Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Scrotum, scrotum, scrotum

Short Schrift has directed me toward Babble: "a magazine and community for the new urban parent," and the first article that caught my eye was a piece on this year's Newbery Medal winner, The Higher Power of Lucky, which has been criticized over the fact that the word "scrotum" appears on the first page. (The NYT's story on the hubub is now pay-only, but their editorial on the matter is still free.)

I don't normally weigh in on Children's literature (save maybe Harry Potter), because I simply don't care, but I have to say that Lisa Carver gets it exactly right. We aren't protecting our children from anything by protecting them from the simple mention of the proper names of specific body parts, naughty or otherwise.

I've decided that if I ever write a children's book, the word scrotum will appear in the title.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suggest you write a Harry Potter spin-off about good personal hygiene:

Ron Weasley & the Burning Scrotum

Gavin said...

That's not a bad idea. After all, everyone knows that Harry is a parselmouth, but it's not as well known that Hermione is a firecrotch.