Kids' Sex Ed Book Under Fire in Maine

By Shannon Maughan -- Publishers Weekly, 9/21/2007 7:44:00 AM

With Banned Books Week, ALA’s observance of the importance of intellectual freedom, fast approaching (September 29–October 6), it’s only fitting that the brouhaha over a Maine resident’s efforts to remove a children’s book from local libraries is gathering steam.

JoAn Karkos of Lewiston was so offended and “horrified” by the children’s book It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex & Sexual Health by Robie Harris, illus. by Michael Emberley (Candlewick, 1993) that she took matters into her own hands, aiming to keep the books away from children. She checked out the copies from local public libraries and is now refusing to return them.

According to reports in the Lewiston Sun Journal, Rick Speer, director of the Lewiston Public Library, was stunned to receive a letter from Karkos that contained a check for $20.95 (her estimation of the replacement cost of the book) explaining that she would not be returning the offensive material. Speer returned Karkos’s check and also sent her a library reconsideration form she could fill out, effectively challenging the book via the proper procedural channels. In addition, he has characterized her actions as theft.

But Karkos is not backing down. In addition to writing a second letter to Speer, she also wrote a letter to the editor of the Sun Journal pointing out her very specific objections to a book she claims “promotes promiscuous sex by illustrations and written content specifically intended to distort, undermine, and destroy wholesome traditional values.” She defends her actions as “civil disobedience.”

The two sides remain in a stand-off, with the library director and library board holding their position and threatening to involve the police if Karkos doesn’t return the books. Comments on the Sun Journal’s Web site show support for both sides of the argument, though there appears to be more postings championing the library’s view.

This is not the first time It’s Perfectly Normal has come under fire. In fact, the number of challenges since its publication landed it in the  #7 spot on the ALA’s list of most challenged books of the 21st century. Who’s number one? As in most other children’s book categories: Harry Potter.