Children's Books Mating 'King and King' Raised the Concern of Parents and Pro-Family Group Leader

A first grade girl brought home a children’s story book called King and King (Tricycle Press, 2002) which raised the concern of her parents in North Carolina.

King and King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland (Tricycle Press, 2002) starts off as the typical prince finding a bride story, Queen is tired of ruling, orders prince to get married. She harasses him enough until he agrees and they invite princesses from all over the world to come parade before the prince. He's bored, the queen is disappointed and it looks hopeless until the last princess comes in accompanied by her brother, Prince Lee and the two princes' eyes meet and they fall in love. The book ends with them marrying and sharing a kiss, rule as King and King.

Michael Hartsell of Wilmington says he was shocked when his little girl brought the book home from the library at Freeman Elementary School. He feels the book should not be considered appropriate for first-graders by anyone. Mr. Hartsell says his child is "not old enough to understand something like that," especially when the book is clearly promoting something that falls outside his and his wife's beliefs.

“King and King has been put on the school’s shelves since early last year and the intended readers are age six and up,?The school librarian said. And the school principal, who views the matter as an issue of diversity, simply says what is "inappropriate" to one family may be "totally acceptable" to another.

Some school board members are sympathetic to the Hartsells' point of view. Board member Janice Cavenaugh, who talked to the family about King and King, agrees that the book is age-inappropriate. And fellow board member Maryann Nunnally, while uncomfortable with censorship, says she would prefer to put such controversial books out of children's reach and circulate them only with parental permission.

However, Bo Dean, a leading member of Wilmington's homosexual community, has defended the school's continued circulation of the book, saying it can provide an opportunity for parents and students to talk about differences in modern society.
No doubt that idea figures among the uses that the publishers and promoters of the pro-homosexual children's book had in mind. The authors of King and King have already spawned a sequel, King and King and Family.

"Parents should understand that homosexual activists are very serious about taking over schools and indoctrinating children into the idea that homosexuality is normal and healthy, and that anyone who says otherwise is a narrow-minded bigot," Bob Knight with the Culture and Family Institute says, pointing out that the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network has conducted seminars promoting the teaching of homosexuality to children as young as kindergarten age.

According to Knight, the case of King and King, concerned parents need to take another parent or two with them to the school and then inquire how such a book was selected for their children's school. “Parents must get involved in determining the content to which their children are exposed because nobody has the best interests of their children at heart like they do.?He added.