Welcome to this week's second installment of interviews with famously banned or protested books in observance of National Banned Books Week (September 24 - October 1). For more information about Banned Books Week events in Manhattan, visit our Facebook page: Banned Books Week - Manhattan, Kansas.

I'm With the Banned (IWTB): Good morning. Today we have with us a very special guest --- And Tango Makes Three --- which has been on the top ten banned or challenged books list every year since 2006 and has been at the top of that list for three of those years.
And Tango Makes Three (ATMT): All that and I was only published in 2005!
IWTB: So, Tango - may I call you Tango?
ATMT: Please do!
IWTB: Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?
ATMT: Certainly! I'm written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, and I'm about a pair of penguins who fall in love and adopt an abandoned baby penguin when it's just an egg.
IWTB: Interesting! And this is a children's book, right?
ATMT: Well, I'm a picture book and that's my intended audience, so I think that's fair to say.
IWTB: That seems like a fairly innocuous storyline. Of course, all kinds of books are challenged for a myriad of reasons. You must be especially graphic since you top the list so often.
ATMT: Well, I am illustrated, but that's probably not what you mean by "graphic" (laughs). No sex, no violence.
IWTB: Alright, so there's the presence of some pretty strong language then?
ATMT: No, nothing untoward.
IWTB: So why the uproar?
ATMT: It seems to be because the two penguins that initially fall in love, Roy and Silo, are both male.
IWTB: Ah, I see. So the official objections are...
ATMT: Homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuitable to age group.
IWTB: Religious viewpoint? So, the penguins are trying to proselytize the penguin faith?
ATMT: ... No. I wondered about that one myself. I don't mention religion. I don't even use the words "homosexual" or "gay" at all. Clearly, we are talking about two male penguins that regard each other in the manner of a mated pair and raise a penguin chick together, so it's not hard for the reader to infer that they're gay. But still, I'm not trying to force an agenda on anyone.
IWTB: Well, that's a common remark I hear from banned or challenged books. Even when reading the book is required, the reader doesn't have to adopt any particular viewpoint.
ATMT: Children are impressionable though.
IWTB: So are you saying a certain level of censorship is understandable from a parent's point of view?
ATMT: Well, concern is certainly understandable.
IWTB: Concern, yes, but maybe not censorship. I know this point has been discussed often, but awareness and even control of your own children's reading is responsible parenting and thus extremely important. Trying to control other people's children, however, is not the right path to take.
ATMT: Well, until people stop the outright censorship of books, we'll just have to keep reading whatever we want no matter how many protests there are.
IWTB: Sounds like a plan to me.
Dan Ireton
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