And Tango Makes Three

Summary
Roy and Silo are two male penguins who live in the Central Park Zoo. They fall in love and follow many mating rituals. They watch other couples have babies and they try so hard to have one of their own- by practicing with rocks. However, nothing comes out of the rocks they try to hatch. One day a zoo keeper gives them an egg and it hatches! Tango becomes their baby and they raise her as a family.
Suggested Activities
This would be a good book to include in a section about families and to read to elementary school classes. Several stories about different kinds of families could be read, traditional families, single parent families, mixed families and this would work on several counts. It would be about animal families and families with a same sex couple.
Reviews

Justin Richardson's and Peter Parnell's And Tango Makes Three tops the list of the American Library Association's (ALA) Top Ten List of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 201 0. The list was released April 1 1 as part of the ALA's State of America's Libraries Report.

And Tango Makes Three is an award-winning children's book about the true story of two male Emperor Penguins hatching and parenting a baby chick at New York's Central Park Zoo. The book has appeared on the ALA's Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books for the past five years and returns to the number one slot after a brief stay at the number two position in 2009. There have been dozens of attempts to remove And Tango Makes Three from school and public library shelves. Those seeking to remove the book have described it as "unsuited for age group," and cited "religious viewpoint" and "homosexuality" as reasons for challenging the book.And tango makes three heads ALA's 2010 "most challenged" list. (2011). Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, 60(4), 127-127,129. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/909622003?accountid=711

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My Thoughts
The first time I read through this book I did not like it. I thought it was such a silly way to show same sex couples through zoo animals, especially when not many animals in nature are found to participate in same sex relationships. However, after I read the end, that this was a true story about these penguins, I changed my mind. Since it is a true story, it's a great non-fiction book and tells a good story that many people don't know. It also can help explain same sex couples to many younger kids and help them see it is very natural.
I also have a hard time understanding why it's so challenged, especially because its a true story! This is mostly a work of non-fiction and kids should hear that story! The fact that same sex couples exist in the animal world is interesting and should be explained to people.
Bibliography
Richardson, J., & Parnell, P. (2007). And tango makes three. New York: Simon & Schuster Children.