Who had to read "Death Be Not Proud"?

I was just thinking about this in the shower where I do my best thinking. In middle school (!!) I had to read Death Be Not Proud, a memoir by a father about his son, a teen, dying of a brain tumor. It is full of medical details. I think it was way too disturbing a book for young teens to read in school and it was a little scary for me. But it also fueled an interest in all things medical. For a while I was obsessed with reading about brain tumors, then the history of medicine and famous physicians and surgeons. To this day a lot of the medical knowledge I have stems from that early interest, not from specific health concerns. I was wondering if anyone else had to read this book in school -for me this would have been New Jersey public school, early-mid 70s. Seems an odd choice for a school curriculum. It's possible I head to read it even earlier - 5th grade, New York public school?
Erica

I remember it well, and read it by choice. It was also a movie with Robbie Benson, who I had a crush on at the time.