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orangerfulWith One Word, Children's Book Sets Off Uproar
The one word? Scrotum.
The book is targeted at 9-12 year olds and the entire library world is bubbling about this book. It just won the Newberry award so it's actually being read and school librarians and others are yanking it off the shelves.
It's just embarassing. Scrotum isn't some vulgarity, some swear word or sexual act. It's anatomy. And it's not even HUMAN anatomy in the book - a dog is bit on the scrotum by a rattlesnake. That's it.
UGH! I hate people who jump all over little things. They're not even reading the book - however good or bad it might be, just yanking it off the shelf or refusing to order it. And it just makes librarians look BAD! No one says boo about us until some bunch of moron librarians decides they're going to raise a fuss about the word 'Scrotum'. I'd love to see what they thought of 'Nick & Norah's Inifinite Playlist' the young adult book I just finished which features the word "fuck" on almost every page and has lots of dry humping and almost a blow job in a hotel snack room. They'd pass out.
Actually, no they wouldn't. They wouldn't read the whole thing. They'd open to page one, see all the f-bombs, and they'd ban the book.
Then these librarians say that the author clearly didn't know her audience. Whatever. What kid isn't slightly obsessed with the body and it's functions? What kid doesn't love using scientific sounding words? And with a book that has a female protagonist, I'm sure seeing a dog being bitten by a rattlesnake on it's scrotum will keep the boys reading for at least a couple pages.
God, I LOVE my library system. If we don't have something, it has to be pretty bad. If it's a J book that people complain about, we make it Y, if it's a Y book, we make it adult. And then no one cares. It's out there, you can get it, we won't deny you the right to read whatever you want.
Neil Gaiman posted his thoughts on the issue too. I hope his rogue librarian theory is true.
This stuff makes me SO angry. I really cannot think straight enough to properly rage about it.
The one word? Scrotum.
The book is targeted at 9-12 year olds and the entire library world is bubbling about this book. It just won the Newberry award so it's actually being read and school librarians and others are yanking it off the shelves.
It's just embarassing. Scrotum isn't some vulgarity, some swear word or sexual act. It's anatomy. And it's not even HUMAN anatomy in the book - a dog is bit on the scrotum by a rattlesnake. That's it.
UGH! I hate people who jump all over little things. They're not even reading the book - however good or bad it might be, just yanking it off the shelf or refusing to order it. And it just makes librarians look BAD! No one says boo about us until some bunch of moron librarians decides they're going to raise a fuss about the word 'Scrotum'. I'd love to see what they thought of 'Nick & Norah's Inifinite Playlist' the young adult book I just finished which features the word "fuck" on almost every page and has lots of dry humping and almost a blow job in a hotel snack room. They'd pass out.
Actually, no they wouldn't. They wouldn't read the whole thing. They'd open to page one, see all the f-bombs, and they'd ban the book.
Then these librarians say that the author clearly didn't know her audience. Whatever. What kid isn't slightly obsessed with the body and it's functions? What kid doesn't love using scientific sounding words? And with a book that has a female protagonist, I'm sure seeing a dog being bitten by a rattlesnake on it's scrotum will keep the boys reading for at least a couple pages.
God, I LOVE my library system. If we don't have something, it has to be pretty bad. If it's a J book that people complain about, we make it Y, if it's a Y book, we make it adult. And then no one cares. It's out there, you can get it, we won't deny you the right to read whatever you want.
Neil Gaiman posted his thoughts on the issue too. I hope his rogue librarian theory is true.
This stuff makes me SO angry. I really cannot think straight enough to properly rage about it.
