Every so often you hear about a children’s book that gets some parents’ knickers in a twist because they are afraid of their child getting exposed to
things they don’t want them to (i.e. the real world) through the availability of these books at school.
Usually these books have something to do with same-sex parenting– I understand that controversy, though I hardly agree with it, given in my school alone there are several same-sex sets of parents and very little eye-batting over it.
Now, as aI read in the New York Times, comes “The Higher Power of Lucky,” which some parents- -and librarians– want to keep away from children due to this passage early on in the book, regarding a dog getting bit by a rattlesnake in a rather sensitive area:
“Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much….It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”
Now, the use of scrotum of an example of a body part may seem a bit provocative, but it is hardly sexual in this instance– according to the author, Susan Paton, it is used to express a child’s normal concern about anatomy and what various parts of the body are.
But parents that want to ban the book instantly recognize getting bitten on the scrotum as a sexual act, apparently. Tell us more, conservative parents, it sounds like you lead interesting lives…