LEWISTON - A Lewiston woman who was upset by the content of an acclaimed sex education book published 14 years ago has checked out copies from two libraries and refuses to give them back.
"Since I have been sufficiently horrified of the illustrations and the sexually graphic, amoral abnormal contents, I will not be returning the books," JoAn Karkos wrote the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries last month.
Each letter was accompanied by a check for $20.95 to cover the cost of the book, "It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex & Sexual Health."
"This has never happened before," said Rick Speer, director of the Lewiston Public Library. "It is clearly theft."
Speer returned the check, along with a form Karkos could use to request that the book be removed from library shelves. But he said he may seek help from police if she doesn't return what she borrowed.
"That's really what we want," Speer said. "We want the book back."
Written by Robie H. Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley, the book features frank but cartoon-like illustrations of naked people in chapters on topics that include abstinence, masturbation and sexually transmitted diseases.
The publisher, Massachusetts-based Candlewick Press, said "It's Perfectly Normal" has been sold in 25 countries and translated into 21 languages.
Karkos, 64, said in an interview Tuesday that she first heard of the book from the American Life League, an anti-abortion group. She felt compelled to act after she checked out the book and found it to be "pornographic" and worse than she originally feared.
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can we please just throw people like this in jail? i hate when people are going to tell me what i can and cannot read based on their beliefs. because an imaginary guy in the sky has made this woman ashamed of her body shes going to be the moral compass for all of us. i just say that we should send the swat team over to her house, break down the door and get the two books back....and while they are there they can staple her check to her forehead....
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