And Tango Makes Three is a real-life story that was shaped into the literary form by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. The book tells the readers the story of two penguins from the Central Park Zoo, who hatched an egg together and practically gave birth to another penguin named Tango. Mr. Gramzay, the zookeeper, mentioned that “it takes two to make a Tango” and that the two penguins became fathers (Richardson and Parnell 23). Therefore, the book was banned from school libraries due to the allegedly controversial content that might be misunderstood by children. Even so, most of the issues came from the parents, who believed that the story depicted in And Tango Makes Three could not be real and was merely made up to push the homosexual agenda. Brand and Maasch also considered the book to be provocative because “a teacher or librarian offering children’s books with transgender or gender-fluid protagonists” would be too strange and inappropriate (431). The current paper contains a detailed analysis of why And Tango Makes Three could have been banned and whether the prohibition was reasonable.
Throughout the plot, the readers may witness the fact that animals also make families, and they are in the full right to be as unique as humans when it comes to loving someone. This is why the authors of And Tango Makes Three spend a reasonable amount of time listing plenty of animals and their families who live in the zoo to finally focus on the two penguins, Roy and Silo. The fact that both these penguins were boys added controversy to the contextual view of the story, but it did not affect the narrative element since the penguins’ friendship steadily developed into a relationship that was rather similar to mere human love. Every night, Roy and Silo were sleeping together, which made them identical to other penguin couples (Richardson and Parnell 10). The feeling became so strong over time that even the zookeeper mentioned it, stating that the two male penguins should be in love. These little details do not only add to the overall plot but also show that the animal world barely differs from its human counterpart in terms of creating a family and raising children.
Even though the fact that Roy and Silo receive an egg from Mr. Gramzay, it does not look unnatural that the two male penguins become fathers for the little Tango. Instead, the authors go down the route of describing the genuine happiness that the penguins experienced when their perceived child was born. The idea was formulated rather candidly, as “Tango was the very first penguin in the zoo to have two daddies” (Richardson and Parnell 24). Numerous illustrations that flood the book are also important for a better understanding of what has happened and why it could be so important to have school libraries ban And Tango Makes Three. Of course, the authors do not provide any explanations regarding how two male penguins could have fallen in love with each other, but it is practically unnecessary since the story is about every family being a depiction of something light and unique that cannot be replicated by someone else. Accordingly, the book was banned out of sheer anxiety linked to the inability to meet social expectations, even though many parents would not be against a story about two male penguins raising a child together.
Another topic that could be linked to And Tango Makes Three is the crucial role of the construct of heteronormativity that is affected by the lack of efficient strategies for parent-teacher communication. Fathers and mothers are having trouble remaining on the same page with teachers and policymakers who have a firmer stand on the topics of gender expectations and interpersonal relationships because “they claim to accept differences without taking an active stance or changing the curriculum in relevant or meaningful ways” (Brand and Maasch 432). One of the lessons that the authors of the book teach the audience is that humans could learn acceptance and love from other creatures, such as penguins. While reading And Tango Makes Three, one could re-evaluate their own beliefs regarding the issue and see how their potentially existent stereotypes could be nurtured by the local contexts or external influence. Within an environment where the rate of acceptance and broadmindedness is significantly higher, humans would have the opportunity to create unique families without being implicated in scandals and harassed for their worldviews.
As a book that is referencing the struggle of LGBT communities across the globe, And Tango Makes Three still does a great job highlighting the fact that every family is ‘normal’ as long as partners love and care for each other. The existence of subjective positions that could avert students from realizing the multilayered nature of human relationships is the biggest obstacle to proper learning that yet has to be overcome. The core implication of the book, though, is that And Tango Makes Three being banned reflects the openly hostile unwillingness to reimagine the public attitudes toward LGBT. There are no aggressive, propaganda-like comments made by Richardson and Parnell since And Tango Makes Three is not a public service announcement but a book for children that is intended to entertain and teach them a lesson. As it has been stated above, the eventual message that the book is trying to convey is that all families – either human or not – are exceptional, and their structure or shape cannot and should not be questioned.
Ultimately, it can be rightfully concluded that And Tango Makes Three was unreasonably banned since it contained a controversial topic, but it never promoted certain ideas or imposed them on the readers. As a potential element of a school library catalog, Richardson and Parnell’s book could become a decisive factor in helping children grasp the meaning of creating a family and taking care of the child. The notion of family structure is not the central topic of And Tango Makes Three despite it being mentioned more than a few times throughout the book. Adult readers could treat the story about the two male penguins as either a window intended to help them see what goes around at the moment or a mirror that lets them take a peek at their true selves. And Tango Makes Three does not oblige children to join the LGBT community, and that idea has to be the core of the central argument explaining why this book should have never been banned from school libraries.
Subjectively, the fact that the book reviewed within the framework of the current paper has been banned hints at the lack of consistency within contemporary educational programs that gladly integrate the dynamics of society into the process but leave out the LGBT part. Richardson and Parnell, in a rather unassuming manner, tried to shed some light on the possibilities of same-sex marriages and their outcomes without spelling out loud most of the things related to the perceived propaganda of the LGBT community. This is an important topic to cover because subjective stances taken by policymakers, teachers, and even parents have to be left in the past. And Tango Makes Three was banned not to attract civic attention to the modern construct of an open-minded family, but the ban ultimately paved the way for even more publicity than expected.
Works Cited
Brand, Susan Trostle, and Susan L. Maasch. “Updating Classroom Libraries and Cross-Curricular Activities: Celebrating Gender Identity and Diversity Through LGBTQ Books.” Childhood Education, vol. 93, no. 5, 2017, pp. 430-439.
Richardson, Justin, and Peter Parnell. And Tango Makes Three. Simon and Schuster, 2005.