Reply #29: violence gets a "pass" because a novel is about conflict, thus, death

[pitohui]

if you eliminate all novels which deal with death, murder, violence, risk to life and limb, then you might as well close down shop and not offer the novel as a subject of study for children

without conflict (plot) there IS no novel -- and the most involving conflict generally involves some threat to life or survival

for my part, i've read "the road" and that was gruesome enough for me, i would not want that in my mind again and i would not hand it over to a teen-ager who had not sought it out for herself and shown some reason to be interested in reading it (an interest in post apocalyptic literature would be fine, if the kid had read other books on that theme and understood what she was getting into it)

i bet you dollars to donuts the coach has not read the book, he simply provided the kids with a list that was provided to him