Monday, April 21, 2008

And Tango Makes Three ~ Bonnie's review

My granddaughter, who is in the second grade, has been helping me review children's books. Here's what she said about And Tango Makes Three:

Grandma Bonnie,
I liked your books. Here are my book reviews.

Love,Cady XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

As you can see, she didn't have a lot to say about this one, except that it was about penguins and it was very good. Cady, who will be eight years old tomorrow, didn't notice the "salient" point that alarms some folks, that Tango has two daddies.

New York City's Central Park Zoo has all sorts of animal families, but there's one that's different. Roy and Silo, both male penguins, "did everything together. They bowed to each other. ... They sang to each other. And swam together. Wherever Roy went, Silo went too." The two noticed other penguins had eggs, so one found a rock the right size and they took turns sitting on it. That's what penguin fathers do, after all. No big deal to Cady, apparently, not even when their keeper thought to himself, "They must be in love." The keeper discovers an egg that needs tending and gives the egg -- which will otherwise die -- to Roy and Silo, who have been trying so hard to hatch their rock. As one B&N reviewer said, "It's an adorable book with a great message: families come in all shapes and sizes, but they're still families."

Title, author, copyright date, and genre?
And Tango Makes Three ~ by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and illustrated by Henry Cole (ah, but Cady already told you that, didn't she?), 2005, children's book (ages 4-8)

Why was this book challenged?
For "homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group"; or, as I said on my other blog, for presumed penguin homosexuality, which my reviewer didn't notice (and neither did I)

How would you rate this book?
Rated 8/10, a very good book, according to Cady

2 comments:

Zorro said...

Thank you, Bonnie, for the invitation to join you here at Banned Books. I am especially interested in banned and challenged books for children. I have not read Tango yet, but will be buying it for my granddaughter Olivia , who is 9 months old. O and I will ask cousin Maddie (10) to review the book for us. She will post her review here if that is ok with you.

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Sure, Zorro. We would be happy to see your comments about the book, and Maddie's as well.