Angry about language in a pair of books for young-adults his daughter read in an advanced reading class at a New Tampa elementary school, a father is trying to get both books removed from the list.
He also wants to revamp the process for selecting books, he said.
Darryl Brown's 11-year-old daughter, Ashyaa, is a fifth-grader at Turner Elementary School. Turner is an A school, as designated by the state, one where 90 percent of students read at or above their grade level.
School officials said they are aware of Brown's complaint and have called for a review committee to consider the matter.
Brown objected to two books on his daughter's list of assigned reading materials in her accelerated reader class.
He said racial epithets appeared in "The Land" by Mildred Taylor and "The Starplace" by Vicki Grove.
It was a couple of months ago that his daughter told him about "The Starplace," Brown said. He said he complained to the school but wasn't told about the procedure to get the book reviewed and possibly pulled from the list.
Recently, he said, his daughter saw another student reading "The Starplace," and the two engaged in a conversation about the book. That's when the other student mentioned the N-word to Ashyaa.
The other student "told my daughter there was nothing wrong with the N-word," Brown said. "My daughter was physically shaking when I picked her up that day."
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