Reached at her home in Los Angeles, Ms. Patron said she was
stunned by the objections. The story of the rattlesnake bite,
she said, was based on a true incident involving a friend’s
dog."Scrotum" is a strange and funny word. It is oddly similar
to "sputum." Why not invite readers -- the book is aimed at 9 to
12 year olds -- into the mysteries of words... and genitalia? If
it's done well enough to win the Newbery Prize, isn't it awful
for the librarians to object? And one of the themes of the book
is that Lucky is preparing herself to be a grown-up, Ms. Patron
said. Learning about language and body parts, then, is very
important to her. “The word is just so delicious,” Ms. Patron
said. “The sound of the word to Lucky is so evocative. It’s one
of those words that’s so interesting because of the sound of the
word.” “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