Each year, the Calgary Freedom to Read Week Committee presents the Official Book of Freedom to Read Week to the Calgary City Council.

The Official Book for 2010 is a children's picture book, And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, illustrated by Henry Cole (Simon and Schuster, 2005). Anne Jayne, chair of the Calgary Freedom to Read Week Committee, will present the book to City Council on behalf of the committee at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, February 22, in the Chambers of the City Council at City Hall.

And Tango Makes Three is based on the true story of two male Chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York. These penguins, who were inseparable companions, displayed the same behaviour as other penguins of creating a nest. They moved an egg-sized rock into the nest. Zookeepers decided to move an orphaned egg to the nest, hoping that these penguins would care for it, and the egg could be saved. They did so, successfully, and baby Tango was born.

This book topped the American Library Association's list of most-challenged books for three years running after its publication in 2005. The ALA considers a book to be challenged when there is a formal attempt to get the book removed from a library or school. The reasons listed for the challenges to this title were: Anti-Ethnic, Anti-Family, Homosexuality, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group.

Readers have seen And Tango Makes Three in different ways. This book illustrates a basic truth: there is no one book that is right for every reader. Public libraries hold a diverse collection, so that all readers can choose the books that are right for themselves, and for their children. Freedom to read is that right for each of us to choose for ourselves.

Books and magazines that have been challenged in Canada are listed on the Freedom to Read website.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms secures the right to freedom of expression. At one time or another, all of us will encounter some expression that we whole-heartedly disagree with. However, the best response to "bad speech" is more speech, to counter those ideas--not silence, and not removing the book from the library shelves.