BLOG VIEW | HEADLINE VIEW

ALL

GEEK

Librarians Furious With Scrotum

MONDAY FEBRUARY 19 2007 7:00 PM

Submitted by FearTheReaper. Edited By FearTheReaper.

TAGS: The Higher Power of Lucky, Susan Patron, scrotum, Newbery Medal

Note to children�s book authors: Less scrotums and more talking rabbits. Writer Susan Patron is learning that lesson the hard way after a book she penned is causing a stir for mentioning a dog�s scrotum on page one.

The Higher Power of Lucky kicks off with a 10-year-old orphan hearing the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog on the scrotum.

�Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,� the book continues. �It sounded medical and secret, but also important.�

Patron claims the word was just part of the character�s learning about body parts. Whatever, criminal. Some school librarians have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools because boys who have scrotums should not know what they are called. Boys should be forced to make up their own names for that hairless, wrinkled sac between their legs. My little Benny Hill comes to mind. Or, the Taint Overhang. Possibly, the Fleshy Walnut. By law, girls are not allowed to know what a scrotum is called until they can fit an adult sized one in their mouth.

The book has caused an uproar on Librarian.net and other exciting librarian blogs, with librarians lining up on either side of the scrotum.

�This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn�t have the children in mind,� Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo., wrote on LM_Net. �How very sad.�

The scrotal scandal is even worse because the book is the winner of this year�s Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children�s literature. Winners of the Newbery are routinely ordered by all school libraries and read aloud classrooms. But to many, this book winning is like a kick in the nuts. Needless to say, it won�t be stocked in many libraries.

Wendy Stoll, a librarian at Smyrna Elementary in Louisville, Ky., wrote on the LM_Net mailing list that she would not stock the book.

One librarian who responded to Ms. Nilsson�s posting on LM_Net said only: �Sad to say, I didn�t order it for either of my schools, based on �the word.��

Patron doesn�t understand what all the fuss is about.

�The word is just so delicious,� Ms. Patron said. �The sound of the word to Lucky is so evocative. It�s one of those words that�s so interesting because of the sound of the word.�

So delicious that you want to put it in your mouth.

43 Comments

PAGE:

1 | 2 | 3

Kes

USA

August 2006

FEB 19, 2007 07:03 PM

hahahahahahahah

"The scrotum scandal"
I love it!
They had to have known it would get this kind of a reaction.
(I think they should have to give back their Newberry award)

mydogfarted

Waldwick, NJ

June 2003

FEB 19, 2007 07:06 PM

I know I'm ashamed of my scrotum.

SmellsLikeSciFi

Houston, TX

April 2004

FEB 19, 2007 07:09 PM

IT'S A FUCKING BODY PART! Come the fuck on, people!

Is this America anymore? The Conservative nut-jobs have moved on from potty language and expletives to BODY PARTS!?!?

Can nouns and verbs be next? PROPER nouns then, is it?

Aeryka

SUICIDEGIRL

Illinois, USA

FEB 19, 2007 07:16 PM

maybe all librarians arent closet-kink-freaks. i totally wanna write a kids book with the word vagina in it now.

Necia

San Francisco, CA

August 2005

FEB 19, 2007 07:21 PM

Scrotums (scrotii? Scrotii! Yes!) totally are "medical and secret, but also important."

I want to read this book, though, to find out why snakebites on scrotii are relevant to the plotline. I'm curious now.

Quartz

Baltimore, MD

November 2005

FEB 19, 2007 07:25 PM

that was classic! I love it!

DevilsReject

Cleveland, OH

February 2007

FEB 19, 2007 07:29 PM

Don't blame the writer, blame the stupid dog that got bit in the scrotum.....wtf was that dog thinking?

This is just people trying to protect their kids from the wrong thing. I would really have no problem with my daughter asking me what a scrotum is, i'd just like to know where she heard it from. I'd rather she read it in a book than heard from some ucky boy on the playground.

Hate to break your heart Aeryka, but there already is a kids book with the word Vagina in it.......

PatrickY

Vancouver, WA

December 2003

FEB 19, 2007 07:30 PM

Necia said:
I want to read this book, though, to find out why snakebites on scrotii are relevant to the plotline. I'm curious now.

And that's why the librarians are right to ban the book. When a young woman's thoughts turn to scrotum, all decorum flies out the window. A life of beatnik dancing and canoodling is the inevitable result.

Last stop: REEFER MADNESS

Kes

USA

August 2006

FEB 19, 2007 07:33 PM

A rattlesnake bite on the scrotum would be extraordinarily painful.

Rumbler

San Antonio, TX

August 2005

FEB 19, 2007 07:35 PM

I once heard of a farmer who cought his scrotum in the PTO of a tractor and hay bailer. The moral of the story: walk around the heavy equipment and spinning metal, not over it.

The doctor saved the testicals by putting them in his legs.

Necia

San Francisco, CA

August 2005

FEB 19, 2007 07:38 PM

PatrickY said:

Necia said:
I want to read this book, though, to find out why snakebites on scrotii are relevant to the plotline. I'm curious now.

Oh, it's even worse. My thoughts have turned to scrotii. MULTIPLE scrotum. Gasp!

Rumbler said:
I once heard of a farmer who cought his scrotum in the PTO of a tractor and hay bailer. The moral of the story: walk around the heavy equipment and spinning metal, not over it.

The doctor saved the testicals by putting them in his legs.

I--I didn't need to know that. I don't even have testicles, or farm equipment, and that hurts to read about.

*weeps*

PatrickY

Vancouver, WA

December 2003

FEB 19, 2007 07:42 PM

Necia said:

PatrickY said:

Necia said:
I want to read this book, though, to find out why snakebites on scrotii are relevant to the plotline. I'm curious now.

Oh, it's even worse. My thoughts have turned to scrotii. MULTIPLE scrotum. Gasp!

When you hop aboard the scrotii train, little missy, the only destination is tramp town.

Kes

USA

August 2006

FEB 19, 2007 07:44 PM

He put the testicles in his legs??
*shudder*

I now have all kinds of weird and freaky and frightening images going through my head: scrotums and rattlesnakes and tractors and metal blades and I just had an image from Caligula.....

*double shudder*