Why Neige Sinno’s book Sad Tiger was withdrawn from a Breton high school

The book Sad tiger From Snow Sinno is one of the successes of this literary season. Critically acclaimed, it is even one of the favorites for the Goncourt prize reserved for high school students.

But the students of the private Le Mennais high school in Ploërmel, in Morbihan in Brittany, will not be able to access it in their institution. As reported Western Francethe principal of the high school, Veronica Calasdecided to remove the CDI shelves, which appeared there as part of a selection offered to students, so they could write a review for the High School Pen Prize.

In question? In this autobiographical story, the author addresses the incestuous rapes she suffered at the hands of her stepfather between the ages of 7 and 14. So, for the head of the plant, this book includes “passages of great violence” AND “words, phrases, pages that may offend sensitivity”and therefore has no place in the factory.

“I am the first to want to fight incest but we must also protect young people and not add fragility to fragility. I withdraw a book from the establishment but I don’t censor it”she justified herself to The Parisian.

Teachers are “moved and shocked” by this decision

If the Parents Association supports e “presses” The decision of the head of the institute does not go on the side of the teachers at all. Some of them, however, had proposed the creation of a reading committee to support the students. No response from the plant manager. In the columns of Parisianthey say to themselves “moved, shocked, even disgusted by the very principle of censorship of a work validated by National Education and the Goncourt Academy”.

Even on the part of book publishers, this decision raises questions: “ We are proud to have published it. I am all the more surprised because it is a book, despite dealing with sexual abuse of minors, of great intelligence and great sensitivity. Neige Sinno respects his reader by writing in the form of conversation », expressed to Western France Frederic Boyerliterary director of the POL publishing house

Same story for Jean-Paul HirschPOL editions press officer: “This book, which has already won the literary prize of World he is also selected for the Goncourt prize, the Medicis prize, the Femina prize… In short, almost all the autumn prizes and also the Goncourt for high school students. Censoring him in a club seems scandalous to me.”he was indignant, before concluding: “ It’s not the words, the paragraphs of this book that are very harsh, it’s the incest and the silence that reigns around. »

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