And Tango Makes Three - Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Welcome to Banned Books Week, the week that librarians across the country remind people about the First Amendment and its importance!

For Banned Books Week I decided to set up a display of picture books that have been challenged and/or banned and have students try and guess why. And Tango Makes Three was one of the most often challenged books in the country last year, so I had to read it to find out why.

This picture book, done in lovely watercolors, is the story of three penguins. And you should know that it's based on a TRUE story from the Central Park Zoo in New York City. In the Central Park Zoo there are two chinstrap penguins, Roy and Silo, both male, who have decided that they like each other instead of liking female penguins. So they do everything together, and one day they build themselves a nest and begin sitting on it, just like they see all the other penguins doing. Except two males aren't going to produce an egg. A zookeeper notices the two penguins and brings an egg from another nest that might not have otherwise made it and gives it to Roy and Silo, and they sit on the egg until it hatches - enter Tango. The three of them are a very happy family and do everything the other penguins do.

This is a lovely, sweet story about penguins. Can you guess why it was challenged so many times? Make a comment and let me know what you think about why it might have been challenged and what you think about challenging books. Should people be able to say books should be taken off the shelf in a library? Why or why not?

If you'd like to see this book, you can get it at the Multnomah County Library.