And Tango Makes Three, Illustrated by Noma Bar: The Penguin Story That Put Book Bans on Thin Ice
The True Story of Roy, Silo, and Tango
And Tango Makes Three begins with a real event at Central Park Zoo in New York. Two male chinstrap penguins, Roy and Silo, formed a pair bond. They built a nest together. They tried to hatch a stone. A zookeeper then gave them a fertile egg, and the pair incubated it. The chick that hatched was named Tango.
The story became a 2005 children’s picture book written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, with illustrations by Henry Cole. It presented the penguins’ family in simple terms. Two penguins cared for an egg. A chick arrived. The family grew.
A Children’s Book Becomes a Culture-War Object
The book then entered a much larger argument. And Tango Makes Three became one of the most challenged children’s books in the United States. The American Library Association has recorded repeated objections to the book, often linked to LGBTQIA+ content and its place in schools and libraries.
The objections usually missed the plain fact at the centre of the story. Roy and Silo were animals observed in a zoo. Their behaviour was documented before the book existed. The controversy came later, when adults argued over what the story meant for children.
Freedom of Speech, Gay Rights, and School Libraries
The debate around And Tango Makes Three sits at the intersection of freedom of speech, gay rights, education, and parental control. Supporters see the book as a gentle introduction to different kinds of families. Critics have tried to remove, restrict, or relocate it.
This matters because the book contains no explicit sexual content. Its conflict comes from representation. PEN America has reported that picture books featuring LGBTQ+ identities are often labelled as inappropriate during book-ban campaigns. And Tango Makes Three remains a frequent example in that wider pattern.
Where Noma Bar Fits In
Noma Bar’s illustrations for the related article help frame the argument with visual economy. His work reduces the subject to its clearest parts: penguins, family, censorship, and public fear. The illustrations support the discussion rather than retell the original picture book.
Why the Story Still Travels
Roy, Silo, and Tango became famous because their story was easy to understand and hard for some people to accept. A penguin family became a national argument. A zoo anecdote became a test case for what American children are allowed to read.
That is the strange waddle of this story. Small feet. Large footprint.
