Sunday, 26 April 2015

And tango makes three by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, and Henry Cole

Buy it from Hive.co.uk and support local booksellers 

According to "the internet" this is 2014's 3rd most complained about book in US Libraries – which I naturally took as a higher recommendation that any amount of Booker Prizes etc...

It is a sweet little, true, story of two gay Penguins in a New York Zoo, who successfully hatch a spare egg they are given look after by the keepers.

Penguins are naturally cute and therefore I don't think the illustrator Henry Cole had to work too hard to provide an endearing set of images.

The story is told simply, I don't think it labours a “gay agenda”, but clearly sharing this story acts to normalise same-sex relationships – and if normalising such relationships makes you uncomfortable you are probably going to find yourself complaining to the library authorities.

Section 28 may feel like a distance memory, but I suspect many a school would still not stock this book, as dealing with complaints would not be “worth” the aggravation and risk of headlines in the local paper.

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