New York is Book Country -- but with immigration controls

Last September when I met with students in the HS for Environmental Studies, 444 W. 55, as part of "New York is Book Country," one class had already downloaded and studied my story "Melliflua and the Fauns." When I read it aloud, they had some sharp questions, and then we went on to talk of lots of other things. This morning, my second visit for NYIBC, at the Robert F. Wagner Middle School, MS 167, on E. 76th St., was very different. The assistant principal, forewarned of my intentions, asked me not to read that story -- "Too sexual," she said. So I had to improvise. I asked about what the students were writing and, since they didn't know my work) they asked me some very general questions. The AP's objection surprised me; these were eighth graders, the audience I'd had in mind when I wrote it (I actually had in mind a very particular 7th grade girl, now in 9th grade). What do you think? Check it out: "Melliflua and the Fauns".