Really? We have to go through this again? And in my own state, my own Northern Virginia even. I’m so disappointed.
Yes, And Tango Makes Three is in the center of another challenge, as reported in the Washington Post. Man, let’s give those poor penguins some peace. I love this book, and I’ll contend now and forever that it’s not harmful to children. It’s. Not. Harmful. Even if you’re worried
Hey, guess what? It’s Banned Books Week! I love this time of year, when the librarians get all charged up about banned books. Really gets our blood pumping. There was an unfortunate incident a few years back when the name of the week was incorrectly publicized as “Ban Books Week.” Given the opportunity, librarians across the country threw out thousands of copies of Guess How Much I Love You, Madonna’s The English Roses, and entire collections of Lurlene McDaniel books. Celebrity-authored books were especially targeted, making for a good day for Bloggers Against Celebrity Authors (though BACA’s official response was “no comment.”)
Of course, now it has been made clear that Banned Books Week is a time to take a look at books that come under frequent challenges for their inclusion in public and school libraries. There are other bloggers, like Bookshelves of Doom, that cover this topic extremely well. I’d rather cover it for laughs. And I find no challenge funnier than that of And Tango Makes Three, a sweet book based on a real story of two male penguins that together raised an orphaned egg. Bottom Shelf Books just did a wonderful discussion of this title, including a video of a gay marriage statement made on their behalf — well, sort of. For my part, I’ll re-post my write-up from March of last year, if you don’t mind. The reference to the Colbert show and the specific library incident is so last year, but the rest of it remains true.
How edgy am I? Just so on the cusp of what is hot, that I selected and suggested the book
And Tango Makes Three mere weeks before it appears on
The Colbert Report.
Apparently, a couple of parents in Missouri objected to this book being in their public library, and somehow the news feeds picked up the story. The library did not remove the book from its collection, but did move it to the nonfiction section, so it would be
less likely to “blindside” somebody.
Ah, so many layers to this story. Where to even begin?
There is the sociological implication of our worries about gay penguins taking over the world. For an angry take on that, perhaps, you might go to another site, maybe
Prometheus Unleashed. Though I would looooooove to go into it, that’s not what I’m about here at MotherReader.
There is the response of the library to consider, which was not wrong, but was pretty meek. I mean, two parents complain, and you move the book? What if I object that I don’t want my preschooler to inadvertently pick up a book about Noah’s Ark? Should all of those books go into the religion section? There are picture books that deal with the death of a parent or of a pet. Maybe they should all go in the section on grief? Where do you want to draw the line on what is unobjectionable? To the library’s credit, at least they didn’t get rid of the book. So that is something.
There is the mindset of the parents to explore. It is a public libary holding books for
all the public. If you don’t like a book, if it offends you in some way...
don’t check it out. It is really that simple. You can exercise your parental control to say, “I do not wish to read this book to my child.” So. Don’t. Read. It. To. Them.
There is the worry of introducing delicate subjects to children. Remember, parents, children will ask you questions based on what they are capable of processing, and you, as a parent, can answer accordingly. A child may listen to this book and ask why it was that two boy penguins wanted to stay together. We as parents can say, “Sometimes a man may love a man or a woman may love a woman, and they want to be together.” We do not have to go into the whole gay culture or what a man and a man do together in bed, any more then we would explain the whole bar scene or what a man and a woman do together in bed. When sex comes up with children, I would go with the “when a man and woman love each other very much...” talk, not the “when a man and a woman get drunk and they feel this special itch...” talk.
Then there is the book itself, which I stand by as a lovely, gentle story about adoption and love. You could use it as a springboard to talk about the diversity of the world, but you don’t have to do so. I would be willing to bet that four out of five preschoolers wouldn’t ask a single question about the two boy penguins. So it doesn’t need to be that worrisome. The authors told the story, they didn’t put
thoughts in the penguins heads. We are making the interpretation ourselves. There is no gay penguin love agenda.
What is most important here — what we
can’t forget — is how incrediblly cutting edge I am to have suggested the book in the first place.
By: Pam Coughlan,
on 2/18/2008
Reading this makes me so sad. I had to check this book out from the public library in order to read it to my students (5th graders) this year. I read it during Banned Books Week. About half of the elementary schools in my district (not the one that just banned it) have this book. My school is not one of them. Our librarian, who is amazing and phenomenal, is gun shy about this book. It's sad. It is a wonderful book.
By the way, I loved your comment about the penguins walking out of talks about the gay agenda. Thanks for making me laugh in the midst of this.
Oh, I might have to put this title on my blog JUST so I can have the tag Gay Penguin Love. Too funny. I have a 6th grader who wants to write a feature article on single-sex classrooms. Her angle? Will it make students gay?
Sports teams-all in danger of being gay. Founding fathers of the constitution were obviously all in danger of being gay. Rolling Stones - gay. Without the same-sex cohabitation of Artcic animals being discussed in earlier grades this is what you get!
http://destinedtobecomeaclassic.blogspot.com/
I read the article in the Washington Post yesterday. The thing that really made me upset is that they followed their procedures - a committee reviewed the book and recommended keeping it, another committee reviewed it and recommended keeping it - and then the Superintendent basically ignored both committees and banned it anyway! What's with that? Why bother even having a challenge procedure if the Superintendent can just do what he or she wants anyway?
The objections to this book are so discouraging. They make me think badly of people.
And, seriously, 70 degrees??? I am so jealous. It's 30 here and supposed to be dropping down to the teens tomorrow. This is the time of year in WNY when winter becomes very tiresome.
I've never seen the book -- I'm in a middle school -- but I've certainly heard plenty about it over the past year or so. It just drives me crazy that people are so closed-minded but I must admit it doesn't surprise me. I agree with Sheila that the most shocking part is the superintendent deciding not to follow the committee's recommendation and pulled the book anyway. I'm sure that move did wonders for his relationship with the teachers in his school system. Some day this issue isn't going to be so divisive. I just hope I live to see it.
The superintendent is allowed to make a "split decision" and pull the book from the shelves but keep it in the professional collection. Even though two different committees voted in favor of keeping the book. Now some parents want to challenge the superintendent's decision to put the book back on the shelves. And school officials say there is no process for that? Are they serious?