CCBC-Net Archives
[CCBC-Net] NYTimes.com: Children's Book Stirs Battle With Single Word
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Betty Tisel <tiselfar>
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 14:45:20 -0600
"you won't find men's genitalia in quality literature"
Now, I wonder how seriously she has really searched. And what about in lousy literature? Those disney books and cheap series are just full of body parts.
Equal time for scrotums! I mean, Scrota!
Oh but wait a minute. I think it was a dog's scrotum, not a man's, in
"lucky". Is it hard to find dogs' genitalia in quality literature?
Sigh from me too.
Oops, I think this is off topic. Let's do a search for body parts in the Geisel nominees. Last names A-L: above the belly button. Last names M - Z: below the belly button. I mean umbilicus.
Betty Tisel Parent School library volunteer Believer in knowing the names for things Lost in the sea of weapons of mass distrAction Minneapolis MN USA
On 2/17/07 2:26 PM, "Maia Cheli-Colando" <maia at littlefolktales.org> wrote:
> Ruth,
>
> Sigh.
>>
>> Ms. Nilsson, reached at Sunnyside Elementary School in Durango, Colo.,
>> said she had heard from dozens of librarians who agreed with her
>> stance. ?I don?t want to start an issue about censorship,? she said.
>> ?But you won?t find men?s genitalia in quality literature.?
>>
>> ?At least not for children,? she added.
>>
> Um, is Ms. Nilsson missing the point that it is boy's genitalia too?
> That most boys explore their body parts from a very young age? That
> girls with little brothers or little boy friends or girl friends with
> little brothers, or girls who babysit, have already "seen it all"? That
> everyone likes knowing what to call things?
>
> Isn't knowing the words what literacy and articulation are all about?
>
>> ?I think it?s a good case of an author not realizing her audience,?
>> said Frederick Muller, a librarian at Halsted Middle School in Newton,
>> N.J. ?If I were a third- or fourth-grade teacher, I wouldn?t want to
>> have to explain that.?
>
> Audience? I think it is a good case of an author, and a bunch of writers
> and librarians and teachers and publishing folk, not accepting
> Victorian-1950 body hating attitudes as the singular, dominant, or
> healthiest way of living. It's a wise bunch of people who refused to
> recognize adult hang-ups as an adequate reason to create the same
> hang-ups in our next generation. Who is the audience here? Kids? They
> will be glad of the language. But adults... well, yes, they might very
> well be uncomfortable to have to learn to use the language they should
> have been fairly taught as children.
>
> I would bet, too, that many American adults couldn't define the word
> scrotum. So, we can thank the Newbery committee for enlightening and
> enlivening us all. :)
>
> Maia
>
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Sat 17 Feb 2007 02:45:20 PM CST
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 14:45:20 -0600
"you won't find men's genitalia in quality literature"
Now, I wonder how seriously she has really searched. And what about in lousy literature? Those disney books and cheap series are just full of body parts.
Equal time for scrotums! I mean, Scrota!
Oh but wait a minute. I think it was a dog's scrotum, not a man's, in
"lucky". Is it hard to find dogs' genitalia in quality literature?
Sigh from me too.
Oops, I think this is off topic. Let's do a search for body parts in the Geisel nominees. Last names A-L: above the belly button. Last names M - Z: below the belly button. I mean umbilicus.
Betty Tisel Parent School library volunteer Believer in knowing the names for things Lost in the sea of weapons of mass distrAction Minneapolis MN USA
On 2/17/07 2:26 PM, "Maia Cheli-Colando" <maia at littlefolktales.org> wrote:
> Ruth,
>
> Sigh.
>>
>> Ms. Nilsson, reached at Sunnyside Elementary School in Durango, Colo.,
>> said she had heard from dozens of librarians who agreed with her
>> stance. ?I don?t want to start an issue about censorship,? she said.
>> ?But you won?t find men?s genitalia in quality literature.?
>>
>> ?At least not for children,? she added.
>>
> Um, is Ms. Nilsson missing the point that it is boy's genitalia too?
> That most boys explore their body parts from a very young age? That
> girls with little brothers or little boy friends or girl friends with
> little brothers, or girls who babysit, have already "seen it all"? That
> everyone likes knowing what to call things?
>
> Isn't knowing the words what literacy and articulation are all about?
>
>> ?I think it?s a good case of an author not realizing her audience,?
>> said Frederick Muller, a librarian at Halsted Middle School in Newton,
>> N.J. ?If I were a third- or fourth-grade teacher, I wouldn?t want to
>> have to explain that.?
>
> Audience? I think it is a good case of an author, and a bunch of writers
> and librarians and teachers and publishing folk, not accepting
> Victorian-1950 body hating attitudes as the singular, dominant, or
> healthiest way of living. It's a wise bunch of people who refused to
> recognize adult hang-ups as an adequate reason to create the same
> hang-ups in our next generation. Who is the audience here? Kids? They
> will be glad of the language. But adults... well, yes, they might very
> well be uncomfortable to have to learn to use the language they should
> have been fairly taught as children.
>
> I would bet, too, that many American adults couldn't define the word
> scrotum. So, we can thank the Newbery committee for enlightening and
> enlivening us all. :)
>
> Maia
>
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Sat 17 Feb 2007 02:45:20 PM CST
