Brouhaha erupts over a word in Newbery-winning 'Lucky'

In last month's column I mentioned that the 2007 Newbery Medal winner, "The Higher Power of Lucky," received negative Internet reviews by some school librarians. Now a heated debate has mushroomed.

"The Higher Power of Lucky" by Susan Patron (Atheneum) tells of a scrappy 10-year-old in an abandoned California mining town, population 43. Since her mother's death, she lives in a trailer with a guardian, an absent father's French ex-wife. Lucky's main entertainment is listening through a peephole to 12-step programs for recovering alcoholics, drug users and smokers who are seeking their Higher Power. She hears one man tell of being too drunk to help his dog, which had been bitten by a rattlesnake on the scrotum.

One word. This is where the brouhaha began.

Some librarians decried using words about the male anatomy in a book for readers ages 8-12 and sought other opinions on a nationwide Web site.

In response, Publisher's Weekly, a trade magazine, published an op-ed piece about the book reporting various viewpoints. The New York Times printed a front-page editorial using the words "censorship" and "book banning," which fanned the flames of the debate. Newspapers picked up the story in many states. Bloggers have had a heyday.

Later, the Times wrote another editorial trying to balance their accusations. Noted children's and young adults' authors came to the forefront.

The author appeared on national talk shows defending her work. "The word is just delicious," she stated. "The sound of the word to Lucky is so evocative."

The publisher released multimedia interviews and a multicity tour, and librarians, teachers and parents responded en masse to the book's contents.

In the past, other books have attracted media attention over their syntax. Katherine Paterson has always defended the language of "The Bridge to Terabithia" and did so again when it was made into a movie. Years ago, "Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones," about a teenage pregnancy, met with protests. "The Day No Pigs Would Die" also got trashed again and again. Such books have weathered controversy and appear on recommended reading lists, albeit with cautions attached. "The Higher Power of Lucky" probably will, too.

Patron is a librarian whose first novel has received the most prestigious award in fiction for young readers. That's an amazing feat. Does it deserve the slams that are being placed on it because of her use of one word (actually it's on the first page and again later in the story)?