Penguins took over Main Street on Tuesday to help celebrate Banned Books Week at the Copper Queen Library. This year's annual flash mob featured characters from the children's picture book And Tango Make Three by Justin Richardson which has been on the American Library Association's Top Ten Banned Books of the year a whopping eight times since its publication in 2005. The book tells the true story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo that built a nest together, took turns brooding an egg, and raised Tango, the female chick that hatched. Challenges have included complaints that the story is “unsuitable for young children” and has "homosexual overtones.” Others have said the book "is based on one of those subjects that is best discovered by students in another time or in another place." Some parents have also requested the book be placed in a section for "alternative or non-traditional families."
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982 according to the American Library Association. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship, bringing together the entire book community – librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types – in shared support of the freedom to seek and express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.