Words are dangerous

[owlmoose]

I know kunstarniki at least was following the debate over the Newbery-award winning book that dares to use the word "scrotum". Some youth librarians cast aspersions on the book's suitability for young children, the New York Times interpreted this to mean that libraries would be banning the book, and "hilarity" ensued.

Some follow-up from the library blog world:
"Thoughts on the Great Scrotum Kerfuffle of 2007" is an excellent overview of the whole situation and points out lessons learned, including "What you say on a list serv may come back to bite you in the scrotum later."
A bibliography of scrotums in youth-targeted fiction.
An overview, lots of links.

On a lighter note, Library Ninja says: Sometimes books are best!

Comments

I

[kunstarniki.livejournal.com]

Off topic but the jury has found 'Scooter' Libbey guilty on four of the five counts against him. Huzza!!!! The dominoes begin to topple. ;)

Re: I

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

That's excellent news, although I can't help being a little disappointed that the guy Cheney and Rove set up to take the fall for them has done so. I hope this doesn't mark the end of it.

[i-iambe.livejournal.com]

It's very bad to teach children the correct anatomical terms for their body parts. Better that they should get their misinformation from schoolmates like the rest of us did. Plus, if they know the name for it, they might want to touch it. And that would be very bad. Very, very bad. Because... um... because... well, I just know that it's bad. And evil. Don't touch your body. Ever.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

Totally. Never ever ever.

So the sad thing is that the whole point of the word being used is that the protagonist doesn't know what it means, and there's no one she can trust to ask. And the very kids who most need to turn to books for information are the most likely to end up in a situation where the books are denied to them. I hate the world sometimes.