BANNED BOOK RECOMMENDATION: “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
In honor of Banned Books Week , I’ve decided to post a banned book recommendation each day. I will use only books I’ve read from the American Library Association ’s list of the top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the decade (2010-2019) .
BANNED BOOK RECOMMENDATION: And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
And Tango Makes Three first came to my attention several years ago when it made the banned (and challenged) books list for reasons such as “Unsuited to Age Group,” “religious viewpoint,” “homosexuality,” “anti-family,” and “anti-ethnic.” My son was too old for the book at this point, so I borrowed it from my library purely out of curiosity.
This children’s picture book is the true story of two male penguins in Central Park Zoo who nested together and took turns caring for an egg that hatched into a female penguin, Tango, that they raised together. If my son had been a young child at this point, I would have had no qualms about reading the book to him. The story is sweet, the drawings adorable, and my heart just melted over this little family.
Addressing the objections against the book, I honestly don’t think “unsuited to age group” makes any sense. It’s a picture book. There are no adult themes at all, rather the focus is on two animals caring for another.
Although I don’t share the objections of “religious viewpoint” and “homosexuality,” I at least understand where they came from. The two male penguins raising a young penguin on their own obviously ties in politically to themes of gay marriage and adoption. However, even if these were valid reasons, the story remains a true story.Just because it happens to be a perfect metaphor for human politics doesn’t make it any less true.
The charge of “anti-family” doesn’t make sense to me, except for the obvious idea that it’s an unconventional family: the two male penguins along with their baby are not a traditional nuclear family, but they’re still a loving family. Also, honestly, I have no idea why this would be considered “anti-ethnic.” They’re freaking PENGUINS. I have no light to shine upon this subject.
So if you have a young child, I heartily recommend this picture book as a sweetly endearing tale of an unconventional family in the animal kingdom.
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