other times...not so much.
I'm finding this whole scrotum thing frenzy really irksome. People, it's a word. An anatomically correct word. And it happens to be on the first page of the 2006 Newberry-Award winner The Higher Power of Lucky. In context and, I feel, in a way that makes sense. A kid hears a word they've never heard before and it appeals to them; who among us that interact with children hasn't experienced that?
According to the Times article, librrians everywhere are freaking trying to figure out about how to "handle" the book. While not strictly true, some school librarians have actually said they’ll ban the book, and the debate has leaked out to numerous blogs and library sites.
This is just nuts, and I'm not talking only about the librarians. I love, for example, the way the Times implies a vaugely subversive air around YL authors.
A personal favorite quote:, “Authors of children’s books sometimes sneak in a single touchy word or paragraph, leaving librarians to choose whether to ban an entire book over one offending phrase.”
I'm sorry but SNEAK? A book is, at least as of today, ordinarily something printed, correct? Normally in black and white. And the contents are generally allllllll out there for anyone who wants to take a look. (Except for MadLibs, of course. They are specifically designed for you to incorporate your own "bad" words).
It seems to me that the only people past whom the contents of a book can be snuck are people who don’t read books. For example, those who stand leafing through them feverishly, looking for reasons to feel offended and thereby work to keep others from reading it.
Librarians, please don't go over to the dark side and ban this book from your schools. Get a grip and move on, there's nothing to see here.
it seems, sometimes skews in ways vaugely similar to my own.
On his blog today, he talked about a new book he's writing which is pretty much identical to an idea I had.
Oh, well.