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Anonymous wrote:We read so many books as class starting in 4th grade. I specially remember two of the books in 4th being A Bridge to Terabithia and A Wrinkle in Time. And we had to take turns reading aloud in class. Do kids do this anymore?
Why would they? How does that help anyone?
Ours start in second grade. In kindergarten and first grade they are reading according to their level. They read Roald Dahl, Mildred Taylor books like Let the Circle be Unbroken, The Family Under the Bridge are some of them.
I don’t believe this. No school in 2026 is assigning Family Under the Bridge to elementary kids.
Absolutely. Why wouldn’t they. And it was my oldest read it about 10 years ago. 4th or 5th grade. It’s a classic children’s book for that age group. James and the Giant Peach was 2nd grade.
Public schools are not reading “classic” children’s books that have what could be perceived as racist and discriminatory language throughout them. Little House, Secret Garden, certainly Family Under the Bridge, are not on any public school’s elementary reading list for assigned class work
What are you talking about?
It’s a children’s book about post WW2 in Paris and a homeless man who under the bridge. The homeless man reluctantly helps take care of three homeless children and their mother and ends up helping them find an home and himself a family.
It’s a CLASSIC children’s book that addresses issues like compassion, family and sticking together in difficult times.
You don’t know the book because there is no mention of race or discrimination. It’s surprising to me how many posters don’t know children’s classics.
Natalie Savage Carson is the author. Look it up.
I’ve read it. I’ve read it to my kids. And no way is it part of any public school’s 3rd-4th grade assigned curriculum in 2026. It just isn’t.
Still waiting for this poster to admit she did not read the book.
Read it and already responded. Keep up.
Then why don’t you explain the racism in the book that you read. Or why a book for 4th graders is not being taught in elementary schools? You Just claimed about how they don’t read this because of racism and nothing to back up your claim. Just one example of what you claim.
Sorry, I just read your response about the word “tramp” and “Gypsy”. That’s not racism. This was written as if it’s post WW2 when these words were common. 4th graders can and need to understand the history of language and how and why it changes.
Right now you’re supposed to say someone is “unhoused”, not “homeless” because homeless is apparently offensive. Language constantly changes.
1930s, 1940s saw a lot of homeless men who traveled from place to place looking for work. They were written about. My middle schooler just read Of Mice and Men where they were called Bindle Stiffs. Grapes of Wrath has homeless families called vagrants. We don’t ban books over words used in the era the author is writing about.
It’s not just the terms, the book also depicts the homeless man (and others) as happily homeless by choice and not wanting to work and the “gypsies” as thieves and other negative stereotypes. It’s an ok book and would be find should my kids have been assigned it (I’ve read it aloud), but no public school teacher is using this as a class book. It’s very outdated in many ways. This is a book that you’d find being used in a homeschool co-op or maybe a Catholic school, but not a public school. I bet most public libraries don’t even carry it. Few public schools are assigning full books to elementary kids to read during the school year at all- and they certainly aren’t picking ones dating pre 1960, very few classics at all.
Books can’t be all puppies and rainbows. The book has the man happy with living under the bridge and was irritable when the family came in. The Gypsy and the homeless man helped the family get a home and he left the bridge to move in with a family. Happy ending, you’re leaving out the compassion of the gypsy and eventually the homeless man softened helped watch the children.
This was real life and still is. I got to know 2 homeless men near my daughter’s theatre school when I waited on the side street. I would buy food at 7/11. One man was homeless by choice. His wife told quit alcohol or leave. He left to live on the streets.
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is in 5th grade. Same era, Southern Mississippi, the most racist place in America. It’s about a black family and how they dealt with the ugliness of racism, violence and segregation. It uses racial slurs like they did and still do. These are historical books and shouldn’t be banned because someone’s offended by a word or stereotype that was alive during the time period. I’d hate for kids not to know the history of their own country.
What are some of your book suggestions ?
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