By John Mack Freeman
The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a 2012 book that chronicles the life of Cameron Post. After her parents die, she is forced to move to Montana to live with a conservative aunt while trying to blend in to survive. When she meets Coley Taylor, though, things change. Via Goodreads: “She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship–one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to “fix” her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self–even if she’s not exactly sure who that is.”
The book was an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults pick and a Lambda Literary Award nominee. And it was part of the Cape Henlopen summer reading list until this week. The board removed the book from the summer reading list after receiving complaints. They removed the book because they had no apparatus in place to adjudicate and deal with controversial material. Although the main reason cited was “language,” sources noted that other books on the list had similar language.
This led to the entire summer reading program being ended for the summer. Only one school board member voted to keep the book on the list.
