language. 

Narrative of the Life of a Slave by Frederick Douglass

 

I think there are lots of great essays and poetry you can do. 

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These poor kiddos are gonna have a GREAT time reading some wonderful books after they finish highschool! I don't remember any of these issues in Animal Farm. I'm about 1/2 way through Uncle Tom's Cabin and so far it would be a good choice. Can't remember anything like this in The Hiding Place either.

 

Edited to add...Better skip the Bible also. Violence and sex abound!

 

 

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These poor kiddos are gonna have a GREAT time reading some wonderful books after they finish highschool!

 

You may be on to something here!  What if that's the school's Evil Master Plan - to make such things verboten in the hopes that the students will rebel, staying up all night reading Shakespeare under the covers with a flashlight?

 

;)

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I submitted a book list of mostly lower level reading, since they are mostly innocuous, and still Animal Farm, The Hunger Games and Tuck Everlasting were shot down. They approved The Giver, so I am starting with that.  These kids have never read The Giver. They also, surprisingly, approved The Outsiders.  All the books they approved are upper elementary and Jr. High level.  I will make it work, but I find it all so sad.

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I submitted a book list of mostly lower level reading, since they are mostly innocuous, and still Animal Farm, The Hunger Games and Tuck Everlasting were shot down. They approved The Giver, so I am starting with that.  These kids have never read The Giver. They also, surprisingly, approved The Outsiders.  All the books they approved are upper elementary and Jr. High level.  I will make it work, but I find it all so sad.

That is sad.  And capricious.

 

The Outsiders but not Animal Farm???  My 8 year old listened to me read Animal Farm aloud to my boys this summer.

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I submitted a book list of mostly lower level reading, since they are mostly innocuous, and still Animal Farm, The Hunger Games and Tuck Everlasting were shot down. They approved The Giver, so I am starting with that.  These kids have never read The Giver. They also, surprisingly, approved The Outsiders.  All the books they approved are upper elementary and Jr. High level.  I will make it work, but I find it all so sad.

 

they didn't allow Animal Farm - good grief !

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I submitted a book list of mostly lower level reading, since they are mostly innocuous, and still Animal Farm, The Hunger Games and Tuck Everlasting were shot down. They approved The Giver, so I am starting with that.  These kids have never read The Giver. They also, surprisingly, approved The Outsiders.  All the books they approved are upper elementary and Jr. High level.  I will make it work, but I find it all so sad.

Is this a remedial class? If you have to do relatively low lexile books, those are good. But, if the problem is content and not reading level, I'd look at reading more standard high school fare. BJU's own 10th grade text book has Romeo and Juliet (bowdlerized, probably, but still better than nothing).

 

If I had to choose, I'd rather my kid read edited excerpts from the standard high school reading list rather than middle grade or young adult contemporary fiction. OTOH, if they just can't read at that level, do what you have to do. Maybe you can read at least some higher lexile short stories out loud?

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This entire discussion is giving me flashbacks to my own high school experience. Horrid little Christian school run by an independent, fundamentalist Baptist church. I am sure the OP's school is better than this one, but my school had this same rule. We did frequent book reports even in high school, and I was frequently told that my first choice was unacceptable and to go back and try again. Anatomy of a Murder, Tess of the d'Ubervilles and even James Herriot did not make it through the rigorous screening process (do you know how hard it is to find a curse word in James Herriot???), yet my classmates could read Grace Livingston's Hill's worthless POS Christian romances and give reports on them all day long. Not that I'm bitter. . ...

Yes!! At my sub-standard Christian school, they used permanent ink markers and scissors to cut out complete stories to censor the lit books. It did have educational value though... I spent hours at the public library uncovering the stories and lines of text to find out what was so offensive.

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The only time that I suggested to a classroom teacher that a book might not be a good idea for her class, I was not the first mother to approach her in private about the title.  The book was The Giver which is a good book.  (I'm surprised that the book was nixed for high schoolers!)  My concern was for the special population of her class.  The entire school was started for children with emotional problems of various types, including anxiety spectrum, bi-polar disorder, major depression, and so on.  This was a fourth grade class.  My worry was that the book might prove overly intense and too upsetting for these particular children, whose own set of severe struggles might keep them from looking beyond the surface story to the themes of good included.  Some of the children had suicide attempts in their histories.

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Last year the only book they read was Pilgrim's Progress and they took all school year to do it.  Grades 9-12.  The curriculum is BJU, but I am allowed to supplement it and I don't have to do the complete textbook.

 

Yeah, I'm sure that held the attention of a group of mostly boys for a full year... :huh:

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Last year the only book they read was Pilgrim's Progress and they took all school year to do it. Grades 9-12. The curriculum is BJU, but I am allowed to supplement it and I don't have to do the complete textbook.

This would be utterly hilarious if it weren't so sad for the students.

 

Can you give extra credit for books they choose from a real high school list?

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This would be utterly hilarious if it weren't so sad for the students.

 

Can you give extra credit for books they choose from a real high school list?

I like this idea.

 

It pus the burden of boundary settin on the individual for himself, rather than letting one person set the bar for all. You could provide a reading list of suggested works with the added option of "or another work of similar literary value."

 

Though I don't think I'd let it be for extra credit.

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I have a copy of this book, which is available in cheap used copies.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0671847120?pc_redir=1408752046&robot_redir=1

 

It has tons of reading lists from colleges. The book is now about 20 years old, but that could be an advantage in this situation.

 

You might also consider a letter to the parents, vetted through the principal on why you chose the works you pick. If the school is adamant, you will have to follow that. But they might be ok with an explanation of why certain books were chosen.

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