Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes Analysis

Book-banning in school libraries has been on-going for as long as people have been writing novels. Stories are usually censored for its language, sexual content, religious reasons and many more. One book looking at to be censored is Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher. In this questioned book, Sarah Byrnes is a senior, who has a friend named Moby. Moby struggles with his weight and Sarah, also struggles with her appearance having burn marks from when she was younger. Although, people believe that the burns came from a childhood accident it is a result from child abuse caused by her father. Throughout the book, Sarah has noticed her father’s cruelty growing and is afraid he is about to do something even worse than the burns he gave …show more content…
The mother took the case to the school board when the principle only suggested that her son have the choice to read an alternate book. The mother although, wanted the book completely removed from the library all together. Teachers trained to find powerful books for their language arts students have already determined that Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is an effective tool. Ultimately, they read books for the learning aspect of it, and this particular novel gets that job done. In a letter from the author, he discussed he wasn't surprised to hear this book was under being censored. He explained though, that the book offended a parent, not the student. He had no problem with having her son reading another book because she finds his book prudent, but Chris Crutcher does have a problem with a parent saying her sensibilities are right for the entire freshman class. Thousands have read and used this book in their school systems, but out of thousands that read and enjoyed the story one can ruin it for all. She is being too sensitive and ridiculous, the school isn't forcing her son to read the book, but that isn't enough for her. Clearly, the mother wanting to ban the book is blowing the situation out of