• news
  • MONDAY FEBRUARY 19 2007 7:00 PM

Librarians Furious With Scrotum

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.

  • PERMALINK
  • PRINT
  • Digg This
  • Email To A Friend
 

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2 | 3

Next

Comments
catdad

catdad

Portland, OR
August 2002

FEB 19, 2007 08:02 PM

If the dog had been neutered, none of this ever would have happened. Always remember to spay or neuter your pets.

jtemperance

jtemperance

Chicago, IL
January 2004

FEB 19, 2007 08:36 PM

"Note to children's book authors: Less scrotums and more talking rabbits."

Fuck that. Fewer rabbits and more talking scrotums.

tommymunkey

tommymunkey

Los Angeles, CA
October 2005

FEB 19, 2007 08:50 PM

America needs to grow up.

RumpusParable

RumpusParable

Copperas Cove, TX
April 2003

FEB 19, 2007 08:53 PM


"Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much...



All else aside, that's pretty dead on. Scrotum does sound like some glob you'd hack up during pneumonia...

"Oh god, I just coughed up a huge wad of scrotum!"

You_Dont_Know_Me

You_Dont_Know_Me

Bossier City, LA
July 2004

FEB 19, 2007 08:55 PM

I'm buying 10 of these and donating them to the after school programs in my area.

Rumbler

Rumbler

San Antonio, TX
August 2005

FEB 19, 2007 09:00 PM

Then my job here is done.

Chainlink

Chainlink

Key West, FL
August 2005

FEB 19, 2007 09:05 PM

catdad said:
If the dog had been neutered, none of this ever would have happened. Always remember to spay or neuter your pets.



Ha ! Thats totally what I was thinking.

MrShun

MrShun

Duluth, GA
February 2007

FEB 19, 2007 09:10 PM

I think most likely parents will find out about this, likely people just now entering parenthood....the SG generation, if you will...and they'll run out and buy it, insist on reading it to their kids, and thus make the book even more popular. The prudish librarians did this author a favor, in essence. At least, that's what I hope happens. If I had kids, I'd go buy it. Just for spite, most likely. biggrin

TheFuckOffKid

TheFuckOffKid

NEWSWIRE

Australia

FEB 19, 2007 09:19 PM

Necia said:

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*



What about a guy who stapled his scrotum back together?

TheFuckOffKid

TheFuckOffKid

NEWSWIRE

Australia

FEB 19, 2007 09:20 PM

By the way, I want to see a Narnian fawn with a scrotum for a head.

Scrotumnus, so to speak.

Gillionaire

Gillionaire

Manchester, NH
February 2007

FEB 19, 2007 09:20 PM



By law, girls are not allowed to know what a scrotum is called until they can fit an adult sized one in their mouth.



You are my favorite writer ever.

HeyZeus

HeyZeus

Oakland, CA
August 2006

FEB 19, 2007 09:52 PM

At least it's equal opportunity lunacy: the HooHah Monologue meets the beansack book.

DevilsReject

DevilsReject

Cleveland, OH
February 2007

FEB 19, 2007 09:55 PM

MrShun said:
I think most likely parents will find out about this, likely people just now entering parenthood....the SG generation, if you will...and they'll run out and buy it, insist on reading it to their kids, and thus make the book even more popular. The prudish librarians did this author a favor, in essence. At least, that's what I hope happens. If I had kids, I'd go buy it. Just for spite, most likely. biggrin



I do that all the time.

I keep my relationship with my daughter very open. Music, movies, firearms, whatever she is curious about i am more than happy to teach her about, the things my parents told "don't worry about" ended up being my vices.

I don't hide her from things. She's at the age where everything is a question. I answer the questions her mother dodges.....like where babies come from. It's hard sometimes, being a father answering this to a daughter, and not laughing.

She came into my room the other day, sat on my bed, looked at me and asked "daddy what's a vagina?" and i had to resist the urge to say "Daddy doesn't remember he hasn't see one in a while"

goodpoltergeist

goodpoltergeist

Douglasville, GA
January 2007

FEB 19, 2007 10:08 PM

oh librarians, you're so silly.

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2 | 3

Next

featured interviews