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Something Different Every Day

 

February 18, 2007

A lot of fuss over one word

Here are the things I hate about the whole "scrotum" discussion:

*It makes librarians look like idiots. From one point of view, it makes us look like twittering old-fashioned ladies who get fussed easily. From another point of view, it makes us look like conservative-baiting, agenda-driven, untrustworthy guardians of children. How many people reading that article do you think looked at it and thought, "Yay, librarians are awesome!"

*It is polarizing. It is pitting school librarians against public librarians, and way too much of the discussion on the various listservs like Child_Lit and CCBC involves public librarians throwing stones at school librarians without any real empathy for the position school librarians are in. We are all in the same boat, but some of us can row a little further out without having our oars taken away than others.

*It isn't fostering healthy discussion that might offer support to the school librarians who want to risk buying this year's Newbery winner; it just bashes the ones who made an instant decision not to buy. I don't think any of the ensuing discussion will have changed their minds, because it has been so (sorry!) self-righteous.

*It distracts from what to me is the real issue with use of the word "scrotum". Here's the background, for those of you who haven't yet gotten your copy of this surprise winner. Ten-year-old Lucky is listening in on an Alcoholics Anonymous-like meeting where one of the members is describing when he hit bottom. It was when a rattlesnake bit his dog on the "scrotum" and he was too drunk to be able to help his dog. To me, the problem with the word "scrotum" is that it does indeed stick out from everything else in the book. Is it realistic to think that this character would have used that word in that context? It doesn't ring true to me. He'd likely have used a word that one really can't get away with in children's books, so does that mean you have to use the clinical-sounding word "scrotum"? No. As one of my staff commented, he could have just said "privates". Same point, better match with character, less fuss all around.

That said, I am proud that public librarians seem almost universally to be picking up this book. And to me, it seems like an opportunity to pick up this book just BECAUSE it won the Newbery Medal. You can just as easily use the argument that "People expect to find the Newbery Medal in the collection" as any of the more conservative excuses not to purchase. The bottom line is, kids do have a right to read the best books, and the Newbery medal by definition is the best of this year's books.

Well, personally I'd have picked Laura Schlitz's sublime A Drowned Maiden's Hair. But, that's neither here nor there.

Posted by susan at February 18, 2007 5:46 PM

Comments

Posted by: Ian at February 19, 2007 1:55 PM

Posted by: Ian at February 19, 2007 1:59 PM

Posted by: Ian at February 19, 2007 2:11 PM

Posted by: Don Burkhart at February 19, 2007 2:34 PM

Posted by: Ian at February 19, 2007 4:23 PM

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