<p>The word </p>
<p>double post</p>
<p>The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter.</p>
<p>A Newbery-winning book has been banned from some school libraries around the country.
Enlarge This Image</p>
<p>Alex Koester for The New York Times
Susan Patron, the author of the book and a librarian, said the controversial word was just part of the character’s learning about body parts.
Yet there it is on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature. The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>The inclusion of the word has shocked some school librarians, who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and reopened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children’s books. The controversy was first reported by Publishers Weekly, a trade magazine.</p>
<p>You know, we as a society need to get over the idea that actually naming a part of the anatomy is harmful to children. I would contend that children who learn about anatomy in a matter-of-fact way, without the emotional baggage of misplaced adult embarrassment, are less likely to be obsessed with the subject in adolescence (and beyond).</p>
<p>One shouldn’t use the word “scrotum” because scrotums (scrota?) are part of genitals and genitals are dirty. By naming this thing and putting the word in a book, the entire book must be dirty. Anyone thinking about genitals must be dirty. Hell, anyone having genitals must be dirty.</p>
<p>I agree, when my dog was getting his surgery, I rolled him over on his back, and explained everything to my daughters, who were in 3 and 5 grade at the time, and gosh used the medical terms</p>
<p>what ELSE would you call the sctrotum on a dog…what, if they had a book on breast cancer, they would ban it as well</p>
<p>it is really scary that people are so narrow minded</p>
<p>yeah and like no kid has ever seen a dog cleaning themselves, with or without the boy parts, which, btw </p>
<p>FIX YOUR PETS</p>
<p>Citygirlsmom, you should be ashamed of yourself. :)</p>
<p>This is why people grow up and don’t know what to call things.</p>
<p>This is why grown men and women are reluctant to tell their physician about problems they may be having. They don’t know the proper terminology.</p>
<p>Was there a point in putting that in the book?</p>
<p>I agree with the previous posts. How can the name of a body part be harmful or inappropriate for children? It’s a body part! They’re not even talking about sex (though that probably shouldn’t have the shock value for children that it does now, either). It’s one thing to have a problem with the book’s material, but to have a problem with the book because of the word “scrotum” is really absurd.</p>
<p>Veryhappy, I’d be happy to ROFL to one of your posts, which one is the funny one? ;)</p>
<p>Uh – #5.</p>
<p>I take it that means you didn’t think any of the posts were funny. </p>
<p>Humph.</p>
<p>You weren’t amused by the Latin plural of “scrotum”? You weren’t amused by the point that anyone even having genitals must be dirty??</p>
<p>Gosh. Where are all those clever people who used to be here? Or was I really brain-dead on Monday??</p>
<p>The only think shocking is any librarian would attempt to ban a book - doubt they have an MLS!
When I was young and dopey, and growing up with this type of thinking in place I had a VERY rough time while babysitting. One of the little boys came running in from the yard yelling “my huckleberries, my huckleberries!”
Took forever to figure out the problem.
Another time a child had a bit of a skid while passing gas, sobbing madly about it. I tried to tell the mom using MY family’s happy word for this …boozer. Kid is sobbing, I’m yelling boozer boozer, and the mom must think the kid has gotten drunk.
Oh for the 1950’s, when all was dirty. yucks.</p>
<p>OVARIES!!! guess that is a bad word as well…to bad half the world has them</p>
<p>“The only think shocking is any librarian would attempt to ban a book…”</p>
<p>Maybe she’d never seen one (scrotum, I mean). Wasn’t there a famous medieval philosopher named Duns Scrotum?</p>
<p>in my younger and wilder days I worked in a few libraries, both public and corporate. you’ll be comforted to know that while that was back when 90% of librarians were female but 90% of directors were male, most librarians were well aware of scrotums. They were known to have observed them with fierce librarian glances, many even (shh) married scrotum carrying types, and (double shhh) somehow produced little bookworms.
That was before CC took the place of real life though.</p>
<p>Anything that makes a reader go, “Euwwww” should be banned.</p>
<p>I would simply have substituted the term, “left nut” for “scrotum.”</p>
<p>Of course you would then have to leave out the part about… sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,</p>
<p>When my (adorable) D was 3, she told her auntie, “I have a volvo!” Auntie promptly replied, “Wow! Your own Swedish motor car!” </p>
<p>Besides the fact that D would kill me if she knew I shared this story online, I always felt it important to discuss body parts & functions the same way I discussed colors, or traffic patterns. Matter of fact. </p>
<p>It’s a body part for crying out loud!</p>
<p>Women- being more in touch with the practical sides of bodies aren’t so squeamish about naming our parts</p>
<p>[the down there review](<a href=“http://www.vday.org/contents/vcampaigns/college”>A Little Piece of Light Summer BBQ - V-Day)</p>
<p>or ( sorry off topic) some of the members of bookgroup went to this- they thought it was great</p>
<p>[I expect you could also find it on youtube](<a href=“http://www.puppetryofthepenis*.com/”>http://www.puppetryofthepenis*.com/</a>)</p>
<p>just remove the friendly astrikes</p>
<p>Our kids never went the route of people having “pee pees” or whatnot. We weren’t particularly militant about using the correct names for body parts; it just sort of turned out that way (though my mother was truly horrified the first time she heard our younger daughter say “vagina”).
That said, however, I agree with NJres’ first sentence or two! Scrotum is just one of those words I don’t particularly like the sound of, along with hootenanny, delights, and “yea” (as in opposite of nay). Some words just rub me the wrong way… though maybe that’s what the author was hoping for?</p>