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February 20, 2007
Dog's Balls
According to a story in Sunday's NYT, librarians are creating a big to-do about the use of the word "scrotum" in an award-winning children's book "The Higher Power of Lucky." Although the 132-page book for 9-12 year olds has been described as "poignant" with characters that are "uniquely unforgettable;" librarians, from Colorado to Kentucky, are refusing to stock the book because of that one word.
According to the NYT story, the librarians argued that teacher's wouldn't want to have to explain that word to their students. If I remember correctly, sex education starts in the fourth grade. Besides that I was reading juicy novels by VC Andrews and Jackie Collins in the fourth grade, at least these kids are learning the proper medical names. In the piece, another librarian says "you won't find men's genitalia in quality literature." But the book actually uses the word scrotum in reference to someone's dog. No wonder American kids are behind in test scores, school librarians aren't even reading the books themselves.
Posted by Catherine at February 20, 2007 04:36 PM