5

I am seeking a Terry Pratchett book with a preamble discussing a student who was suspended from school for bringing one of Terry Pratchett's books to the classroom; when the child came again with the book (allowed by Mom), the school had the child removed from her home as the book was "anti-school" or "anti-principal."

TheLethalCarrot
  • 143,332
  • 64
  • 808
  • 878
user122301
  • 67
  • 1
  • 3
    Are you certain this is a Pratchett book? (A) I've never read this in any of his books (and I just did a search across the e-texts of most of them); (B) the only matching result I get back in a variety of google searches is this question. – DavidW Oct 11 '19 at 15:25
  • Pratchett or not, what was science-fiction/fantasy about this very story? I know Pratchett wrote a lot of SFF (maybe even only SFF?) but so far it doesn't look very on-topic. – Jenayah Oct 11 '19 at 15:39
  • 3
    I don't recall this in any Terry Pratchett book. Not only that, but teachers usually fall over themselves to praise Pratchett for inspiring kids to read – Valorum Oct 11 '19 at 15:50
  • 1
    Eyeh, we do allow non-SFF queries about SFF authors and their books. It does seem a bit odd that a kid would be taken from their parents over this sort of thing... – FuzzyBoots Oct 11 '19 at 17:00
  • 3
    @Valorum When Terry Pratchett started writing, some schools (especially strict religious ones) were less tolerant of fantasy. A coworker who happened to be on a school board told me the story of some people who objected (in a public board meeting) to the teaching of science because it was 'sorcery'. You never know how bonkers some people can get. You can't call this off-topic until the essay is identified. Anyway, if it's a preface to an actual Pratchett fantasy novel, it could be considered on-topic for 'history-of' or 'fandom' reasons. – Spencer Oct 11 '19 at 17:04
  • Could this have been a news story or (maybe SFF) magazine article? – Spencer Oct 11 '19 at 17:05
  • @Spencer - Agreed. That said, I'm happy to let it stew in the closed pile unless someone can identify the work – Valorum Oct 11 '19 at 17:06
  • 5
    The question What book did Philip K. Dick dedicate to Heinlein? is also about the introduction to a book and that is not only still open but highly upvoted. I don't see why this question should be closed when it's basically similar. – John Rennie Oct 11 '19 at 17:22
  • The referenced incident seems likely to be apocryphal -- it would at the least require the local child protection authorities to agree with the school administration that the book was harmful to the child. Can't say this would never happen in certain parts of the USA, but Pratchett was British and his books were, in general, first published in England. – Zeiss Ikon Oct 11 '19 at 17:52
  • 1
    Unless there's evidence that this was actually a Terry Pratchett story AND that it was one of Terry Pratchett's science fiction or fantasy works, I see no reason why this should remain open. – Valorum Oct 11 '19 at 20:04
  • 1
    @Valorum: "let it stew in the closed pile unless someone can identify the work" - uh, that's not how StackExchange works. For starters, closed questions can't be answered. – Martha Oct 11 '19 at 20:11
  • 1
    @Martha - No, but if someone thinks they know the answer, they can post a meta, a comment, post a reopen vote, etc. There's lots of ways to get an apparently off-topic question that turns out to be on-topic back open – Valorum Oct 11 '19 at 20:24
  • The closest I can think is a mention by Piers Anthony that his books were once used in a child custody case to prove unfitness. – Aaron Gullison Aug 17 '20 at 10:11

0 Answers0