February 18, 2007
JUST NUTS (via The Mother Judd):
With One Word, Children's Book Sets Off Uproar (JULIE BOSMAN, 2/18/07, NY Times)
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.
Oughtn't we to be more surprised that the scene isn't advocating cross-species sex? Posted by Orrin Judd at February 18, 2007 10:14 AM
After watching our local school district go through spasms after 'Tom Sawyer' was put on the recommended reading list for middle-schoolers, my conclusion is that scrotum is the new n*****.
Posted by: Chris B at February 18, 2007 5:17 PMHey, at least Ms. Patron used the appropriate and proper name for the body part. Thankfully she didn't use "ba''s" or "n^ts." Toward what age children is this book targeted?
Posted by: Dave W at February 18, 2007 11:30 PMMeanwhile, when I was a kid my dad was reading a picture book to my brothers and, as I recall, he got a word garbled and what came out sounded like the aforementioned objectionable word combined with the sound of a dog barking. We all cracked up. He kept repeating it periodically throughout the story. Had us all in stitches.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at February 19, 2007 12:39 AMSupposedly the uproar was because adults didn't want to have to define the word! Meanwhile, through the media, kids are bombarded with the words "rape," "erectile dysfunction," "abuse,"
"genocide," and "abortion." I'd think those were much more difficult to explain than "scrotum."
In the 70's when my kids were in junior high (7th, 8th & 9th grades), their "science" book had a diagram of the human body that did not include the bladder nor the reproductive organs.
We've certainly progressed a lot since then.
Posted by: erp at February 19, 2007 9:24 AM