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With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar
New York Times ^
| February 18, 2007
| Julie Bosman
Posted on 02/18/2007 3:25:16 PM PST by billorites
The word scrotum does not often appear in polite conversation. Or childrens literature, for that matter.
Yet there it is on the first page of The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron, this years winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in childrens literature. The books 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 childrens 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 didnt 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,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: scrotum
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To: proxy_user
"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.
21
posted on
02/18/2007 3:39:16 PM PST
by
billorites
(freepo ergo sum)
To: billorites
"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
To: Cailleach
23
posted on
02/18/2007 3:39:45 PM PST
by
kalee
(ETette call home,)
To: proxy_user
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.
24
posted on
02/18/2007 3:39:48 PM PST
by
gcruse
(http://garycruse.blogspot.com/)
To: TruthShallSetYouFree
25
posted on
02/18/2007 3:40:57 PM PST
by
mwyounce
Comment #26 Removed by Moderator
To: TruthShallSetYouFree
"Good work Nibbles! Now chew through my ball sack"
27
posted on
02/18/2007 3:41:24 PM PST
by
Oztrich Boy
(Evolution is conservative.)
To: billorites
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
28
posted on
02/18/2007 3:42:14 PM PST
by
TruthShallSetYouFree
(Abortion is to family planning what bankruptcy is to financial planning.)
To: TruthShallSetYouFree
LOL. One of my favorite punchlines. :)
29
posted on
02/18/2007 3:43:25 PM PST
by
Pox
(If it's a Coward you are searching for, you need look no further than the Democrats.)
To: humblegunner
Evidently 'she' wasn't your sister after all.
30
posted on
02/18/2007 3:44:03 PM PST
by
The Spirit Of Allegiance
(Public Employees: Honor Your Oaths! Defend the Constitution from Enemies--Foreign and Domestic!)
To: billorites
There once was an agile factotum
Who climbed up his family totem...
To: Graymatter
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
32
posted on
02/18/2007 3:50:17 PM PST
by
TruthShallSetYouFree
(Abortion is to family planning what bankruptcy is to financial planning.)
To: Graymatter
"There once was an agile factotum..."That reminds me of a friend of mine from Nantucket.
Remarkable fellow, really.
33
posted on
02/18/2007 3:51:08 PM PST
by
billorites
(freepo ergo sum)
To: goldstategop
Wrong group of people. School librarians and public librarians have little in common.
34
posted on
02/18/2007 3:57:47 PM PST
by
Melas
(Offending stupid people since 1963)
To: billorites
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.
35
posted on
02/18/2007 4:01:09 PM PST
by
Mr Ramsbotham
(Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
To: TruthShallSetYouFree; xsmommy; Gabz
Even when WFTD class is out, Truthie still phones in with the poetry.....
36
posted on
02/18/2007 4:10:37 PM PST
by
Explorer89
(Join Myself!!! End reflexive pronoun abuse!)
To: goldstategop
Super Bowl = childrens book? Now I see why you're having trouble....
37
posted on
02/18/2007 4:13:54 PM PST
by
oneamericanvoice
(Protect children and childhood.)
To: billorites
OPP,ALABAMA,,,,home of the Rattle Snake Rodeo,,,1st weekend in April...Yall come..
Nice small town event...
38
posted on
02/18/2007 4:14:48 PM PST
by
silentreignofheroes
(When the Last Two Prophets are taken, there will be no Tommorrow!)
To: billorites
The Higher Power of Lucky?
I didn't know Susan Patron was one of Senator James Webb's pseudonyms.
39
posted on
02/18/2007 4:16:03 PM PST
by
mkjessup
(If Reagan were still with us, he'd ask us to "win one more for the Gipper, vote for Duncan Hunter!")
To: billorites
Is Roy now a pointer or a setter?
40
posted on
02/18/2007 4:20:35 PM PST
by
decimon
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