With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar
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.
5 comments:
Great. Now Simon & Schuster will probably pull the plug on "Scrotum Piercings 4 Kidz!" It was going to revitalize the whole Klutz series and everything. Just when I thought I had a future...
And with that information securely on the internet now, I guess you can rule out me running for public office, too. This is just fucking great.
I bet the magic school bus and ms. frizzle are no strangers to the secret and medical world of the scrotum.
what kind of irresponsible fuck doesn't get their dog neutered? keep this devil book away from my littuns.
i mean it's not like she heard "bend over, you dirty cunt!" through the hole in the wall...
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