Last year, I managed to get some good mileage out of And Tango Makes Three, as the children’s book spurred protests in the spring and in the fall from parents who were aghast that the real-life story of two male penguins who hatched an abandoned egg and raised the chick together was advancing the gay agenda right into their children’s impressionable minds. That was just the tip of the iceberg, according to Hillel Italie, who spoke with the American Library Association and discovered that Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell topped the 2006 list of the most challenged books in our nation’s libraries. He also notes a more recent development in Massachusetts involving the book—the details on that case are worth tracking down the School Library Journal report to read, as an elementary school principal apparently tried to strongarm one of her librarians without even waiting for a parent to complain: “Hopefully you will take this matter seriously and refrain from disseminating information that supports alternative styles of living,” ran the principal’s letter, suggesting that if she didn’t comply, she might find herself out of a job.
(The big surprise Italie unveils, though, is that there are no actual, confirmed reports of challenges to The Higher Power of Lucky, the scrotum-baring Newbery winner that sparked a big fuss among librarians back in February.)