Irish Parents Review English Curriculum

Reviewers are noting that this graphic novel with its " dark images,unsettling revelations and tortured illustrations"  is definitely for  "older readership", It is interesting to note, that when we searched for images from The Savage book, that Google immediately categorised it as Horror. Verdict: We at IrishParents agree and feel that the worthy subject matter of Grief, could be explored from more beneficial, suitable texts. We do not recommend this book as a suitable text for study in the classroom. I am horrified to think that this is actully recommended on the school curriculum! Some of the scenes in this comic are horrific, and it does not promote a healthy way to deal with death. Helen G Co. Cork This is not beneficial material for our teens! Marck C. Co. Meath

Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace , which is set in a boys school in Zimbabwe, is littered with highly offensive sexualised language: the book abounds with words and phrases such as Wanker, Prior the Wire, Wire-Puller, bum chum, taking it up the arse, dick, cock, etc etc. Also, offensive words such as piss, shit, bastard, black bitch, poof, queer etc etc . occur constantly throughout the book. Ironically, this book which supposedly  highlights racism, actually encourages the reader to think racist thoughts, through the many negative comments and anecdotes it relates about black people. It also contains many slurs against boys with homosexual tendencies. The theme of torture and murder occurs in the book, and although it is not explicitly condoned, it is none-the-less disturbing. Verdict: I am not happy for my 17yr old boy to be reading this material. I think it glorifies murder (when the victim is not viewed as “good”) and the use of guns and crude, disgusting language. I think that...

Hunger (movie) drected Steve McQueen. (REVIEW BY CHRIS LEMIRE) . In telling the story of Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands, who died in a Northern Ireland prison after a 66-day hunger strike in 1981, McQueen approaches his subject with vividly stomach-churning detail. Feces smeared on concrete cell walls, piles of half-eaten swill rotting in the corner, inmates dragged naked down the halls and beaten to a pulp ? it's all there and more, if you can stand it, since McQueen is practically pornographic in lingering on these shots of violence and squalor. . Hunger  begins in near silence, as a prison guard (Stuart Graham) soaks his swollen and bloodied hands in water in the bathroom sink, looks sadly at himself in the mirror, then gets dressed and eats breakfast before yet another grueling day. From there, the film unfolds in three segments. The first follows a defiant new inmate (Brian Milligan) who refuses to wear his assigned uniform, and instead goes naked like his fellow Rep...

  The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler is a gritty, sometimes disturbing, murder detective story. It contains various sexual scenes in which the female 'femme fatale' "slut" is naked (in chapters 7, 9 & 24) drugged, being slapped (" I slapped her around a little more. She didn't mind the slaps" ch 7), photographed while posing for a pornographic photo shoot, in front of a pole containing a hidden camera, by an effeminate bisexual man,  Geiger, who organisies  sex orgies and blackmails rich customers. He  is also a buyer and seller of pornographic books (he runs an illicit porn lending library: "a lending library of elaborate smut").  The book contains a variety of derogatory references to Jews and homosexuals and sexist remarks about women like "The dumb broad" and "the blonde"   Suggestive links are made between violence and sex e.g. in chapter 6, where the reader is led to believe that the female has cried out during sex...

. In the prescribed list for movies for Leaving Cert, Winter’s Bone by Debra Granik is listed. Winter’s Bone presents everything against a bleak, menacing backdrop. The 17 yr old female protagonist,Ree, visits various people in turn, who are either drug addicts, offering drugs (to said minor) or snorting Cocaine in front of her.There are gory scenes of animal skinning and violence perpetrated on Ree by men and women. In one scene, young Ree has a glass thrown at her face and is dragged by her hair and slapped (by other women). There are scenes of vandalism where a window screen is smashed with an axe. In another scene, Ree and two accomplices use a chainsaw t o hack off a dead man’s hands (Ree’s father’s hands). Verdict: Horrible, disturbing movie! This is NOT good Art. This NEEDS to be removed from the curriculum. This is what happened in my home when my family and I sat down to watch it: After 15 mins, my 19 yr old son left the room mumbling: “What IS this -that’s disturbing….!...

Just because a book is gaining popularity in book clubs across the globe, does not mean that it is automatically suitable for children under the age of 18 to be reading and studying as quality 'literature' in the classroom. Where the Crawdads Sing t ells the story of a dysfunctional family and the abandonment of the youngest child, Kya, who lives for many years, alone, in a shack on the marsh. She is befriended by a local teenager, Tate, with whom she has a sexual encounter, while she is still only 15 yrs old. Tate is described as being "18 or 19" at the time. He undresses Kya and touches her breasts and between her legs etc. and even though he stops short of intercourse (because he recognises she is a minor), the scene is very explicit. There is a sub-story of the marsh itself and the wildlife (which is beautifully described) and kya's and Tate's shared interest in this, but most of the book is taken up with the romance and sexual tension and sex scenes betw...

  Set in North  Carolina just before the close of WW1. A young woman who has been shunned by her community because of superstition surrounding her birthmark, befriends a mysterious drifter and they eventually fall in love. This is a small town story with big themes such as the American perspective on WW1 and spies, courage & cowardice, outsiders & insiders, nature, love, fear and bravery. The Cove is a novel that speaks intimately to today's politics. Beautifully written, tough, raw, uncompromising, entirely new. (Colum Mccann) Verdict from Irishparents: Lovely read, good themes and characterisation but check  Parental and teacher alert: The story contains two sex scenes on pg 19 (and implied sex scenes on pgs 99 & 101 and again, in chapter 12) We advise parents to read this book before discussing it with your child's teacher and deciding if you are happy for your child to study it.