Snow Falling on Cedars
A novel by: David Guterson
Spoiler Alert!
Snow Falling on Cedars
Mississauga, Ontario
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
In South Kitsap High School, Washington, Snow Falling on Cedars was banned on May 1, 2000. Some 150 concerned parents challenged the book and the school board decided to ban it. The challengers compared the book to PORN, and the board was forced to admit that the novel contained sexual scenes and profanity. Later, however, the town lashed back. Some 750 people signed a petition asking the board to reverse its vote to remove Snow Falling on Cedars from the high school's required reading list. ​ The people were voting for the book on account of the lesson on prejudice against the Japanese-Americans and the beautiful story of love surrounding Kabuo's murder trial. Although the argument raged on that the sex and profanity, the town continued to rebel. "This is censorship. Who will now have to watch the watchers," Bill Kammin, a South Kitsap parent and supporter of the novel, told the board.
In 2007, in Ontario, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board removed the book from one parent complained about its sexual content. The book was taken out of all classrooms and the library, but the debate raged on. The board's "challenged materials" policy states that complaints about books and resources that aren't resolved at the local level must be reviewed by a committee consisting of library services and religious education co-ordinators, two trustees, a parent and the superintendent of schools. "The Challenged Materials Standing Committee, which met on February 5, concluded that the novel, when presented in concert with Catholic moral teaching, offers senior students the opportunity to apply faith and reason in order to explore deep truths about the meaning of life."-The Brampton News
​
In 2008, The Coeur d’Alene School District banned Snow Falling on Cedars because it contained sexual references. It was part of a five book challenge that included: Beloved, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Chocolate War, and Fallen Angels, as well as Snow falling on Cedars. Thanks to a 3-2 vote by the board, Coeur d'Alene schools now give students and parents the option to request a different book if they believe Snow Falling on Cedars to be inappropriate. As a result of the Snow Falling on Cedars restriction, the district now has a policy requiring a review of all novels planned for classes. The books are evaluated by an ad hoc committee and then face a 30-day public inspection. This is an awful lot of work to do, just to keep students from reading a swear word or two, or a sex scene.
In 2004, Snow Falling on Cedars was challenged, but later retained in advanced english classes across the School Board in Modesto, California.
Parents were worried, of course, about the sexual content and the violent descritions of Ishmael's time spent in the war. It was also banned in Boerne, Texas in 1999, when it was removed from classrooms and a library in a Boerne, TX high school because of depictions of violence, sex, and racial bigotry. Thankfully, the cooler heads pf Modesto prevailed, and the novel was kept in the carriculum because of the imprtant lessons it teaches on love and racial discrimmination. The seven member Modesto City School Board said administrators should instead give parents more information about the books their children read, including annotations of each text.
South Kitsap, Washington
Modesto, California
