Thursday, January 4, 2007

Book mystery

This morning I was thinking about the different names for the male organ and remembered when I first encountered the word "prick." I was about twelve, in the children's section of the public library, reading a book about a British boys' school. What stuck in my mind is a vivid scene in which some boys are holding a race in the bathroom, naked, trying to see how far they can carry a slipper on their "prick."

Though now it occurs to me that the setting might not have been Britain at all, and the word might have been "peter."

I associate this memory very strongly with the Newbery awards section of that library, but I've scanned through the lists of Newbery winners and none seems to be this book. In those days, though, I was likely to sneak books from the adult section and take them back to the children's where I could read them out of eyeshot of the vigilant librarians.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know this book, but I think I might like to know it. The notion of male-appendage names is fascinating. The only other one I can think of in children's literature is Ralph in Forever.

Anonymous said...

I didn't mean to be anonymous on that post, it makes me seem creepy considering the subject matter.