Article in today's Times Colonist

CAP: Nikki Tate’s Tarragon Island series focus on the typical preteen tribulations.

Victoria writer’s book restored to school library shelf
— Times Colonist staff
A truce has been declared in the Battle of the Bazoongas.

Last summer, Victoria children’s author Nikki Tate cried censorship when a Saskatchewan elementary school teacher-librarian banned her novel, Trouble on Tarragon Island.

At issue was the book’s reference to “bazoongas” as a slang word for breasts.

The librarian also expressed concern over the issue of bullying in the story, and speculated that children might read the bullying scene and use it as a template to harass fellow students.

Now Chris Oscar, the new principal of Elizabeth School in Kindersley, Sask., has reversed an earlier decision to ban Trouble on Tarragon Island.

“I’m so happy to hear that the school has reconsidered,” said Tate. “The book should never have been removed [from the library] in the first place.”

The move is a relief for Tate’s publisher, Sono Nis, for another reason: Trouble on Tarragon Island has been nominated for a Diamond Willow Award in Saskatchewan.

The judges are school children, who vote on which of several books they like best. If a book isn’t available in school libraries, it’s chance of getting the children’s nod is diminished. “It’s great to know that students will have access to the book through their school library,” Tate says.

Other school libraries across North America have carried the book without complaint.