August 2007 | NYC

With Robie. H. Harris, Perri Klass, and Susan Patron

Susan Patron’s middle grade novel, The Higher Power of Lucky, won the 2007 Newbery Medal and became the subject of a national discussion over its appropriateness for children. The main reason was Susan’s use of the word ‘scrotum’ on the first page of the book. In 2005, Robie Harris’s books It’s Perfectly Normal and IT’S SO AMAZING! were numbers one and ten on the American Library Association's list of most frequently challenged books in America. Perri Klass, author of Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor joins Susan and Robie in a discussion on censorship, book challenges, and the heroic role librarians play in defending intellectual freedom.

Discussed: how children’s literature, when written with integrity, can help kids and teens decipher the great mysteries and paradoxes of growing up and being human; the challenges of never hesitating to use the exact word or image, even if it may cause controversy; the necessity to write in an honest voice; self-censorship after a book has been challenged or banned; And Tango Makes Three topping the ALA’s ten top most challenged books list; Simon and Schuster’s scrotum chant; children’s book librarians being the real heroes of our democracy.

Also included: readings from The Higher Power of Lucky and It’s Perfectly Normal.

LISTEN
• Entire conversation
• Susan Patron reading from The Higher Power of Lucky
• Robie H. Harris reading from It's Perfectly Normal