Communication Arts IV and Advanced Placement IV - Srs
Click a book title to read a parent-written review of the book with regard to profanity, sex, violence and/or other adult content. Click a column heading to sort the list. All of the books on this list have been used by Blue Valley Communication Arts (English) teachers.
Each teacher typically chooses around 6 novels to teach in any given year which are supposed to pass through a textbook selection policy filter BEFORE they are assigned as compulsory reading. But many teachers assign "pet" novels that have NOT been properly filtered, or which were retroactively added to the "approved" list in June of 2004 or August of 2005.
The district's "approved booklist" was made available online in June 2004. Although a book may appear on this official "approved" list, it may NOT be age appropriate and may contain graphic content. For example, please click below on our review for Beloved.
Time-tested and world-renowned classics NOT used in the Blue Valley curriculum.
Click a book title link to read a parent-written review. Click a column heading to sort the list.
| P | S | O | None | A few times | Several times | Many times or explicit | NYR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profanity (f-word, other obscenities) | Sexually explicit material | Other Adult content (drugs, occult, suicide, extreme violence, or other adult issues that parents should know about before their children are immersed in them. | ![]() |
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![]() | Not Yet Rated |
| Title | Author |
Date "Approved" by district |
Class | P | S | O | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always Outnumbered Always Outgunned | Mosley, Walter | 2004 West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | ![]() |
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| Animal Dreams | Kingsolver, Barbara | 9/2000 | 12 | ![]() |
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| Art of Work | Coleman, Robert | Retroactively approved 8/2005 | CC | ![]() |
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| Bastard out of Carolina | Allison, Dorothy | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | ![]() |
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| Beloved | Morrison, ToniPETITION BOOKCHALLENGED BOOK | 9/2000 | 12AP | ![]() |
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| Brave New World | Huxley, Aldous | 9/2000 | 12, 12AP, CC | NYR | |||||
| Bluesman | Dubus, Andre | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Bluest Eye | Morrison, Toni | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | ![]() |
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| Cat's Cradle | Vonnegut, Kurt | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Catch 22 | Heller, Joseph | 9/2000 | 12, 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work | Canfield, Jack | Retroactively approved 8/2005 | CC | NYR | |||||
| Combatting Cult Mind Control | Hassan, Steven | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Crime and Punishment | Dostoyevsky, Fyodor | Retroactively approved 6/2004 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Cry the Beloved Country | Paton, Alan | 9/2000 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Death of a Salesman | Miller, Arthur | 9/2000 | 12, 12AP, CC | NYR | |||||
| Death of Ivan Illych | Tolstoy, Leo | 9/2000 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Enders Game | Card, Orson Scott | 9/2000 | CC | ![]() |
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| Enemy of the People | Ibsen, Henrik | 9/2000Removed 8/2005 | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Fallen Angels | Myers, Walter DeanPETITION BOOK | 9/2000REMOVED 8/2005 | 12, CC | ![]() |
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| Frankenstein | Shelley, Mary | 9/2000 | 12, 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Friday Night Lights | Bissinger, H.G. | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | ![]() |
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| Going After Cacciato | O'Brien, TimPETITION BOOK | West CA IVRetroactively approved 8/2005 | 12, 12AP | ![]() |
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| Goodnight, Nebraska | McNeal, Tom | West CA IV | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Great Santini | Conroy, Pat | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Hamlet | Shakespeare | 9/2000 | 12, 12AP, CC | Note | |||||
| Heart of Darkness | Conrad, Joseph | Retroactively approved 6/2004 | 12AP | ![]() |
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| Hot Zone | PrestonPETITION BOOKCHALLENGED BOOK | Retroactively approved 6/2004 | 12 | ![]() |
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| Huntsmen | Terrell, Whitney | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Importance of Being Earnest | Wilde, Oscar | 12AP | NYR | ||||||
| In Cold Blood | Capote, Truman | 9/2000 | 12 | ![]() |
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| Inferno | Alighieri, Dante | 9/2000 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Into Thin Air | Krakauer, John | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Jane Eyre | Bronte, Charlotte | Retroactively approved 6/2004 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| King Lear | Shakespeare | 9/2000 | 12AP | Note | |||||
| Long Day's Journey into Night | O'Neill, Eugene | 9/2000 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Lords of Discipline | Conroy, PatPETITION BOOKCHALLENGED BOOK | 9/2000 | 12, CC | ![]() |
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| Madame Bovary | Flaubert, Gustave | 9/2000 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Metamorphosis | Kafka, Franz | 9/2000 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Mousetrap | Christie, Agatha | 9/2000 | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Native Son | Wright, Richard | 2005 Summer ReadingNOT approved | 12 | ![]() |
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| Oedipus Plays of Sophocles | Roche, Paul | 9/2000Removed 8/2005 | 12, 12AP | NYR | |||||
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | Kesey, KenPETITION BOOK | 9/2000 | 12, 12AP | ![]() |
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| One Hundred Years of Solitude | 2005 Summer ReadingNOT approved | 12 | ![]() |
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| One Minute Manager | Blanchard, Kenneth | 9/2000 | CC | NYR | |||||
| Pride and Prejudice | Austen, Jane | Retroactively approved 6/2004 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Ragtime | Doctorow, E.L. | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | ![]() |
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| Rape Fantasies | Atwood, MargaretCHALLENGED SHORT STORY | Retroactively approved 6/2004REMOVED 8/2005 | 12 | ![]() |
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| Reservation Blues | Alexie, Sherman | NOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead | Stoppard, Tom | North AP IV NOT approved |
12 | NYR | |||||
| Rule of the Bone | Banks, Russell | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Saint Joan | Shaw, Bernard | 9/2000 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Sister Carrie | Dreiser, Theodore | 2005 Summer ReadingNOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Slaughterhouse Five | Vonnegut, Kurt | 9/2000 | 12 | ![]() |
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| Stranger | Camus, Albert | 9/2000 | 12AP | NYR | |||||
| Taming of the Shrew | Shakespeare, William | Retroactively approved 6/2004 | 12 | Note | |||||
| Tess of the D'Urbervilles | 2005 Summer ReadingNOT approved | 12 | NYR | ||||||
| Their Eyes Were Watching God | Hurston, Zora | 9/2000 | 12 | NYR | |||||
| This Boy's Life | Wolff, TobiasPETITION BOOK | 9/2000Removed 8/2005 | CC | ![]() |
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| Tomato Red | Woodrell, Daniel | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Tuesdays with Morrie | Albom, Mitch | 9/2000 | 12, CC | ![]() |
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| Water is Wide | Conroy, Pat | West CA IV NOT approved |
12 | NYR | |||||
| Wide Sargasso Sea | Rhys, Jean | NOT approved | 12 | ![]() |
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| Year the Colored Sisters Came to Town | Guidry, Jacqueline | West CA IVNOT approved | 12 | NYR | |||||
| Wuthering Heights | Bronte, Emily | 9/2000 | 12AP | NYR |




