Children, today's new word is scrotum

With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar


By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: February 18, 2007
The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter.

A Newbery-winning book has been banned from some school libraries around the country.

Susan Patron, the author of the book and a librarian, said the controversial word was just part of the character’s learning about body parts.

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.




http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/18newb.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

TTWNEW

 

Read that article.

Pat Scales, a former chairwoman of the Newbery Award committee, said that declining to stock the book in libraries was nothing short of censorship.

“The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole,” she said. “That’s what censors do — they pick out words and don’t look at the total merit of the book.”

Some of those people should be ashamed to call themselves librarians.

 

I feel bad for Roy myself.

 

Indeed. I may never walk through the woods again.

BTW, this story was bottom-left on A-1.

 

Since this book is being pulled, I'd hope each dictionary is pulled as well.

Those things are full of words like scrotum, bitch, penis and the like.

 

I for one do NOT consider this thread worthless without pictures.

 

You guys have to be kidding me. Do I have to go to the slippery slope for you all to realize that this is entirely appropriate? They shouldn't ban it, just put it in the regular section, though if libraries are allowed to make decisions based on marketing appeal, I don't think it woulod draw much interest outside of the kids section.

 

If it's written for kids, it should be in the kids section. You don't have to let your child check it out if you think it's inappropriate.

Parents should parent their own children, instead of expecting libraries, schools, etc. to do it.

 

You would prefer a warning label? It would be less effective and equally offensive to you. Where's your line? Is there anything you'd pull from the kiddie section?

 

I'd pull kiddie porn.

Seriously, it's a word. A proper term for a body part. No big deal. Half the kids reading the book have one, you know.