Silo and Roy are my heroes.

Here in the library, Banned Book Week approaches. We love BBW. And why do we love BBW? Because it gives us a chance to push literature that ignorant backward galoots try to tell us to censor in the name of religion or race or creed or whatever. Oooooo, that makes them so mad. I've been dealing with this a lot lately.

Recently someone asked us to remove a book called You're Different and That's Super by Carson Kressley because it promoted homosexuality. Well, yeah, granted it's written by one of the Queer Guys but it's really about being different in any sort of way. Hell, it's about a unicorn in a world of horses.

And then it was a formal complaint on Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher. Yes, it's a tough book to get through, lots of naughty words, lots of painful situations, lots of character you loathe but so so so good. And what was our patrons main complaint? Ready? That the main character is black and the author is white and therefore cannot authentically speak to the situation. My response was "Does she know J.K. Rowling is not a 17 year old wizard?" I ended up writing a two page response to that one backed up with 25 pages of Crutcher support from the internet. Mr. Crutcher has been through this several times. Saw him speak once. Seems to be a helluva guy.

So I attacked Banned Book Week this year with vim and vigor. Put a display prominently in the teen area with books that have been challenged because of sex, drugs and rock & roll generally. Put another display right beside check out where people will have to see these books. Just saw a father reading The Stupids Die to his 2 year old while waiting in line. But in my research, I found this gem of a book that had slipped past me. It was the most challenged book of 2006 and I had it here in my library and didn't even know. Here it's is, the most hated book of last year......

Yes, people, hold onto your hats. It's And Tango Makes Three and it's about, dare I say it, GAY PENGUINS. That's right, homosexual chinstrap penguins. A blight on society. And furthermore, they hatch, raise and love an unwanted baby penguin. My God! What's next? What if this spreads to humans and unwanted children are successfully adopted, nutured and loved by, gulp, same sex couples? We must put a stop to this. Before you know it, this world could be full of acceptance and peace. DOWN WITH GAY PENGUINS!

For y'all who might be interested, it is a true story of a couple of same sex penguins at the Central Park Zoo who became a couple and hatched an egg that was laid by a female who laid two eggs. The female can only care for one so the zookeeper gave Silo and Roy the unwanted egg and they hatched it and raised a little girl named Tango! All three are still there at the zoo being a family. How freakin' cute is that? I mist up just thinking about it.

For more info on Banned Book Week, go here. ALA Banned Book Week You'd be surprised what has been banned!

Happy (and scandalous) reading!