It's So Amazing by Robie H Harris and Michael Emberley

in

A book about eggs, sperm, birth, babies, families, spawning, tearing free the burden of your own existential horror, and making yourself irrelevant through reproduction.

Banned

2002 - Texas - Residents of Montgomery County, Texas, wanted the books banned from the local public library system. Montgomery County Library Director, Jerilynn Adams Williams, fought the measure for three months before both books were finally allowed to return to the shelves. Williams won the 2003 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her efforts.

2003 - Florida - Relocated from the young adult to the adult section of the Fort Bend County Libraries in Richmond. The same title was recently moved to the restricted section of the Fort Bend School District's media centers after a resident sent an e-mail message to the superintendent expressing concern about the book's content. The Spirit of Freedom Republican Women's Club petitioned the superintendent to have it, along with It's Perfectly Normal: A Book about Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, moved because they contain "frontal nudity and discussion of homosexual relationship and abortion."

2005

Arkansas - Restricted, but later returned to general circulation shelves with some limits on student access, based on a review committee's recommendations, at the Holt Middle School parent library in Fayetteville, Ark. (2005) despite a parent's complaint that it was sexually explicit.

Wisconsin - Relocated to the reference section of the Northern Hills Elementary school media center in Onalaska, Wis. (2005) because a parent complained about its frank yet kid-friendly discussion of reproduction topics, including sexual intercourse, masturbation, abortion, and homosexuality."

#37 ALA's Most Banned Books 2000-2009

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

It's Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley

in ,

Learn about your body and sexy times in this week's episode.

Banned

1996

Pennsylvania - Challenged at Chester County Library because the book it prompted kids to begin desiring sex and "a clear example of child pornography"

Utah - Challenged at Provo Library for discussions of sex, masturbation, and homosexuality

Washington - Removed from Clover Park School District because parents claimed it was too graphic and "could foster more questions than it answers"

1997

Missouri - Challenged but retained at Mexico-Audrain County Library by a Baptist minister who complained about the title and it's discussion of sex, death, and birth.

North Dakota - Challenged but retained at the Fargo Public Library as "explicit, pornographic, and too easily accessible to children"

1999 - California - Challenged but retained at the Auburn-Placer County Public Library for being sexually explicit

2000 - Massachusettes - Challenged at Holland Public Library due to sexually explicit content and moved from children's to adults section

2001

Alaska - Restricted to elementary school kids with parental permission in Anchorage due to values and because "marriage is mentioned once in the whole book, while homosexual relationships are allocated an entire section"

Florida - Challenged at Marion County Public Library for being pornographic

2002 - Texas - Challenged, but retained, in Montgomery County library system after the Republican Leadership Council characterized the book as "vulgar" and trying to "minimize or even negate that homosexuality is a problem".

2003 - Texas - Moved from the young adult to the adult section of the Fort Bend County Libraries in Richmond. Also moved to the restricted section of the Fort Bend School Districts media centers after a resident complained via email about the book's content.

2005 - Arkansas - Challenged, but retained at the Holt Middle School library in Fayetteville despite a parent's complaint that it was sexually explicit.

2008 - Maine - A Lewiston patron refused to return the book to the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries because she was "sufficiently horrified by the illustrations and sexually graphic, amoral, abnormal contents." A police investigation found the library did not violate the town ordinance against obscenity and the patron will stand trial for theft.

2011 - Florida - Challenged, but retained at the Lee County libraries despite the book's explicit illustrations.

2015 - Missouri - Challenged as an e-book at the Francis Howell middle school libraries in St. Charles because of cartoon nudity.

2016 - Oregon - Rainer parents complained after books used by 6th grade class were left out in view of 4th graders. ""Inappropriate human development and sexuality books were disseminated to students who had library. Procedures have been put into place to make sure this doesn't happen again. All questionable books have been pulled from library shelves." - school's principal

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/