With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar

New York Times ^ | February 18, 2007 | Julie Bosman

[billorites]

The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter.

Yet there it is on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature. The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

“Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”

The inclusion of the word has shocked some school librarians, who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and reopened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children’s books. The controversy was first reported by Publishers Weekly, a trade magazine.

On electronic mailing lists like Librarian.net, dozens of literary blogs and pages on the social-networking site LiveJournal, teachers, authors and school librarians took sides over the book. Librarians from all over the country, including Missoula, Mont.; upstate New York; Central Pennsylvania; and Portland, Ore., weighed in, questioning the role of the librarian when selecting — or censoring, some argued — literature for children.

“This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn’t have the children in mind,” Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo., wrote on LM_Net, a mailing list that reaches more than 16,000 school librarians. “How very sad.”

The book has already been banned from school libraries in a handful of states in the South, the West and the Northeast,

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

You gonna die, Roy.

[goldstategop]

That's funny coming from the same people who demand unfiltered porn on library computer terminals. Its much ado about nothing.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[humblegunner]

The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

A moose once bit my sister on the scrotum.

[zarf]

Pure calculation on the publisher and author for publicity. It worked!

This stuff is now marketing 101 stuff with the media as the conduit.

If they can milk it, more power to em.

[billorites]

"The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation."

Nor does it often appear in poetry given the difficulty of finding a rhyme.

[digger48]

he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum

I take it, it wasn't the dog who was named "Lucky"

[goldstategop]

People have already seen the famous bared breast at the last Super Bowl. We're supposed to be shocked at a part of the male antomy? Puhleeaze!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[zarf]

A moose once bit my sister on the scrotum.

That wasn't your sisters scrotum, she's so old her thang looks like a wizards sleeve.

[YoungAmerican84]

"A moose once bit my sister on the scrotum."

Moose bites can be pretty nasty, you know.

[MrLee]

Yup, that'll do it.

[billorites]

"[Y]ou won’t find men’s genitalia in quality literature -- at least not for children.”

I've had my nose in a good book a time or two, but that's about it.

[proxy_user]

I hope you guys remember the little boy on Wonderama, around 1965, who insisted that an octopus had eight testicles.

Sandy Fox was really flummoxed!

[Old Professer]

Determining what is age-appropriate is, in itself, a subtle form of censorship.

[Fairview]

For God's sake, this is a perfectly acceptable, correct scientific word. My kids knew the proper words for body parts when they were five or six (though we tended to continue using the baby words for some years afterward). I don't believe for a moment that school librarians are fainting with horror over a word like scrotum. It's one of the favorite places mooses have for biting sisters so it must be okay. There are a lot of other words for places mooses bite that would not be okay for elementary-school kids.

[Tijeras_Slim]

"Mom! My dog's butthole got run over."

"That's rectum, Son."

"Wrecked him? Heck, it killed him!"

[Fairview]

That must have hurt like a b******.

[goldstategop]

Its good to know libs want to protect the little ones - when they aren't indoctrinating them in sex in the publik skrool.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Nor does it often appear in poetry given the difficulty of finding a rhyme.

I'll give it a try:

A snake bit my dog on the scrotum
His nuts hurt so much he can't tote 'em
But this limerick I pen
Ain't for kids six through ten
If the libs want this crap, let's outvote 'em

[billorites]

"I hope you guys remember the little boy on Wonderama, around 1965, who insisted that an octopus had eight testicles."

Speaking of seafood, I always thought "scrod" sounded a little obscene.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it."

- - Dr. Evil

[kalee]

ping

[gcruse]

Art Linkletter's Kids Say the Darnedest Things had a little girl wishing to be an octopus so she could hug everyone with her testicles.

[mwyounce]

LOL!

[Oztrich Boy]

"Good work Nibbles! Now chew through my ball sack"

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Speaking of seafood, I always thought "scrod" sounded a little obscene.

I was up in Boston one time and asked a cabbie if he knew a good place to get scrod. He said, "I've heard that question a thousand times, but never in the pluperfect subjunctive tense."

Rim Shot

Click the Pic J

[Pox]

LOL. One of my favorite punchlines. :)

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Evidently 'she' wasn't your sister after all.

[Graymatter]

There once was an agile factotum
Who climbed up his family totem...

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

There once was an agile factotum
Who climbed up his family totem...
It appeared that his goal
Was the top of the pole
He said that he could, and he showed 'em

[billorites]

"There once was an agile factotum..."

That reminds me of a friend of mine from Nantucket.

Remarkable fellow, really.

[Melas]

Wrong group of people. School librarians and public librarians have little in common.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Nor does it often appear in poetry given the difficulty of finding a rhyme.

He aimed his rifle and he got 'em;
Shot 'em both right through the scrotum.

[Explorer89]

Even when WFTD class is out, Truthie still phones in with the poetry.....

[oneamericanvoice]

Super Bowl = childrens book? Now I see why you're having trouble....

[silentreignofheroes]

OPP,ALABAMA,,,,home of the Rattle Snake Rodeo,,,1st weekend in April...Yall come..

Nice small town event...

[mkjessup]

The Higher Power of Lucky?

I didn't know Susan Patron was one of Senator James Webb's pseudonyms.

[decimon]

Is Roy now a pointer or a setter?

[CzarNicky]

Jim Webb is upset he didn't think of this little ditty.

[Piranha]

Code 'em
Goad 'em
Hoed 'em
Mowed 'em
Knowed 'em
Owed 'em
Rowed 'em
Sewed 'em
Showed 'em
Stowed 'em
Towed 'em

[MAD-AS-HELL]

I hear she is going to tackle TEA BAGGING in her next book

[Richard Kimball]

The first thing I thought of was that joke. I see it came to your mind, too. I suspect the author included it for the same reason.

[Grizzled Bear]

The way I herd it, your sister who bit the moose on the Gazebo.

I love medical terms!

[The Coopster]

Like a pair of roll-up window blinds, eh?

[Grizzled Bear]

Pwned 'em

[gcruse]

When a freeper named Mr Ramsbotham,
Rhymed 'scrotum' as if it were 'scrawtum,'
I thought what a shame,
Looks like his own name,
Done unhitched the way that we taught 'im.

[xsmommy]

LMAO!!!

[ApplegateRanch]

A moose once bit my sister on the scrotum.

What was your sister doing on the scrotum? Was it some kind of nut case?