Joy Behar on Friday introduced a new weekly segment on “The View”: “Joy’s Banned Book Club,” which will highlight titles that have been targeted for removal from public schools and libraries.
“Book bans have become an almost daily occurrence,” Behar said. “Last school year alone, there were more than 2,500 instances of books being banned in over 5,000 schools … Even children’s books are under fire. So with that in mind, we’re introducing a new segment on the show this week, which we like to call ‘Joy’s Banned Book Club.’”
The TV host and comic kicked off the segment with the award-winning children’s book “And Tango Makes Three,” a 2005 title by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. The book tells the story of two male penguins who bonded at the New York Zoo and raised a chick together.
“This is a sweet, graceful way to introduce children to the concept of same-sex relationships and non-traditional families,” Behar said.
Behar noted that the title had been removed from school libraries in Escambia County, Florida, last week for being “inappropriate” for elementary-aged students. Nearly 15 years after its release, “And Tango Makes Three” continued to appear on the American Library Association’s “Most Challenged” book list as recently as 2019.
“As for ‘And Tango Makes Three,’ our studio audience can decide for themselves, because you’re all getting a copy,” Behar said.
