Single Word Causes Uproar in Children's Book
On the first page of The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, this year's recipient of the Newbery Medal, Lucky Trimble, a scrappy ten-year-old orphan, hears the word through a hole in the wall. This happens when another character s explaining that a rattlesnake bit his dog on the scrotum.
Some school librarians, after hearing about the word being in The Higher Power of Lucky," have vowed to ban the book from their libraries. This has reopened the debate over what is acceptable for children to read.
Many teachers and school librarians have used the internet to weigh in on this issue. It has been a hot topic on dozens of literary blogs and social networking sites. Authors, teachers and school librarians have been forced to take sides in this battle over a book for children. All over the country librarians are debating their role when selecting (or censoring, as some say) literature for children.
Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango Colorado, had this to say about The Higher Power of Lucky": "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."
A handful of school libraries in the South, West, and Northeast have already taken the book off of their shelves. Many more have indicated that they may do the same.
This topic has dominated conversation among librarians for the past ten days, ever since The Higher Power of Lucky was shipped to schools from the publisher.
Pat Scales, who at one time chaired the Newbery Award committee would be blatant censorship. When asked about the controversy she said "The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole. That's what censors do - they pick out words and don't look at the total merit of the book."
Something like this would go unnoticed in most novels, but winning the Newbery Medal brings a huge amount of attention to a children's book. Libraries and bookstores order more of these books than most novels, and they are read out loud to children in schools.
The debate over The Higher Power of Lucky will likely go on for quite some time. The line between protecting our children and censorship has long been an issue, and probably will be for years to come.
Source:
"Children's Book Stirs Battle With Single Word"( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/18newb.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
Published by Mike McQuillian
I am a freelance writer in Tempe, AZ. I have a B.A. in English literature from Arizona State University. I split my time between writing for web publications, reading, and watching movies View profile
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83 Comments
Post a CommentGood and nicely conveyed.
Interestingly enough - when Billy Joel's song "Only the Good Die Young" was 'banned' by the Pope, the album went from falling off the charts to number one will a bullet in a few day's time. Joel in a press conference said the Pope was welcome to ban all future albums too. There's someone in a writer's forum I belong to that has a tagline saying something to the effect of, 'Go ahead and ban/burn my books, just read them first..." What's that they say about publicity? I still think it's way cool that someone on AC beat the big wigs to writing this up and then had bloggers say he thought of it first and was copied...LOL I loved it!
Hard to believe, isn't it?
http://januarymagazine.com/2007/02/kicked-right-in-tiddlywinks.html
I thought you would enjoy this link in which a blogger compared your article to a NY Times article and said that they copied it from you!!! Way to go...LOL
I enjoyed your article. This issue is just so strange to me. I cannot believe that we are censoring accurate terms for body parts. How ridiculous. School children are using words far more "vulgar" than scrotum that's for sure.
Great article. I think if an author uses medically correct terms and it is done in a tasteful manner it should not be banned. I personally would rather my children learned the medical terms for their body parts over alot of the slang words. People have really gone over board on this one.
We need to reach the point that we can say the proper names of body parts - ALL of them - without reacting as if there is something "bad" about words such as "scrotum". The comment that the author should have had the snake bite the dog's leg, on order to "avoid the whole situation" is nuts (no pun intended). Children should be able to use the words "scrotum", "penis", "vagina", in the proper context, without a bunch of Puritan adults freaking out.
"This happens when another character s explaining that a rattlesnake bit his dog on the scrotum." Could the snake just as well have bitten the dog on the leg, and avoided the whole situation?
If a child in this day and age hasn't been explained about the facts of life and their own bodies by the age of 9 or 10 then their parents are risking that knowledge will come from somewhere else. And probably not accurate at all. Children are beginnning puberty earlier and earlier as the years go by. Parent's feigning ignorance over this fact is foolish! Also the "Thought Police" once again at their finest! Is there anyone out there beginning to feel like George Orwell's 1984 is becoming truth and no longer fiction in American society?
Let's consider for a moment just who we're pretending to protect here. Presuming half the young readers are boys; they already own scrotums (or is it 'scroti'?) They have, no doubt, already made the connection b/n their anatomy and that of other mammals. As for the girls, have none of them been to the zoo? This 'uproar' is trite, overwrought Puritanism, nothing more. Kids learn prurient content from their parents' freak outs.