Well, at least this time it’s a term for male anatomy…

I’m trying to look on the bright, or at least realistic side, as I read this by now piece of old news about the most recent winner of the Newberry Medal, The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. Turns out that school librarians across the country (hard to tell exactly how many, the story likely implies more than actually are) are refusing to buy this book because it has the word “scrotum” on the first page. The mind boggles. Maybe I would expect something like this from the same folks who insist on banning a book about Cuba that portrays happy children, but I would have liked to think that a perfectly normal, scientific term in a book meant for middle schoolers wouldn’t have caused such a massive freak-out on the part of professionals who are theoretically inclined to protect free speech. But, as my mother-in-law the school media specialist reminded me, school librarians are some of the most enthusiastic self-censors around, and until I’ve served a year in their position I shouldn’t go criticizing their choice to avoid buying a book that they can reasonably predict will cause them headaches on the job. What I just can’t swallow, however, is that the librarians they found to quote seem to condemn the book not just as a potential troublemaker but as bad literature, simply because it had the word “scrotum” on the first page. Realistic language for a realistic piece of anatomy? That can’t be good! Here is a quote of the offending passage offered in the article:

“Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”

Less than talking about the actual scrotum, which belongs to a family dog, btw, it is reveling in a piece of language as it enters the mind of a young girl. She is fascinated by its sound and meaning, not by its taboo-ness. So how on earth does this passage fit the outraged tone of this description of the book by a school librarian? (also quoted from the article):

“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.”

Howard Stern-type shock treatment? I repeat: the mind boggles.