BY BTL STAFF
MONROE – The lastest installment of the popular "Captain Underpants" series by author Dav Pilkey has been banned from the Arborwood Elementary School book fair after book publisher Scholastic Books warned the school district that one section might be controversial.
"Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-a-lot" will not be available for students due to a scene at the end of the story when the book's main character Harold meets his grown-up self and finds out he's gay and has a husband. While the gay theme is not the primary plot line, Scholastic Book reviewers consider the book inappropriate for the elementary students' age group despite the panel reviews conducted by experts at Scholastic Books who deemed the novel appropriate for book fairs such as Monroe's.
ClickOnDetroit News reported that some parents feel it unfair to deny access to children — some of whom may live in same-sex families — and feel parental control to be unnecessary.
"If you're in this world, they should know about that regardless. I mean, (parents) should have that conversation before it's brought up," Kimberly Rose, a parent who opposes the decision to ban this book from the fair, told ClickOnDetroit.
Scholastic has reported that they have received a few complaints from individual families across the country who have purchased the book but have not yet received any complaints regarding book fairs.
