Newbery Medal Winner Scolded for Book's Language

NPR | By Debbie Elliott

Published February 18, 2007 at 4:00 PM EST

Some school librarians have banned <em>The Higher Power of Lucky</em>. — Some school librarians have banned *The Higher Power of Lucky*.

This year's Newbery Medal winner Susan Patron is under fire because of language in her book The Higher Power of Lucky.

Some school librarians around the country have banned the book because it includes the word "scrotum" to describe where a dog gets a snake bite.

On the first page of the book, the heroine, a 10-year-old girl named Lucky, hears the word through a hole in a wall.

Debbie Elliott

NPR National Correspondent Debbie Elliott can be heard telling stories from her native South.

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