School Officials Yell, ‘You Dirty Rat,’ Ban Frisky Froggy

Froggy did a-courtin’ go--safe-cracking, smoking and carousing along the way. Instead of heaven, this menu of misdeeds landed Froggy in the slammer for seven to 11.

But the moral of Kevin O’Malley’s lavishly illustrated version of the old folk song--crime doesn’t pay--couldn’t save “Froggy Went A-Courtin’ ” from becoming what may be the first book in at least 27 years to be pulled from Baltimore County school libraries.

The illustrations, done in the style of a 1930s Jimmy Cagney-type gangster movie, led to the ban, which is “selection” not “censorship,” said Della Curtis, the school library coordinator.

After a parent complained about the book at one school last spring, Curtis convened a committee of elementary school teachers and administrators, who voted unanimously that the book was inappropriate for elementary school students.

Because the book is not on the curriculum or library-purchase lists, school officials could not say how many were in schools. Librarians systemwide were notified by e-mail of the committee’s decision, Curtis said.

O’Malley, 35, defended the parent’s right to complain, but criticized the school system’s handling of the complaint. He said school officials did not tell him about the issue.

“I’m angry that they put me in this position without being heard,” O’Malley said.

O’Malley has appeared at many county and city schools in the last five years, at various public libraries where his books are available, and at out-of-state schools.

Having his book banned has been “unnerving,” said O’Malley, author-illustrator of 14 children’s books. “I’m hesitant now about giving it to people. It was my first book, and I’m very proud of it.”

The flap over Froggy began when Israel Weitzman of Mount Washington complained after his daughter, then a first-grader, took the book home last spring. Weitzman said he found the “highly satirical” version of the folk tale inappropriate for students below high-school level.

He specifically objected to the drawings of Froggy’s nefarious activities, which Weitzman interpreted as including denigration of females, burning money and speeding away from the cat police, as well as robbery and smoking.

Curtis said the county school system receives a handful of complaints about books every year, but this was the first time in her 27 years in the school system that she knows of a book being pulled from the shelves. The committee rejected three other complaints at the same time.

Richard E. Bavaria, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, praised O’Malley’s work but agreed that it is unsuitable for young students.

But, he said, O’Malley should have been notified, particularly because he is a local author.

What is the appropriate age level for the book?

Donald I. Mohler III, the school system spokesman, said “in the current climate, we would get plenty of complaints” if the book were in middle schools, specifically because of the drawing of Froggy escaping from the cat police with a revolver beside him on the car seat.

Curtis said she checked with the American Library Assn. and other library sources and found no other complaints about O’Malley’s book. The ALA confirmed that it has had no complaints.