A picture book
about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is getting
a chilly reception among some parents in Shiloh, Illinois,
who worry about the book's availability to
children--and the reluctance of school administrators
to restrict access to it. The concerns are the latest
involving And Tango Makes Three, the illustrated children's
book based on a true story of two male penguins in New
York City's Central Park Zoo that adopted a fertilized
egg and raised the chick as their own.
Complaining about
the book's homosexual undertones, some parents of
Shiloh Elementary School students believe the book,
available to be checked out of the school's library in
this 11,000-resident town 20 miles east of St. Louis,
tackles topics their children aren't ready to handle.
Their request: Move the book to the library's regular
shelves and restrict it to a section for mature
issues, perhaps even requiring parental permission
before a child can check it out.
For now, And
Tango Makes Three will stay put, said school district
superintendent Jennifer Filyaw, though a panel she appointed
suggested the book be moved and require parental
permission to be checked out. The district's attorney
said moving it might be construed as censorship.
Filyaw considers
the book ''adorable'' and age appropriate, written for
children ages 4 to 8. ''My feeling is that a library is to
serve an entire population,'' she said. ''It means you
represent different families in a society, different
religions, different beliefs.''
Lilly Del Pinto
thought the book looked charming when her 5-year-old
daughter brought it home in September. Del Pinto said she
was halfway through reading it to her daughter ''when
the zookeeper said the two penguins must be in love.''
''That's when I ended the story,'' she said.
Del Pinto said
her daughter's teacher told her she was unfamiliar with
the book, and the school's librarian directed the mother to
Filyaw. ''I wasn't armed with pitchforks or anything.
I innocently was seeking answers,'' Del Pinto said,
agreeing with Filyaw's belief that pulling the book
from the shelves could constitute censorship.
The book has
created similar flaps elsewhere. Earlier this year, two
parents voiced concerns about the book with librarians at
the Rolling Hills' Consolidated Library's branch in
the northwest Missouri town of Savannah. Barbara Read,
Rolling Hills' director, has said she consulted with
staff members at the Omaha, Nebraska, and Kansas City zoos
and the University of Oklahoma's zoology department,
who told her adoptions aren't unusual in the world of
penguins.
She said the book
was then moved to the nonfiction section because it was
based on actual events. In that section, she said, there was
less of a chance that the book would ''blindside''
someone. (Jim Suhr, AP)