Susan Patron won the Newberry Medalthe highest honor in children's literaturefor her new book The Higher Power of Lucky . According to the New York Times, though, Patron's use of the word "scrotum" on the first page of Lucky has aroused the ire of children's librarians the country over. Never mind that Patron is only describing where a rattlesnake bit a dog (ouch!)elementary-school bookkeepers don't want to have that word in their libraries. (Patron's explanation in the Times"The word is just so delicious"probably doesn't endear her any further to the pro-censorship crowd.) But if we're going to ban Lucky, here are a few other scrotalicious books for tweens and below that must go:

All Creatures Great and Small , by James Herriot

" as soon as the major touched the scrotum with his antiseptic, the colt reared and brought a forefoot crashing down on Kenny's head."

Fool's Puzzle , by Earlene Fowler

"You take this thing called an elastrator and fit them around the scrotum of the calf. Then when both testicles are through the rubber rings, you release the pressure and the ring constricts."

Folktales of India , compiled by Brenda Beck

"The scrotum of this man swaying back and forth made the crab think of a sumptuous meal. So the crab crept up to the man silently and grabbed his scrotum from behind."

Horse Thief , by Robert Newton Peck

"Judah actual convinced a city slicker that a dried, hollowed-out bull scrotum was a genuine Seminole water canteen."

Bless The Beasts And Children , by Glendon Swarthout

"A distinctive coin purse, it was learned, could be fashioned from the scrotum of a bull."

Alice in April , by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

"That night, I asked Dad what Lester meant by, 'Some day the other one will drop.'

'Probably refers to the testicles, Al,' he said. 'Sometimes boys are born with a testicle up in the groin instead of down in the scrotum.' "

Your Puppy, Your Dog , by Pat Storer

"To neuter a male, the veterinarian surgically removes both of the testicles. If they have both descended into the scrotum it will be a relatively simple procedure."

Le Morte D'Avalon , by J. Robert King

"Roena pulled the child to her belly and wiped him. It was a boy, the scrotum swollen and purple beneath the kinked umbilicus."

Bro , by Robert Newton Peck

"With her gloves off, Aunt Lulu lifted the other hinder to slit the scrotum. She yanked out both balls, and then allowed the bawling bully (now a steer) to jump up free and bleed clean."

Book Of Dinosaurs , by Andrews McMeel Publishing and Tim Gardom

"Described by Robert Plot in 1676 as belonging to a giant human, this is the knee end of a thigh bone of Megalosaurus. It was later named, in 1763, by R. Brookes as Scrotum humanum, the genitals of a giant man."

Seriously, you have to check out this illustration.

The Storm Testament , by Lee Nelson

"He called the stuff castoreum, which he had extracted from the scrotums of male beavers he had trapped."

Perhaps not unrelatedly, the villain of this tail is the mobster Dick Boggs.>