S is for Success

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron won the Newbery Medal in 2007. This medal is presented by the American Library Association and is presented, “to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”

In addition to winning the Newbery, Higher Power of Lucky was reviewed positively by several publications:

• Booklist said, "Patron's plotting is as tight as her characters are endearing. Lucky is a true heroine, especially because she's not perfect: she does some cowardly things, but she takes pains to put them to rights."
• Horn Book featured the title as a starred review and said, "Author Patron's tale of a grieving, insecure little girl is never heavy-handed or maudlin, due in part to quiet bursts of humor. Quirky supporting characters include future presidential hopeful and knot artist Lincoln Clinton Carter Kennedy, Lucky's best friend; and recovering alcoholic/hippie/cowboy Short Sammy."
• Kirkus also gave the title a starred review and said, "Readers will gladly give themselves over to Patron, a master of light but sure characterization and closely observed detail. A small gem."
• Publisher’s Weekly said, “Though Lucky's ponderings sometimes grow repetitive, the sympathetic, pleasingly quirky characters define this tightly-knit hardscrabble community, affectionately portrayed in Phelan's half-tone illustrations.”
• School Library Journal said, “This character-driven novel has an unusually complicated backstory, and a fair amount of exposition. Yet, its quirky cast and local color help to balance this fact, and the desert setting is fascinating.”

C is for "Controversial" term

The source of the controversy surrounding Higher Power of Lucky can be summarized in seven letters: scrotum. This anatomical term appears six times in Patron’s book (one of which is on the first page, and five of which are in the first chapter):

• “Sammy told of the day when he had drunk half a gallon of rum listening to Johnny Cash all morning in his parked ’62 Cadillac, then fallen out of the car when he saw a rattle snake on the passenger seat biting his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.” (page 1)
• “The question of Short Sammy’s dog’s scrotum settled into one certain brain crevice as she picked her way among the weedy bushed of the dry wash.” (p. 6-7)
• “Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much.” (page 7)
• “It sounded medical and important, and Lucky was glad she was a girl and would never have such an aspect as a scrotum to her own body.” (page 7)
• “Deep inside she thought she would be interested in seeing an actual scrotum.” (page 7)
• “After a moment, Lucky said, ‘Brigette, what is a scrotum?’” (p. 132)

R is for (knee-jerk) Reaction

School librarians’ reactions to the use of the word scrotum in Higher Power of Lucky first appeared on the listserv LM NET in February 2007 (before the dust had barely settled on Patron’s Newbery Medal). A number of librarians were named in the School Library Journal article “Hitting Below the Belt” as stating they would most likely not purchase the book for their collection because the word scrotum appeared in the book. Those individuals named include:

• “Dana Nilsson of Sunnyside Elementary School in Durango, CO … [who] has the book in her library, added that she couldn't ‘possibly read this as a read-aloud and am thinking it will be challenged big time.’… Nilsson had received 25 responses and all but one elementary school librarian said they would not buy the book.”
• “Betty Klein of Avery Coonley School in [Downers Grove] Illinois, were also concerned about complaints from parents and whether librarians could justify having the book in their collections if it didn't support the curriculum.”

Other school librarians’ LM NET reactions were reported in the New York Times article, “With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar." Individual librarians mentioned in this mainstream publication include:

• “Wendy Stoll, a librarian at Smyrna Elementary in Louisville, Ky., wrote on the LM NET mailing list that she would not stock the book.”
• “Andrea Koch, the librarian at French Road Elementary School in Brighton, N.Y., said she anticipated angry calls from parents if she ordered it.”

The Times article also mentioned that “The book has already been banned from school libraries in a handful of states in the South, the West and the Northeast, and librarians in other schools have indicated in the online debate that they may well follow suit.”

O is for Orphan

So other than a dog getting bit on his male reproductive organ, what is Higher Power of Lucky about? The ironic thing is that this term plays a very small role in the overall plot, as evidenced by the following summary found on the front jacket flap of the book:

“Lucky, age ten, can’t wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has. It’s all Brigette’s fault – for wanting to go back to France. Guardians are supposed to stay put and look after girls in their care! Instead Lucky is sure that she’ll be abandoned to some orphanage in Los Angeles where her beloved dog, HMS Beagle, won’t be allowed. She’ll have to lose her friend Miles, who lives on cookies, and Lincoln, future US president (maybe) and member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. Just as bad, she’ll have to give up eavesdropping on twelve-step anonymous programs where the interesting talk is all about Higher Powers. Lucky needs her own – and quick. But she hadn’t planned on a dust storm. Or needing to lug the world’s heaviest survival-kit backpack into the desert.”

T is for (New York) Times

As eluded to in previous posts, the New York Times ran an article about the controversy surrounding Higher Power of Lucky.

(click on image to view the full article)

As much as we librarians work to dispel the myth of the old, out of touch librarian who wears her hair in a bun and shushes everyone, situations like the one that surrounded Higher Power of Lucky reinforce this stereotype. If one seven letter anatomical term can lead us the conclusion that an award winning book should not be made available to young people, then we really need to re-examine our professional standards.

U is for Ultimate decision

Because the challenge of Higher Power Lucky was brought by school librarians on a listserv, it is difficult to say with any confidence whether the librarians mentioned ended up purchasing the title for their collections. No articles have been published since those that initially told the story of the controversy.

In doing a bit of searching of school library catalogs, I found the following results:

• Dana Nilsson of Sunnyside Elementary School in Durango, CO did purchase the book for her collection
• Betty Klein of Avery Coonley School in Downers Grove, IL was reported in the SLJ article “Hitting Below the Belt?” to have purchased the title; I was not able to search the school’s catalog to confirm this.
• I cannot say whether Wendy Stoll of Smyrna Elementary in Louisville, KY purchased the title as I was not able to search the school's catalog
• Andrea Koch of French Road Elementary School in Brighton, NY did purchase the title.
  

As to the 24 unnamed librarians who reported on the LM NET listserv that they would not purchase Higher Power of Lucky, I obviously have no way of knowing if they added the title to their collections or not. According to World Cat, this title is available in 3000+ libraries around the country.

M is for More information

If you would like to read more about Higher Power of Lucky, Susan Patron, and/or the controversy that surrounded this book, check out the following articles (which I used to write this blog):

• Goldberg, B. (2007). Newbery-Winner's "Scrotum" Reference Raises Ruckus. American Libraries, 38(4), p. 16.
• Nelson, S. (2007). Lacking Cojones. Publishers Weekly, 254(8), p. 3.
• Patron, S. (2006). The Higher Power of Lucky. New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
• Simpson, C. (2007). What Are We Thinking? Library Media Connection, 26(2), p. 6.
• Whelan, D. (2007). Hitting Below the Belt? School Library Journal, 53(3), p. 16.
• With One Word, Children's Book Sets Off Uproar. New York Times (2007, February 18). Retreived October 3, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/18newb.html
• Year in Review: Top 10 Library Stories of 2007. (2007). American Libraries, 38(11), p. 44-9.