Mark Twain
Didn’t banning books go out of style with burning bras? By now hasn’t everyone realized that information is essential to a free, thinking democratic society? Why do people feel justified in taking away choices when it comes to books? If you don’t like a book, DON’T READ IT, but keep your paws off my bedside table! You never hear about people banning brussel sprouts or Slim Jims (eewww), they just don’t eat them. People don’t ban ‘snuggy’s, socks with sandals or belly shirts, they just avoid them (hopefully). But when it comes to book there is the danger of the ‘idea’. Book banners believe that once an ‘idea’ is loose there is no going back - the idea tumbles down the hill, picking up speed, gathering everyone in sight as it flattens all alternatives and then it is too late. That’s the mindset of people who challenge books like The Catcher in the Rye, The Color Purple, The Grapes of Wrath and Slaughterhouse Five and it is the same fearful thinking that has caused an uproar over a book that now holds the title of ‘most challenged’ book in the last five years.
Can you guess the title? It’s not Harry Potter or Twilight or The Hunger Games. The book that has been at the center of censorship battles and, what Wikipedia calls a “cultural war”, is a picture book about penguins called, And Tango Make Three. I kid you not. This is not any old picture book but a deeply subversive books that apparently strives to corrupt young readers with the truth.
The story began in NYC’s Central Park Zoo (all the action takes place in NYC, no wonder no one ever sleeps) when two male Chinstrap Penguins were observed trying to hatch a rock. The zookeepers watching penguins Roy and Silo decided to give the pair a second egg from another penguin couple to see if they would have any luck and that’s when the real trouble started. Baby Tango was hatched and raised by Roy and Silo who were kept together as a family by their keepers. Read more about the couple’s history in Dinitia Smith’s NYT article, Love That Dare Not Squeak Its Name.
Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell decided to write And Tango Makes Three to help children understand same-sex families in an age appropriate way. But Focus on the Family Action and some elementary schools across the country saw a different agenda. Here are the lowlights:
-Candi Cushman, from Focus on the Family Action, said the book is far from a “true story.” “It’s very misleading,” she said, “and it’s a very disingenuous, inaccurate way to promote a political agenda to little kids.”
-In 2008, Shiloh Elementary School parents asked that the book be placed in a restricted section of the library that would require parental permission for check out.
-Superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools, Peter Gorman, ordered the book removed from the school library in 2006.
-They got a little crazy in Calvert County, MD when the Library Board of Trustees heard a challenge from a parent that requested the book be moved to an adult section on sexuality, or marked with a red dot to alert parents of it content. The parent claimed that when the book stated that Roy and Silo “slept together” it was a reference to sexual behavior.
-Parent in Ankeny, Iowa asked that the book be moved to a restricted area only available to parents.
Although nutty parents offer great materials for articles, enough is enough. In 2008 The Supreme Court sent a letter to Calvert County reminding them of the existence of freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution (a small detail they overlooked). The court reminded the library that they must offer unrestricted access of books to all patrons, even books about Penguins.
Roy and Silo’s relationship didn’t last forever, Silo’s eyes began to wander and they finally landed on Scrappy, a female penguin from Sea World, poor Roy was left in the lurch. The anti-Tango groups took an ‘I told you so’ stance’ and rejoiced at the turn of events. They were relieved to learn that even penguins could be bullied into ‘good decisions’. In their narrow minded view the story of Tango could now be shelved with ancient history.
Personally, I can’t wait to get my copy.
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