Dylan points to a dust-up amongst librarians sparked by a paragraph in the latest Newbery award-winning children’s novel:
“The Higher Power of Lucky†is the story of a 10-year-old girl in rural California and her quest for “Higher Power.†The opening chapter includes a passage about a man “who had drunk half a gallon of rum listening to Johnny Cash all morning in his parked ‘62 Cadillac, then fallen out of the car when he saw a rattlesnake on the passenger seat biting his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.†Librarians have been debating whether “scrotum†was an appropriate word for young readers, especially from a book with the Newbery seal.
The librarian was apparently not perturbed by the fact that the story covers a dude drinking half a bottle of rum — in his car — but by the inclusion of the medically correct term “scrotum.” Which made him think his readers could probably craft even better examples of inappropriate-for-kids content trailed by a “shocking” last word. He’s offering a copy of a Roald Dahl book to the weener, so jump in. I made a quick attempt on his site, but could have done better*. Bring it on, before I win that book.
* The idea of course is that the offensive content would not trigger prude radars, while the innocent word at the end would – my attempt fails the first part of that test.