Scrotum! Say it loud! Say it proud! Scrotum!

I write YA fiction, so I was interested who was going to win the Newberry this year. I'll be honest, I was rooting for either Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, or NBA winner M.T. Anerson's The Pox Party. But it was The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron that won the golden medal on the cover.

When I was a kid and I read a Newberry or Newberry honor, I would touch the medal against the library plastic cover. It felt so lovely, so elegant. It was proof that characters like Gilly Hopkins, Ramona Quimby, etc would always be there, never to go out of print.

So I never heard of Susan Patron, but when I heard she won, I checked my library. They just bought the book, so I put a request for it and was looking forward to reading the book.

And then the S scandal came.

The scrotum scandal, to be exact.

In the first page, the word scrotum is used. This, needless to say, ticked off a lot of people, and people said that it was a poor choice for the Newberry, it wasn't approriate for children. According to one teacher who said: "This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn’t have the children in mind,” Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo said on a listserv (Thanks to the NY Times for the quote)

So I finally got the book from the library. I opened it up. I was expecting Howard Stern raunchy stuff. I was expecting girls wrestling in whipped cream, or maybe Stuttering John as a uncle.

I didn't find any of that.

What I found was a charming, lovely child named Lucky. When Lucky's mom died two years ago, Lucky finds a unlikely guardian in Brigette a French woman who comes to America to take care of her, as a favor to Lucky's dad (Brigette was married to him once) Brigette and Lucky live in a trailer and just barely get by with money Lucky's dad sends and goverment surplus food.

Lucky's biggest fear is that Brigette will go back to France, and Lucky will be sent to a foster home, away from her best friend Lincoln, away from her dog HMS Beagle, away from everyone she loves.

So there was no girl on girl action. No swearing Howard Stern, no Robin Quivers, nothing. What the book is about is a girl trying to figure out what she would do if the worst happens again (and it happened once, with the death of her mother) and how she has to be prepared for it.

Now. I'm trying to figure it out. Scrotum does appear in the book, and there is an explanation for it later on. It is done in a honest, clear way.

What upset me is this: How many children like Lucky are scared to death that in an instant, their lives can change. Lucky was true to her name; she found someone like Brigette. And I know that those children might want to read about someone who, like them, are curious about the world, have survived the worst yet manage to go on with their lives, and manage to live with the wonder that is life. The fact that people are trying to keep this book away from kids, I'm sorry, I don't get it. I don't. I read Judy Blume's Deenie and when Deenie touched her special place, I had a feeling what she was talking about but I just wanted to know if she was going to wear a brace or not for her spine. When Gilly Hopkins swore, I felt she had every right to because of everything she went through. And I was ten, eleven when I read those books.

Sometimes it scares me that we are too PC or too scared or too something that something so little becomes so big. The only good thing about it is more people will be reading HP of Lucky, and that's a good thing. And when I was done, I touched the medal on the cover, and I thought: Ramona, Gilly, there's a new girl in town. I think you're going to like her.