Fuse 8 n’ Kate: And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, ill. Henry Cole

Banned Books Week may have happened last week, but sadly that doesn’t mean that the nationwide scourge of banning has ended. Far from it. As such, I felt like consideration of this, “the granddaddy of the book banned”, was long overdue. Interestingly, even though Kate hadn’t seen the book before, she took one look at it and said it was “the gay penguins book”. So it’s clearly in the cultural zeitgeist. We talk Happy Feet, whether or not Tango was actually named after Tango & Cash (“if she’d been a boy, he totally would have named her Cash”), and why baby penguins that break the 4th wall are unspeakably awesome.

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Show Notes:

Seriously, this was quite the collection of blurbs. And, as Kate rightly points out, this blurb from Sendak was not exactly his greatest work.

I talk about this on the show, but in April of 2022 I conducted an interview with the authors of this book in a piece called And Tango Gets Banned Again? Book Banning Perspectives from Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson. There’s a lot of good history information about the book there, so feel free to check it out.

I didn’t even know the ASPCA even gave golden book awards! I literally didn’t know that that existed.

I loved these statues because I regularly collect children’s literature statues from around America. You can check out one of those posts here.

I don’t remember, actually. Do they put the monkeys and birds in the same enclosure at the Central Park Zoo? I honestly cannot recall.

This baby penguin has broken the fourth wall and it is currently Kate’s top pick for a tattoo from this book.

“What?”

“I dunno, man. I dunno.”

12 eggs? 16? Who cares? This is a cool sequence.

And, once again, Kate recommends Queer Ducks by Eliot Schrefer, which makes it very clear that this is hardly uncommon in the animal world.

Interested in the latest Henry Cole picture book that features two dads? Then check out his wordless 2022 title, Forever Home: A Dog and Boy Love Story.

And just for fun, check out this recent LeVar Burton video from The Daily Show that features this beloved title.

Here is Don’t Be Afraid of Robert Munsch’s Love You Forever. An article that was very strange, since it sure sounded from the outset like it was about the scarier elements of the title. Thanks to Amy Rooks for the link.

Betsy Recommends: 3,000 Years of Longing

Kate Recommends: CB Strike

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate