The word “scrotum” is on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” a book that won a prestigious award.

First, I am reminded of a story from my childhood. My mom was pregnant with my little brother, and had explained to me about how he was in her uterus, etc. I was 3-years-old. My grandmother visited at some point while Mom was pregnant, and asked what I thought about a new little brother in my mommy's belly. Well, being the precocious (read:smart ass) child that I was, I haughtily informed Grandma that he was Not in her belly, he was in her U-ter-us.

Well, Grandma was shocked. What sort of 3-year-old was I to know such a naughty word? (Uterus... Yikes!) I'm not exactly sure what Mom's reaction was-probably something between laughter and a grimace. In any case, rather than being banned from my vocabulary, we referred to that particular piece of the female anatomy as 'the U-word' around Grandma thereafter.
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In the article above about the children's book, I noted several quotes that may or may not be representative of all the people against this book. In each case, they were pretty annoying. First of all, 'scrotum' is a body part. Kids need to learn anatomy... they'll find out sometime. It's not even slang!

Second of all, one quote is of a librarian saying how "They" are trying to push the envelope. ... "They" did not write this book, "Susan Patron" did. Maybe she's simply "Their" tool...

Third, another quote mentions how quality literature does not mention words from male anatomy. Maybe they've missed Shakespeare-granted not for 10-year-olds. (That particular librarian does include the 'at least not for kids' qualification.) But, I'd bet that they have Barbie books in their library espousing such noble concepts as, 'you can still be pretty with freckles.' Must be quality literature. No mention of actual anatomy there.

It might shock Grandma, and I do love Grandma, but that's no good excuse for censorship.