Irish Examiner > Breaking News > Parents complain about 'gay penguin' children's book

Irish Examiner > Breaking News > Parents complain about 'gay penguin' children's book
A book about two male penguins that raised a baby penguin has been moved from the children’s section to the non-fiction section of two public library branches after parents complained about homosexual undertones.

The illustrated children’s book, “And Tango Makes Three,” is based on a true story of two male penguins in New York City’s Central Park Zoo.

The penguins, named Roy and Silo, adopted an abandoned egg in the late 1990s.

Two parents expressed concerns about the book last month with librarians at the Rolling Hills’ Consolidated Library’s branch in the north-west Missouri town of Savannah.

The book, written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, has since found a new home in the non-fiction section at the library in Savannah and at another branch near St Joseph.

Barbara Read, Rolling Hills’ director, said she consulted with staff at the Omaha, Nebraska, and Kansas City zoos and the zoology department of the University of Oklahoma before moving the book.

She said the experts all said adoptions aren’t unusual in the world of penguins.

She said the book was moved to the non-fiction section because it was based on actual events.

In that section, she said, there was less of a chance that the book would “blindside” someone.