The Outsiders
Kids need controversial books like The Higher Power of Lucky.
by Lisa Carver
February 27, 2007
Lucky Trimble is about to lose her guardian to France, become an orphan, and so lose her dog, HMS Beagle. Looking for a back door out of this inevitability, Lucky eavesdrops on 12-step programs to see how those down-and-out-ers found a higher power and a way out. Like Lynda Barry's Cruddy for the 10-year-old set, The Higher Power of Lucky is delightful, audacious, funny and mentions the word "scrotum." Not a human scrotum. A dog's. But because of that, a librarian from Colorado complained, the complaint got picked up online, other librarians joined the anti-scrotum fray and high controversy ensued.
This is the stupidest non-issue ever. If we don't want our children to know that dog scrotums exist, we'll have to bring home only bitches. Even then, somewhere, somehow, a child will spy the dreaded canine sac a-dangling.
Don't these librarians know that when children are not given a name for something, what they come up with instead is always dirtier, more specific and usually really weird?
Critics have long suggested that books portraying gritty, non-Ozzie-and-Harriet families are the result of 
Visiting Day by Jacqeline Woodsontoday's therapy-and-meetings-and-talk-show society. Several years ago, one New York Times reviewer called the dawning trend "worrisome."
But grit's been around for thousands of years! Up until fifty years ago, it was normal for children to witness and assist with animal mating, birthing and dying — the 3 things we now try to tuck away not only from children, but from the rest of us grown-ups, too. This has made us a flimsier species.
When adults are not given names for things, such as what goes on in their elderly mother's body or in the "rest" home where she's been deposited, what we imagine is both vague and terrifying. Separated from death, we've forgotten that it's just a part of life, as scrotums are just a part of the body, as mental illness is a part of most families somewhere along the line.
For the 10 million American children who have a parent in jail, prison is as familiar an institution as a library.
I was one of those 10 million. My dad went to prison when I was 6, and for the 4 years he was there, I was not allowed to visit him, I was not encouraged to speak about it, and there was no Visiting Day by Jacqueline Woodson for me to read to let me know I wasn't the only one who felt or lived like this.
©2007 Lisa Carver and Nerve Media
About the Author
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