Most Objectionable Book for Kids?
The American Library Association says the book the public objects to the most was one written for children. (Objections were measured by written complaints filed with a library or school.) Was it the one explaining mommy’s plastic surgery–”My Beautiful Mommy”? Nope. The one where Curious George gets high on ether? Nah-ah. So what book was so offensive to folks?
The number one challenged book–for the second year in a row, no less–was “And Tango Makes Three,” co-written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. It’s about a penguin with two dads. You know, the gays are coming after your kids, one penguin at a time. Sigh. See, I’ll get that book for my kid now, cuz I’ve grown weary of the way heteros always push their agenda in kid lit. Other books that made the objected list were: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou; Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn;” and Philip Pullman’s “The Golden Compass,” for anti-religious stuff. You know what books I object to? Those crappy little Disney ones that summarize “Cinderella” or “The Little Mermaid.” They always have at least one typo and actually melt your brain with boredom when you read them.
Not to mention how Disney always manages to completely mangle the original fairy tale, rendering it insipid AND boring. Not that I think my 5 year old should hear the originall Little Mermaid, that dies in the end becasue she can’t bring herself to stab her prince while he sleeps beside his new lover…
SHEESH. The plastic surgery book is SO wrong. What’s wrong with happy gay penguins!?!?!??? If nothing else, it helps prove to the fundamentalists that, NO, it’s not “unnatural.”
Please… how do you influence a penguin to be gay? Really, I’d be a LOT more hard-pressed to answer my child’s awkward questions after reading the Old Testament!!
I found a copy of the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales when I was 9 or so, and felt so CHEATED by Disney. That same year I read the original Bambi and 101 Dalmatians. SO much better than the movies.
And Disney always kills off the Mommy!! Hateful mean disney.
I’ve never understood why it is necessary for people to tell me what my child should be reading. Isn’t that my job as a parent??? I wouldn’t have a problem reading Tango and we own a lot of Disney books. Oh well.
I’m a librariian, and at my library, a coworker got a complaint about tango. (This is in NYC!)
It’s such a cute book. She dealt with it in the usual way by thanking the person for their concern and putting the book right back on the shelf.
The ironic part is that “And Tango Makes Three” is based on a true story about some penguins at Central Park Zoo.
Nastiest book I ver tried to read was the Bible. Full of sex, violence and injustice.
Gay guys like to play peek a boo too, and as far as tools, that is our keenest interest.
You know, my daughter received a well known author’s book box set about family the other day and each member has a book. I opened up the Daddy one to read and lo and behold, they are using tools to make a project, while the Mommy one plays a game of peek-a-boo. Guess what kiddo, mama’s got tools, too, the book is going into “hiding” along with any Disney crapola that comes our way and we are going to get ourselves a real good book- maybe “Tango”?
I agree with every word you just wrote.