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 materialOther Adult content (drugs, occult, suicide, extreme violence, or other adult issues that parents should know about before their children are immersed in them. Not Yet Rated
Title Author Date "Approved"
by district 		Class P S O
Always Outnumbered Always Outgunned Mosley, Walter 2004 West CA IV
NOT approved		 12
Animal Dreams Kingsolver, Barbara 9/2000 12
Art of Work Coleman, Robert Retroactively
approved
8/2005		 CC
Bastard out of Carolina Allison, Dorothy West CA IV
NOT approved		 12
Beloved Morrison, Toni
PETITION BOOK
CHALLENGED BOOK		 9/2000 12AP
Brave New World Huxley, Aldous 9/2000 12, 12AP, CC NYR
Bluesman Dubus, Andre West CA IV
NOT approved		 12 NYR
Bluest Eye Morrison, Toni West CA IV
NOT approved		 12
Cat's Cradle Vonnegut, Kurt West CA IV
NOT 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 IV
NOT 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
Enemy of the People Ibsen, Henrik 9/2000
Removed 8/2005		 12 NYR
Fallen Angels Myers, Walter Dean
PETITION BOOK		 9/2000
REMOVED 8/2005		 12, CC
Frankenstein Shelley, Mary 9/2000 12, 12AP NYR
Friday Night Lights Bissinger, H.G. West CA IV
NOT approved		 12
Going After Cacciato O'Brien, Tim
PETITION BOOK		 West CA IV
Retroactively
approved
8/2005		 12, 12AP
Goodnight, Nebraska McNeal, Tom West CA IV
 12 NYR
Great Santini Conroy, Pat West CA IV
NOT approved		 12 NYR
Hamlet Shakespeare 9/2000 12, 12AP, CC Note
Heart of Darkness Conrad, Joseph Retroactively
approved
6/2004		 12AP
Hot Zone Preston
PETITION BOOK
CHALLENGED BOOK		 Retroactively
approved
6/2004		 12
Huntsmen Terrell, Whitney West CA IV
NOT approved		 12 NYR
Importance of Being Earnest Wilde, Oscar 12AP NYR
In Cold Blood Capote, Truman 9/2000 12
Inferno Alighieri, Dante 9/2000 12AP NYR
Into Thin Air Krakauer, John West CA IV
NOT 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, Pat
PETITION BOOK
CHALLENGED BOOK		 9/2000 12, CC
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 Reading
NOT approved		 12
Oedipus Plays of Sophocles Roche, Paul 9/2000
Removed 8/2005		 12, 12AP NYR
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Kesey, Ken
PETITION BOOK		 9/2000 12, 12AP
One Hundred Years of Solitude 2005 Summer Reading
NOT approved		 12
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 IV
NOT approved		 12
Rape Fantasies Atwood, Margaret
CHALLENGED SHORT STORY		 Retroactively
approved
6/2004
REMOVED 8/2005		 12
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 IV
NOT approved		 12 NYR
Saint Joan Shaw, Bernard 9/2000 12AP NYR
Sister Carrie Dreiser, Theodore 2005 Summer Reading
NOT approved		 12 NYR
Slaughterhouse Five Vonnegut, Kurt 9/2000 12
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 Reading
NOT approved		 12 NYR
Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston, Zora 9/2000 12 NYR
This Boy's Life Wolff, Tobias
PETITION BOOK		 9/2000
Removed 8/2005		 CC
Tomato Red Woodrell, Daniel West CA IV
NOT approved		 12 NYR
Tuesdays with Morrie Albom, Mitch 9/2000 12, CC
Water is Wide Conroy, Pat West CA IV
NOT approved		 12 NYR
Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys, Jean NOT approved 12
Year the Colored Sisters Came to Town Guidry, Jacqueline West CA IV
NOT approved		 12 NYR
Wuthering Heights Bronte, Emily 9/2000 12AP NYR