A children's book about New York's famous gay penguins is the most complained-about library book in America for the second year running.
And Tango Makes Three is the true story of Roy and Silo, a pair of male penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo who attempted to incubate a rock together – until zookeepers gave them a real egg to raise instead.
First published in 2005 and co-written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, Tango has again topped the American Library Association's list of most "challenged" books in public schools and libraries.
"The complaints are that young children will believe that homosexuality is a lifestyle that is acceptable,” said Judith Krug, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom.
“The people complaining, of course, don't agree with that.”
Although the ALA only records written demands that a book be removed from shelves, the total number of reported written complaints has decreased dramatically over time.
The total number of challenges has dropped from 750 in the mid-1990s to 420 last year.
Less happily, in real life Roy and Silo have split up.
In 2005, Silo turned, and waddled off with a female penguin, Scrappy, after six happy years with Roy.
But don’t fret over Roy's hurt feelings, says zoo director Dan Wharton.
“Penguins are matter-of-fact about these things,” Wharton said at the time.
Furthermore, Roy and Silo's daughter, Tango, is still "in the family". She has reportedly hooked up with chicks over the past few breeding seasons.
Co-author of the book Justin Richardson has urged critics to make like a penguin and chill.
“We wrote the book to help parents teach children about same-sex parent families. It’s no more an argument in favour of human gay relationships than it is a call for children to swallow their fish whole or sleep on rocks.’’
Roy and Silo became poster penguins for the gay community in February 2004, after the New York Times ran a feature story, 'The Love that Dare Not Squeak Its Name'.
A children's book about New York's famous gay penguins is the most complained-about library book in America for the second year running.
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