The password is…scrotum!

Remember Jim Carey playing the game “Porno Password” in the movie The Cable Guy? I thought that bit was hysterical. Using words that are normally taboo for a social setting, Carey made the awkward seem funny.

There’s nothing funny, however, about the debate over a certain taboo word in the children’s book The Higher Power of Lucky, the most recent winner of the Newberry Medal. Instead of being uproariously funny, the book has simply caused an uproar.

Who would have thought the word scrotum would be the center of a debate on censorship? Admittedly it’s strange-sounding, but an anatomical part of the body nonetheless.

Author Susan Patron uses the word on the first page of her book, The Higher Power of Lucky. According to a recent New York Times article:

The inclusion of the word has shocked some school librarians, who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and reopened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children’s books.

The book has already been banned from school libraries in a handful of states in the South, the West and the Northeast, and librarians in other schools have indicated in the online debate that they may well follow suit. Indeed, the topic has dominated the discussion among librarians since the book was shipped to schools.

It sounds to me like these librarians need to quit playing porno password and join the real world. Patron says her intended audience for the book is 9-12 year-olds. I would have no problem allowing either my 11 year-old or my 8-year old read this book.

Lost in the debate is how this novel encourages children to “think, grow and learn,” according to reviewers. Lucky, the 10-year old heroine, is preparing herself to be a grown-up, a major theme of the book.

“Learning about language and body parts, then, is very important to her,” Patron said.

The scrotum in question is not even attached to a human. Instead, it belongs to Roy, a dog who is bitten by a rattlesnake on his private part.

So who determines the age that children should begin to learn about the human body? Librarians? Nothing against librarians, but I think the Newberry Award committee is a better judge of a child’s educational spectrum.

A bit later in the Times article, however, I began to question Patron’s mindset. Talking about the word scrotum, Patron says:

“The word is just so delicious,” Ms. Patron said. “The sound of the word to Lucky is so evocative. It’s one of those words that’s so interesting because of the sound of the word.”

I honestly never thought of a scrotum being delicious, whether etymologically or gastrointestinally. But I agree it has an interesting sound. Patron just seems so enthusiastic over using it in her book. But guess what? She’s a librarian, too. So maybe this whole mess is a way for librarians to get some “street cred,” I don’t know.

Hopefully children who read the book will be encouraged to reach for a dictionary when they encounter the word, or, even better, ask a parent to explain it to them. It would be a perfect time to have a discussion about the body with your child.