This is just plain nuts . . .
The censorship police are live and well and at it again:
“The Higher Power of Lucky” by Susan Patron, winner of this year’s prestigious Newbery Medal for children’s literature, has been removed from several libraries and schools because some parents and librarians were alarmed to find that its text includes the word “scrotum.”
The “Lucky” book has hit the shelves in Gloucester, where so far, there have been no complaints
“At least they’re using the biologically correct word,” said Mary Rainier, librarian at T.C. Walker Elementary School in Gloucester, where the book was just catalogued last week. “I don’t take a book out because it has a word. I would take it out if it has objectionable or age-inappropriate content.”
“Seldom is a book challenged on content,” she said. “It’s almost always challenged on a single word.”
Once again I pause to pose the question: Why do we give certain words so much power? I hope our good neighbors to the East will keep their heads and let their children read this book. I might buy it for my kids as I find the plot intriguing: seems a dog (NOT lucky) gets bitten by a rattlesnake . . . on the scrotum.
