Hot Stuff
One Troublesome Word
The New York Times (February 21, 2007) notes that "A tempest has been brewing" over a children's book, "The Higher Power of Lucky" by Susan Patron. The book recently won the prestigious Newbery Medal for children's literature, but that's not the reason for the tempest. The trouble is, the book contains a word that some people object to seeing in a children's book. The word names a part of the body--the male body. In this case, the male body of a dog. In the book, the dog is bitten by a snake. In the objectionally-named body part. The body part is the scrotum. Repeat: SCROTUM. The clever ten-year-old heroine of the book, Lucky Trimble, says that scrotum sounded "like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much. It sounded medical and secret, but also important." Right. It also sounds as if the people who object to having this book on library shelves should get a grip. On the other hand, if grownups tell children not to read this book because it has a (supposedly) bad word in it, that caution might stimulate a lot of interest in reading in children otherwise overwhelmed by too much screen time. Go, Lucky!
