And Tango Makes Three

And Tango Makes Three is a 2005 children's book written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole. The book is based on the true story of Roy and Silo, two male Chinstrap Penguins in New York's Central Park Zoo. For six years they formed a couple and were given an egg to raise. The book follows part of this time in the penguins' lives, but not subsequent events. The book has won many awards but also been at the center o... more

And Tango Makes Three is a 2005 children's book written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole. The book is based on the true story of Roy and Silo, two male Chinstrap Penguins in New York's Central Park Zoo. For six years they formed a couple and were given an egg to raise. The book follows part of this time in the penguins' lives, but not subsequent events. The book has won many awards but also been at the center of numerous censorship and culture war debates on same-sex marriage, adoption and homosexuality in animals. The American Library Association reports that And Tango Makes Three was the most challenged book of 2006, 2007, and 2008, as well as the most banned book of 2009. In reality, male penguins, by their nature, hatch and help raise the young, as do many bird species. Furthemore, penguins, also like many bird species, form groups and males without mates form bachelor groups. Roy and Silo's behavior did not fall outside of this natural... less