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Just received word The Wild Rose Press wishes to contract Deidre's Secret, a teen paranormal romantic suspense. When Deidre Roux begins having premonitions of danger, watch out! But can she convince her new friend, Mark Cummings, to believe that she truly sees a world of danger headed their way before it's too late?

NOTE TO SELF: A FAMILY IS A FAMILY IS A FAMILY...SOME PEOPLE SEE SUBVERSIVE PLOTS EVERYWHERE, ESPECIALLY IN LOUDON

Given the fact that this is a place where there is reading matter covering a wide variety of subjects, one parent whose sensitivities were obviously jarred by the prospect of gay penguin parenting, has managed to get a book pulled from the library shelves. Some people see subversive plots at every turn, even within the pages of a children's book.

A children's book about two male penguins that hatch and parent a chick was pulled from library shelves in Loudoun County elementary schools this month after a parent complained that it promoted a gay agenda.

The decision by Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III led many parents and gay rights advocates to rush to the penguins' defence. Many say that the school system should not have allowed one complaint to limit children's literary choices. Some are calling for an overhaul of the book review policy. Besides, many say, what could be wrong with a book about penguins?

"The book is based on a true story . . . of what happens in the animal kingdom," said David Weintraub, director of Equality Loudoun, a gay rights organization. "It's about the joy of being part of a family. These penguins love each other. They take care of each other. The book, "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, draws on the real-life story of Roy and Silo, two chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York. It also appears to make a point about tolerance of alternative families.

As the book says, Roy and Silo were "a little bit different" than the boy and girl penguins who noticed each other and became couples. "Wherever Roy went, Silo went too." After they tried to hatch an egg-shaped rock together, a zookeeper gave them a fertilized egg to nurture. Experts say male chinstraps typically share incubation duties with females.The 2005 book, written with simple words and colorful pictures and dedicated "to penguin lovers everywhere," topped the American Library Association's list of banned or challenged books in 2006. Parents challenged the book in Shiloh, Ill., and Charlotte. Administrators in Charlotte initially yanked the book but later restored it, according to news reports.

Read the whole story here:

http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/news/2008/feb/16/tango/

Extra Information regarding penguins found on the Sea World site: http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Penguins/hatching.html:

"Care of the chicks
1 . Chicks require attentive parents for survival. Both parents feed the chick regurgitated food. Adults recognize and feed only their own chicks. Parents are able to identify their young by their chick's distinctive call (Marchant, 1990; Simpson, 1976).
2. Male emperor penguins exhibit a feature unique among penguins. If the chick hatches before the female returns, the male, despite his fasting, is able to produce and secrete a curdlike substance from his esophagus to feed the chick (Marchant, 1990; del Hoyo, et al., 1992) allowing for survival and growth for up to two weeks (Pr6vost and Vilter, 1963-1 Stonehouse, 1975).

In this show: Re-visiting a conversation with colleagues from Winnipeg, Manitoba. A special thank you to Chris and Tannis for their thoughtful contributions. Let me know where you are: Click on ‘Join the CLIP Frappr Map’ in the menu bar. Post a comment: Click the comment button below or leave a voice mail by clicking ‘leave me a message’ in [...]

I'm back home after a trip to Delaware (the maligned state of children's literature,) on the occasion of a baby shower. One of my college roommates and her husband has recently returned from Vietnam with their brand new baby boy. I've become fairly well-versed in the process and procedure of international adoption, as I have not one, but two friends, who are adopting from Vietnam. And sort of like the case that when I was pregnant I suddenly noticed how many pregnant women there were in the world, now that I have a vested interest in adoption, I have noticed a lot of books around on the subject. Three recent ones that come to mind are:

Motherbridge of Love (Anonymous and Josee Masse, illus.)
The Red Thread: an Adoption Fairy Tale (Lin, Grace)
We Belong Together: a Book about Adoption and Families (Parr, Todd)

And a few that are not strictly about adoption but about the fact that some families are made up of unexpected pieces:

The Thunderstruck Stork (Olson, David and Lynn Munsinger, illus.)
And Tango Makes Three (Richardson, Justin, Peter Parnell and Henry Cole, illus.)
Owen and Mzee: the True Story of a Remarkable Friendship (Hatkoff, Craig, etc.)

Owen and Mzee have become a bit of a cottage industry (sort of like Bunnicula and Good Night Moon.) You can choose the original book, a sequel (of sorts--it rehashes a lot of the original,) a board book edition, and an easy reader--not to mention Mama: a True Story in which a Baby Hippo Looses his Mama During a Tsunami, but Finds a New Home and a New Mama, by Jeanette Winters, wherein the title is longer than the book!

Anyways, the weekend was lovely, the shower was impressive, the gifts were literary (I've never seen so many board books in one room this side of my local Barnes and Nobles--and there were only two duplications!) and the baby of the hour himself was a charmer. Congratulations!

This is a slim volume but well worth a look. It tells a familiar story--precocious pre-teen has to adjust to new girlfriend in the life of her widower father. But there is a style to Catherine Bateson's storytelling which really sets this one apart. While the reader instantly sympathises with Bee as she bemoans the fact that no one understands her situation (and most of the adults really are surprisingly unsympathetic to the upheaval this is causing in her life), the girlfriend herself, Jazzi, is a thoroughly likable character, and there is real hope that the two of them can work on their relationship. The process is aided by events presented up-front (Jazzi taking Bee in as a confidant) and behind the scenes (the correspondence between Bee and her guinea pigs, Fifi and Lulu.) I found myself in tears at points in the story, mainly because Bateson does such an excellent job of revealing the communication gap between adults and children; how the gap would be so easy to bridge if the adults just remembered that the children are not adults themselves, that they don't think like adults. A perfect example is when Bee walks into her father's bedroom unannounced and discovers that Jazzi is there in bed with him. While the adults yell at her to go away, knock first, etc, etc, all Bee can think is, "Well how was I supposed to know that she was sleeping over?" How or why indeed.

While reading this, I was reminded of what an easy ride I had with my own step-son. I've always realised that I got off lightly, and that the credit goes to him. And as I read the ebb and flow of tension in Bee and Jazzi's relationship, I thanked God again that it was so! Pieceing together a family, as opposed to creating one, is a tricky business. Being Bee is a lovely way for young readers to see that it can be done successfully.

NOTE TO SELF: WHEN IS CHRISTMAS NOT CHRISTMAS? WHEN IT'S NOT "PC"


Once again as has occurred in the past, Christmas has become a politically un-acceptable word.

The latest is a move by an Ottawa, Canada, elementary school's attempt to remove the word "Christmas" from the song, "Silver Bells" in their annual Christmas concert

Gimme a break!

The move has ignited a controversy that has spread across the country and probably across North America and beyond. Instead, "Frosty the Snowman" replaced "Silver Bells" sung by Grade 2 and Grade 3 students attending Elmdale Public School.

"It was a choice by the choir," said Ottawa-Carleton District School Board spokeswoman Sharlene Hunter. "The teachers are visibly and emotionally upset and don't feel they can conduct that song to the best of their ability."

Elmdale has been inundated with telephone calls and emails after the story broke about teachers at the school changing the word Christmas and replacing it with "festive" in the Christmas carol, "Silver Bells." As in: "silver bells...silver bells...it's festive time in the city..."

Ridiculous!

It's akin to the story where Australian Santas were told not to use the traditional "ho-ho-ho" laugh and use "ha-ha-ha" instead, since it was deemed offensive to women.

It makes one wonder which songs will be deemed un-politically correct in the future. Will radio stations have to bleep out unacceptable words?

"It's beginning to look a lot like festive... Everywhere you go..." or "We wish you a merry festive..."

And a Merry Christmas...um - Festive - whatever, to you too!