Source:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/110104_local_book.html
Mother outraged by sexual content in school library book
A mother intends to file a formal complaint over a book her daughter checked out from the school library.
By Kevin Quinn
ABC13 Eyewitness News
(11/01/04 - DEER PARK, TX) — A mother is outraged by the racy reading material her 11-year-old daughter checked out from the school library. Now she has a warning for other parents.
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Cindi Lovell couldn't believe what she saw when her 11-year-old daughter recently showed her a page of the book "What My Mother Doesn't Know." It's a book the girl checked out from the library at Bonnette Junior High School.
"I just don't think that, you know, it's something that should be in the schools," Lovell explained.
The book is written from the perspective of a fictional 14-year-old girl who's trying to figure out the difference between love and lust. It includes foul language and references to masturbation.
One quote reads: "I try to imagine what it would be like to be lying naked underneath the sheet."
Another quote reads: "I'm dreaming of his lips sizzling all the cells in my body."
Lovell said, "I think, no. Not for a young girl, not for anybody… Certainly not anybody my daughter's age – 11."
Don Dean with Deer Park ISD told Eyewitness News, "In the context you're presenting it, I would have some personal questions regarding that. But not having read the book, and not having read the context in which that was presented in the book, I couldn't really comment."
Dean says the book is on a list of acceptable material compiled by state school librarians. If any parent has any issue with that, he urges them to file a formal complaint.
"Any time they find something objectionable, go through the process, because there is a process in place that could result in having that book removed from the shelves," Dean explained.
Cindi Lovell says she will file that paperwork to have this book banned.
The book at the center of the controversy has received several honors. In addition to being selected as "Best Book for Young Adults" by the American Library Association in 2002, "What My Mother Doesn't Know" was named "Young Adults Choice" by the International Reading Association in 2003. It was also included on the Texas Lone Star State Reading List.
Eyewitness News tried to contact the author, but have not heard back.
(Copyright © 2004, KTRK-TV)
[sarcasm]Right, because young girls never think about sex. And it would be just TERRIBLE if they learned the difference between love and lust.[/sarcasm]
You'd think that the poor kid was reading de Sade or something. Jeez.