Cory Doctorow novel pulled from school reading for 'questioning authority'

Little Brother, Cory Doctorow's novel about teenagers rebelling against the surveillance state, has been pulled from a school reading programme in Florida this summer following what the author said were concerns from the school's principal over its questioning of authority and its "lauding" of hacker culture.

According to the National Coalition Against Censorship, Little Brother was chosen for a school-wide summer reading programme at Booker T Washington High School in Pensacola, Florida "after an extensive process by the professional staff". It has subsequently been withdrawn "because of concerns that some parents might object to scenes involving sex and violence and the idea of questioning authority", said the American free speech organisation. Doctorow wrote on his blog Boingboing that the principal, Dr Michael Roberts, "cited reviews that emphasised the book's positive view of questioning authority, lauding 'hacker culture', and discussing sex and sexuality in passing … In short, he made it clear that the book was being challenged because of its politics and its content."

Doctorow's publisher Tor has now sent 200 free copies of the novel to the school, and the novelist told the Guardian that he hoped its head teacher would change his mind about his decision. "As the son of two state-school teachers, I know that most career educators have the best interests of their students at heart. I presume that the principal is a good person, but I think he's wrong about this," said Doctorow.

"The right way to address controversial subjects is through discourse. Students and schools around the world have had fruitful discussions that started with Little Brother. I think that the students of Pensacola, Florida are every bit as robust and intellectually capable as their peers in the hundreds of classrooms where I've presented the book – and, importantly, so do the professional educators in the school, who had prepared an excellent curriculum around the text, and had it signed off by the school administration. I hope the principal will reconsider and give the kids the chance for a school-wide conversation about these important subjects."

The National Coalition Against Censorship has also written to Roberts expressing its concern about the cancellation of the assignment, saying that "confronting controversial and complex themes in literature is part of the educational mission of the schools", and urging him to reinstate the title as the summer reading assignment.

"School officials are bound by constitutional considerations, including a duty not to give in to pressure to suppress unpopular or controversial ideas," said NCAC executive director Joan Bertin. "Removing a book because it contains ideas that some members of the community may object to, or disapprove of, violates basic constitutional principles."

Earlier this year, the American Library Association said that the number of attempts to pull books from shelves in schools fell in 2013, to 307 from 464 the previous year.