Joy Behr 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.
“Banning of books has become almost a daily occurrence,” Behr said. “In the last school year alone, there were more than 2,500 instances of books being banned in more than 5,000 schools… Even children’s books are under fire. With that in mind, we’re introducing a new segment to the show this week, which we like to call ‘Joey’s Band Book Club.
The TV host and comic debuted the segment in 2005 with an award-winning children’s book titled “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. The book tells the story of two male penguins who bond at the New York Zoo and raise a chick together.
“It’s a sweet, beautiful way to introduce kids to same-sex relationships and the concept of non-traditional families,” Behr said.
Behr noted that the title was 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,” Behr said.