And Tango Makes Three

And Tango Makes Three

• Author:  Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell  "no author websites"
• Illustrator:  Henry Cole  http://www.henrycole.net/index.php?scrWidth=1280
• medium:  watercolor

• Year of publication:  2005
• Publication city:  New York
• Publisher:  Simon & Schuster
• ISBN: 0-689-87845-1

Annotation:  When two inseparable male penguins attempt to hatch a rock egg, a curious zookeeper gives the couple an actual egg.  When Tango hatches, this alternative family is complete.

Personal thoughts: And Tango Makes Three is a very simple story. It is a story about love and about family.  A pair of chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo meet, fall in love (or whatever the penguin equivalent is) and try hatching eggs.  Why then did this book top ALA’s most challenged books list of 2006?  The problem is both penguins are male.  The artwork is cute, with cuddly looking penguins drawn in a cartoonish style.  New York is depicted as a happy place and the penguins all look alike. Tango is a cute baby penguin and everyone lives happily ever after. 

This is an incredible book for older readers, not for the content of the story, but in reference to the response people had for it.  A school superintendant, Peter Gorman, in North Carolina ordered the book to be pulled from school library shelves.  Gorman was asked by parents and Republican County Commissioner Bill James to remove the book.  James is quoted in the Boston Globe, as saying, “I am opposed to any book that promotes a homosexual lifestyle to elementary school kids as normal.” 

Like I said before, the story is sweet and simple.  What is outrageous is that an element of people want to ban this book from children’s access.  Whether you agree with the idea of gay penguins, or not, doesn’t change the fact that people should be able to hear the story of Tango and his parents and make their own decisions.  And Tango Makes Three is an important book that teaches its reader that alternative families can love and care for their offspring, just like traditional penguins.

***contested book: Topped ALA’s 2006 most challenged books list