Banned books

[KEND]

I can see middle america getting upset over 'his dark materials' but why would anyone worry about gay penguins, has marriage become such a fragile institution


Oct 2nd 2009 By Jeremy Taylor

Book About Gay Penguins Is Most Banned of the Year
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EntertainmentWeird NewsAnimals
2 CommentsBack in 1990s, the most frequently banned books in schools and public libraries were classics such as "Catcher in the Rye," and "Of Mice and Men."

This year none of those even made the the top 10 as, for the third year in a row, the ire of the righteous is instead pointed firmly at a picture book about penguins -- gay penguins.
Objections to "And Tango Makes Three," which is based on the true story of two male penguins raising a chick in the Central Park Zoo, included that it was "anti-family," "anti-religion," "unsuitable for the age group" and "anti-ethnic" (huh?).
The book's critics are also upset that the book doesn't depict the real-life ending, in which the male penguin couple eventually separated because one of the bachelor penguins caught the other with a female.
Maybe the book's authors are saving that final twist for the sequel. Although we're not sure how they're going to make that an appropriate "kids" book.Here are the top 10 most banned books of this year, according to the American Library Association:

1."And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
2. "His Dark Materials" trilogy, by Philip Pullman
3. "TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R" (series), by Lauren Myracle
4. "Scary Stories" (series), by Alvin Schwartz Bless Me,
5. "Ultima," by Rudolfo Anaya
6. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky
7. "Gossip Girl" (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
8. "Uncle Bobby's Wedding," by Sarah S. Brannen
9. "The Kite Runner," by Khaled Hosseini
10. "Flashcards of My Life," by Charise Mericle Harper

[cerebus]

Some people really need to get a life...

[Interloper]

Huh? How does two male penguins raising a penguin chick come out to be "gay"? Did anyone see the males mating with each other? Or was it just child-rearing that they're referring to? Was "Three Men and a Baby" a gay theme movie?

Shared chick-raising is part of the penguin reproductive strategy. The two male penguins very probably are not "thinking" in terms of a relationship with each other; they're just acting on their parental instincts to raise offspring, when a baby is introduced. The fact that the other "partner" in the chick-raising happened to be another male was tangential to the instinct to raise young.

That said, those humans really need to get a life.

[Michael]

Some people really need to get a life...

If you could get your books on that list, your sales would skyrocket. Uh-huh.

[cerebus]

Heh, heh. I actually have some items which ARE banned (by governments, not busybodies), but they're the kinda things even I feel a little uncomfortable making available to the general public ("How to Kill" volumes 1 thru 6, "Improvised Munitions Black Book" vol.s 1 thru 3, "CIA Improvised Explosives Manual" "CIA Lock Picking Manual", stuff like that...)