The Curse of Swearing in Children's Books

Should there be bad words in kid books? That's the question the Guardian ponders.

From the piece...

As swearing on the telly, in films and by grouchy adults who don't watch their tongues becomes steadily normalised, however, our 19th-century notions of profanity and propriety have been quietly eroded. Moments like the one in 2008 when Jacqueline Wilson was obliged by Asda, guardian of literary mores and tastes, to substitute "twit" for "twat" are becoming less and less common. That the Wilson hoo-ha came about as the result of one customer's complaint – that subsequently garnered a very few more in support – is significant: there was no gradually swelling poison-sac of save-the-children, burn-the-books indignation, only a grandmother with an obscenity reflex more sensitive than most who felt she couldn't just take the book back for a refund.

Wilson's case was unusual in leading to action at Random House. Although Westall, in the 70s, repeatedly had to justify his choice of vocabulary, David Almond only became aware of the high-level publishers' meeting at which the use of "bollocks" in Skellig was intently discussed after it had happened – the end result was to leave the offending testicles undisturbed. Publishers are in general more likely now to choose inaction over excision, secure in the knowledge that great querulous waves are unlikely to result from a single rude word, or even a plethora of the same, providing it reads as "appropriate" rather than "gratuitous". It's probably easier to get away with a cuss word in a children's book than it is on the news.

This is, in my view, a very good thing. Bending over backwards, sideways and generally playing Twister to avoid the inclusion of swearwords in earlier, more censorious publishing climes has led many an otherwise assured and exemplary author into literary pitfalls.