Idaho school bans 'Like Water for Chocolate' for sexual content

A school district in southwest Idaho says the book “Like Water for Chocolate” is inappropriate for high school sophomores. It’s banning the book from the curriculum.

The 1989 book by Mexican author Laura Esquivel includes vivid descriptions of sexual arousal. Nampa School District spokeswoman Allison Westfall says over the weekend, administrators reviewed the passages after receiving complaints.

“I believe they were specifically about the sexual sections of the book. So they looked at the passages, and considered the age level of the students and deemed that to be inappropriate for that grade level.”

Westfall says the book was part of a class on world literature.

“Like Water for Chocolate” has become a contemporary classic of Latin American literature and especially the genre of “magical realism.” It’s previously drawn complaints elsewhere, including districts in Wisconsin and Arizona.

Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network

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