Quick answer
Which books do parents read aloud in America's Moms?
At school board meetings in America's Moms, parents read from Gender Queer, All Boys Aren't Blue, Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson and What Girls Are Made Of. One mother checks out Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) to read it herself. Some boards stop the readings mid-sentence.
For immediate release · Wrong Speak Films · — Should these books be in a middle school library? In America's Moms, parents stand at school board podiums and read passages from books available to their children — and some boards stop them mid-sentence because the language isn't fit for the room.
The books read at school board meetings
Parents in the film read from Gender Queer, All Boys Aren't Blue, Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson and What Girls Are Made Of, and one mother describes checking out Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) and Gender Queer from her public library to read them herself after seeing the headlines.
A Hillsborough County, Florida chapter leader says there were 25 copies of Monday's Not Coming in county schools. Another mother says Gender Queer arrived on her child's sixth-grade summer reading list.
"I'm not against anything. I'm against the books."
Speaker after speaker says the issue is not anyone's sexuality or identity but age-appropriate content. As one father puts it, nobody needs a PhD to know a book like this is not appropriate for kids.
Sex surveys given to children
The film also covers student surveys that asked middle schoolers about sexual activity and pornography — including a youth risk behavior survey in Groton, Massachusetts, and a Burlington mother whose son came home shaken after taking one.
The other side
America's Moms includes a heated television interview in which a host argues that award-winning books like All Boys Aren't Blue tell real stories some students need, and asks why one parent should decide for another.
Questions
- Is America's Moms suitable for children?
- The film includes explicit passages read aloud from school library books, as well as discussion of abuse and suicide. It is made for adults.
About Wrong Speak Films
Wrong Speak Films is an independent documentary film production company founded by author, speaker and filmmaker Adam B. Coleman, also the founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Its documentaries include America's Moms, Not Standing Alone and The Illegal Highways.
Press and interview requests: contact Wrong Speak Films.