Tale of gay penguins raises ire of library users

The book is based on a true story from New York Zoo

A PICTURE book about two male penguins raising a chick is among American library users’ most complained-about books.

And Tango Makes Three – based on a real-life story of two male penguins who hatched an egg at New York Zoo – came third in the list of titles the American Library Association (ALA) said had received the most complaints from parents and schools.

It was criticised for promoting a homosexual agenda.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian came top of the list. Sherman Alexie’s tale of a young Native American at a predominately white high school was first published in 2007.

Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, a graphic novel about a young Iranian girl growing up in the years after the country’s Islamic Revolution, was ranked second.

The ALA released its annual rundown of the ten books receiving the most complaints from parents, educators and others in the local community yesterday.

Others on the list include Toni Morrison’s debut novel, The Bluest Eye; Khaled Hosseini’s million-selling novel The Kite Runner; and Jaycee Dugard’s best-selling memoir about her kidnapping, A Stolen Life.

The remaining books cited by the ALA were Robie Harris’ It’s Perfectly Normal; Saga, by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples; Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower; and Raina Telgemeier’s Drama.

Several of the authors listed are either non-whites, even though just a small percentage of books released each year are by non-whites, or writers of books with gay, lesbian or transgender themes.

According to a study compiled by the website Diversity in YA, which advocates diversity in young adult literature, about 20 per cent of books that have appeared on the ALA’s challenged books list since 2000 have been by non-white authors. More than half included content about non-whites, non-heterosexuals or disabled people.

“Diversity is slim throughout all genres of books and across all age groups – except when it comes to book challenges,” said the report’s author, Malinda Lo.

Reasons for books being challenged included “cultural insensitivity” in Alexie’s novel, in which the author draws upon his experiences as an American Indian at a virtually all-white school.

Common complaints include explicit sex, violence, references to drugs and alcohol, and offensive language.

The Harry Potter novels were frequent targets a decade ago and the Twilight and Hunger Games series also began appearing on the ALA reports as their popularity surged.

Older books that have been frequently challenged include Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.