I know there is great debate over some literature and what it should and shouldn’t entail. Now a children’s book has reached new heights by talking about genitalia. Is there really a need for that? Should students be exposed to certain words before they are meant to hear them. This children’s book called “The Higher Power of Lucky”, a Newbery Award Winning book, has been banned in a lot of southern states and in many other libraries around the country for using the word scrotum.
The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.
The Ledger Online had an interesting story on this book and how it won the more prestigious award for children’s literature. But what most upsets the librarians is that they think it is just a test to see how far they can go before making children’s literature porn.
“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, a mailing list that reaches more than 16,000 school librarians. “How very sad.”
Librarians around the country have felt that they have the right not to order the books that are stocked in their libraries because they don’t want to field questions from angry parents and they don’t think a word like that should be added to a fifth grade spelling test.
The author wrote that one passage about a true story that happened to a friends dog. She didn’t think that it was harsh and she told the Ledger that the book was meant for 11 and 12 year-olds.
My question is to the literary community. Has literature become so boring where they have to add words like that to children’s literature to bring more press to a book release? Should we be banning books because there is one bad word in it? Would you want to be an elementary school teacher and have to answer the question of the meaning of the word? I wouldn’t, and I am not one for censorship, but children’s lit is pushing it a little to far.
Published Sunday, February 18, 2007
With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar
myotts said
I believe that someone else wrote about this article and I commented on it, so I am going to comment on yours as well. While I respect your opinion, I completely disagree with it. Obviously this woman is an excellent writer and this novel is an excellent piece of literature, otherwise it would not have been awarded the Newberry Award. That said, if this novel is good enough to win such a prestigious award, then obviously she did not need to use language to “shock and awe” children and draw them into the book. In addition, using the word “scrotum” (which is a scientific term) in no way corrolates with porn. Chances are that even if children do not know the meaning of this particular term, they know the area to which it refers. Most children would probably find this part of the book humorous, and would not feel as if they were being exposed to something which they were not quite ready for. Kids are not nearly as stupid as so-called experts like to make them out to be. This issue is not a question of “how far [authors] can go before making children’s literature porn” but of how far everyone else can go to make a huge and irrelevant debate about a minor issue. So what if she used the word scrotum in her book? Children have probably heard much worse by this age, and from sources much worse than a piece of literature. Banning a book because it has one questionable word is utterly ridiculous, and shows how backwards our society is becoming. Let children enjoy literature, without telling them what they can and can not read because it might make the teacher or parent nervous explaining that word. If children can not learn about such things in a safe and academic environment like school, then where are they supposed to learn about them?
Tess said
I was hoping that I would find someone who had read and commented on this article. As I was scanning my Google Reader, I came across this same article by Julie Bosman. Even though I am not blogging about censorship, I find the topic fascinating. I, however, disagree with your opinion on the topic.
When I read the article, I thought, “Oh, give me a break!” I mean, you cannot base your opinion of whether or not a book should be taught to students (even young ones) based on one word in a novel. “Scrotum” is not the dirty word as so many librarians seem to fussing about…it’s not as though the author used the term “nut sack” (pardon my French). As your other commentor pointed out, it is a “scientific term” for a part of the human body; not something lewd and unacceptable. I am sure that when explaining it there might be a few snickers from kids in the class, but simply because it is one word in the text, it isn’t something that has to be reviewed in minute detail. This book is about a child growing up, right? Learning about herself and other people? So are the children who would be reading it. How can we deem the entire novel as unacceptable and even “porn” based on that?
I think that censorship in any form is uncalled for, even in children’s literature. If this book was well-written and powerful enough to receive an award as prestigious as the Newbery, how can it be kept from library shelves across the country? By making such a big deal over it, in fact, wouldn’t it seem more likely that more and more people are going to want to read this book? That is the way most kids work…you tell them they can’t eat something, watch something, read something and the first thing they want to know is why…and believe me, they will find out.
I haven’t read the novel, but I just can’t agree with your assessment that perhaps the envelope is being pushed too far. Children who are nine, ten and eleven years old are discovering a lot about themselves and others; it is not such an amazing assumption to believe that they have heard this word (or something far, far worse) before in their lives. Why try and keep things out when they are probably already there? I think that if put to the test, most teachers would be able to overcome such a small obstacle as this, don’t you?
wdok said
It does sound “like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much.” I never noticed that before. It also sounds like it could be the name for a prehistoric sea animal… or maybe a sugar substitute? Maybe. I do believe that words can be, not to overstate it, immensely powerful. They can be used to lift spirits, empty hearts, inspire, wound, forgive, create the universe if you’re God and have a week to kill. Words, however, need to be used; they need to have that intangible, squirrelly, unexplainable driving force, good or diabolical, provided to them if they are to have any impact at all. A word by itself, a bunch of squiggly lines, is meaningless, like a scrotum to a eunuch—or like germs to Ohio State coach Thad Matta (I wouldn’t waste gum, either). The librarians, as I understand it, seem to think that the word “scrotum,” in this instance, is imbued with some sort of special power—evil Harry Potter-like power, as goofy as that sounds. They also seem to be afraid of the prospect of small children asking questions about the larger world. Agreed, this is terrifying, but for gosh sakes, you’re educators… and kids are easily distracted. From the way Bosman’s article for The Ledger is written, I honestly have no idea where the librarians are coming from. Though I haven’t read the book, I tend to believe Ms. Patron and give her the benefit of the doubt when she says that she is using the word “scrotum” to describe… a scrotum. She also says that the incident described in the book is based on a true story. That must have been one rough day for that dog… rough indeed. I wasn’t really going anywhere with these last two sentences.
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