and tango makes three

And tango makes three

By Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, ill. Henry Cole

This book is on the challenged book list.

In Central Park, in New York City there is a zoo where families of people visit animal families, including the penguin families. But one penguin family is different. Both of the adult penguins in this family are boys.

The keeper noticed that these two penguins did what all the other penguin parents did, but they had no egg in the nest they built. They even tried to hatch a rock, but it didn’t work.

One day the keeper found an egg with no parents to care for it and put it in their nest. The two boy penguins took care of the egg until it hatched.

When the egg hatched, the keeper named the baby girl penguin Tango and she became the very first penguin in Central Park zoo with two fathers.

People still visit the penguins in the zoo to watch the families, and Tango’s family is like all the other penguin families in the zoo because they take care of each other.

This story is based on a real event in Central Park zoo. The illustrations in it are gentle, realistic and non-judgmental, carrying the intent of the text to the reader. The book received the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children's Book Award.

Richardson, J., & Parnell, P. (2005). and tango makes three. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.