Banned Books Week is a nationally celebrated event to bring awareness to banned and challenged books. Sheila at Book Journey is hosting a tour to commemorate the occasion.
And Tango Makes Threespent five years as one of the most challenged or banned books* in the United States. It is a picture book based on a couple of real-life male penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York City who spent years as a duo and were given an egg to raise. The reasons given for challenges include “homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group.”
You may want to avert your eyes; terrifying same-sex penguin snuggling!
This is the book that is apparently going to ruin the minds of children.
A book like And Tango Makes Three is especially important in an era of changing family dynamics. With more and more families headed by same-sex parents, it’s important for their children to see parents like theirs in books so they know they are not alone. Not to mention that it’s extremely likely that a child raised by opposite-sex parents is going to have a classmate with same-sex parents.
Teaching all children that there are many ways to have a family is in important step to ensuring kids are accepting of differences. Just a few decades ago it was scandalous to admit that married parents sometimes got divorced. Kids with a step-dad, a mom, and a dad were left feeling strange and different because it was too taboo to discuss in schools. We can avoid situations like that now. Inclusiveness helps everyone.
Some other frequently challenged books for children featuring same-sex parents:
- Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
- Mommy, Mama, and Me by Lesléa Newman
- Daddy, Papa, and Me by Lesléa Newman
- King and King by Linda de Haan
- Uncle Bobby’s Wedding by Sarah S. Brannen
- Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman
- The Family Book by Todd Parr
Giveaway! Leave me a comment telling me about your favorite banned book and you can have your choice of children’s book mentioned in this post. If you don’t have any children in your life, you can donate it to your local library! Open to anyone who lives where Book Depository delivers.
*2006-2008, 2010 as #1; 2009 as #2, via ALA
Good morning! The post looks great Cass! My favorite banned book(s) are the Harry Potter books!
Thanks for being a part of banned books week!
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I had no idea this book even existed before I started looking at lists of banned & challenged books, and it’s quite amazing (in a bad way!) to me that a book like this would be so challenged. I’m just about to have my first baby and I know that there are loads of issues that will come up for him, I’d love him to have the literature around to support us in helping him to understand the world.
My favourite banned book is To Kill a Mockingbird, because it’s amazing and again, it seems to be challenged because it makes people uncomfortable – because they’d rather not admit that attitudes like those portrayed in the book were ever held. How does censorship help? Surely the way forward is openness and communication!
I read And Tango Makes Three to my youngest child a few years ago — it’s super cute and so innocuous, it’s hard to believe anyone could challenge it with a straight face. It shows just how deep this irrational fear of gay couples, among certain segments of society, really goes, I guess. It’s depressing.
I agree that these books are important for kids raised by same sex parents and also for other children, to see the world — in all its diversity — without blinders on. I also worry about children, particularly kids who come to realize they aren’t heterosexual, growing up seeing these books yanked off the shelves. That sends a horrible message.
http://eclecticbooksandmovies.blogspot.com
Having posted on the banning of Dr Seuss’s Green Eggs And Ham it never fails to amaze me the number of childrens books that are banned – and as for the reasons why, to say I’m shocked and often puzzled is simply not enough. Great post and very thought provoking.
My favourite banned book is probably All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque as though I personally would never condone the banning of any book a part of me (a very small part) can sort of understand why the government of the time did so.
My very favorite banned book has to be To Kill a Mockingbird.
Banning books goes against nearly everything I believe it and it especially drives me bonkers when children’s books are banned. I re-read Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret for BBW and I’m so glad I did.
I’d say one of my favorite banned books is Lord of the Flies.
Thanks so much for doing this giveaway. I have a 15-month-old son and I think any of these would be a great addition to his book collection!!
Kelly
thewellreadredhead at gmail dot com
I read this to my own son and would love to read it to my nieces (they are 4 and 5). I can’t believe this is on the banned list.
luvs2read4fun@gmail.com
My Favorite Banned is The Awakening by Kate Chopin… I don’t know enough about the kids ones. :0/ I don’t think books should be banned at all. It’s an ignorant practice.
I don’t want to enter the giveaway, I just wanted to say what a lovely idea for a children’s book. Penguins are the cutest animals ever and I love the idea of approaching the same-sex parenting issue through this pair.
Surely the very fact that they are penguins and likely incapable of sharing our values to the extend we do makes banning it irrelevant. At least the other bans make some sense.
You are so right. I think’s so funny about being banning some of these books is that kids go to school with kids who have two moms or two dads or who live with their grandparents or whatever. Children are learning on their own through interacting with other kids that families come in different sizes and shapes.
My favorite banned book is probably a tie between Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden and The Giver by Lois Lowry.
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