School officials object to language in book

School officials have refused a literacy group’s request to hand out copies of a best-selling children’s book to first-graders because it ends with a mouse calling a donkey a jackass. School officials in neighboring Gloucester said Tuesday that they plan to send a letter home to parents asking whether they want their children to receive a copy of “It’s A Book,’’ by Lane Smith. Rockport Superintendent Susan King told The Gloucester Daily Times that she liked the book’s message but felt that the language is inappropriate. In the book, a mouse calls a donkey a jackass after the donkey cannot figure out how to use a book and tries to use it as an electronic device.