For the third consecutive year the 2005 book And Tango Makes Three, based on a true story about two gay male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who raise a baby girl chick together, tops the American Library Association’s list of the “most frequently challenged” titles, calculated by how many complaints library patrons file against any title. Equally worth a laugh: Mark Twainās The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (racism!), Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (sex!), and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (homos!) all dropped off from the 2008 tally, while Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl scores at No. 7. The full list:
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Awesome Hat
The His Dark Materials trilogy are some of my favorite books ever. It seems to me like a book in which the protagonists kill God would be more controversial than a couple of gay penguins…
dgz
how exactly is “and tango makes three” anti-ethnic? these peeps are craaazy.
ZJ
Anti-Ethnic? Religious Viewpoint? They’re penguins!
sal
some people rather believe(BELIEVE) a book over REAL,BREATHING,LIVING,FACTUAL things…reminds me of that case where evolution took on creationism and they won cause they had PROOF
Alec
Maybe people just have a big problem with anthromorphism. Although were that the case, you’d expect Animal Farm to be up there.
Good to see the Scary Stories series is still near the top. I enjoyed those when I was in elementary school. Maybe they turned me gay; I didn’t have a copy of Daddy’s Roommate or Heather Has Two Mommies when I was growing up.
Craigo
I’ve heard about this book for ages. I’m buying myself a copy and one for the local library. I encourage others to do the same.
sal
..the “book” im talking bout is the bible,not this book lol
rogue dandelion
@Awesome Hat: hhahahah i am right there with you, they seriously choke to death an angel in HDM, and that is less troublesome than homo penguins.
Jared
On Tango–does it actually imply that there’s a relationship between the two adult penguins? Because I always assumed that it was about how the males keep the eggs safe in the winter while the females hunt or something like that.
And yeah, His Dark Materials is the shit. š
Byggvir
For some of these books–TTYL and Gossip Girl in particular–the real reason listed should be “utter crap.” A book’s challenged status doesn’t make it virtuous.
Sug Night
TANGO is based on a true event that happened at the Central Park Zoo, and yes the two penguin dads were mates. Although the bible thumpers would have us believe that homosexuality is in fact an abberation and a choice, it does indeed occur quite frequently in nature, this being an example. Or maybe these two penguins CHOSE their TORRID GAY LIFESTYLE. For these haters, truth really is scarier than fiction, so this book based on a true story is their worst nightmare. It’s really a very sweet book and I doubt one five year old has been converted to homosexuality since its release date. We’ll have to try harder.
Anthony
Ok, so let’s get out there and complain about the bible. It’s got murder, torture, child abuse, the mass murder of children, prostitutes. On religious grounds alone it should be banned, it’s portrail of a god one of a vile mass murdering psychopath and is unsuitable for any age.
Come on people let’s see if we can’t push it to the top of the list. If successful we could try the koran next. lol.