10/02/2007
MaineToday Media, Inc.
At the public library in Mount Vernon, someone waltzed off with the "Kama Sutra."
Copies of "What's Happening to my Body?" have vanished from Penquis Valley Middle and High School library in Milo.
Missing from the Lincoln Middle School library in Portland is a copy of "It's Perfectly Normal."
All three books deal with the subject of human sexuality, and all are sharing the spotlight with works on other controversial subjects this week during Banned Books Week.
Sponsored by the American Library Association and other groups, the annual event is designed to raise awareness of efforts to restrict access to books through censorship or other challenges. Libraries across the country will mark the week with special displays, public readings and other activities.
In Maine, there's a heightened awareness this year, at least among the state's librarians after a Lewiston woman checked out copies of "It's Perfectly Normal," a popular sex education book for young adolescents, from the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries.
JoAn Karkos refused to return the book, which she described as pornographic, and sent each library a $20 check to cover the cost of the loss. She faces a court fine in Lewiston and the loss of library privileges in Auburn.
Although Karkos wanted to limit access to the book, Lewiston library director Rick Speer said her action had precisely the opposite effect. Supporters of the library have donated new copies, more readers are checking out the book, and community reaction has been overwhelmingly in the library's favor, he said.
"This definitely has added meaning to Banned Books Week here in Lewiston," he said.
Karkos could not be reached for comment.
Books on sex, paganism or witchcraft and other potentially sensitive topics have a habit of disappearing from libraries.
Some librarians say patrons are simply carting off books they find offensive. Others think readers are helping themselves to books because they don't want to be seen reading them publicly.
Nancy Grant, librarian for Penquis Valley Middle and High School in Milo, said she is "99 percent sure" a teacher at another school where she once worked was responsible for removing copies of "What's Happening to My Body? Book for Girls: A Growing Up Guide for Parents and Daughters," by Lynda Madaras.
"The book disappeared twice before I was able to figure out where it was going," she said. Grant said the teacher objected to some of the content about sexual development in the book, aimed at girls aged 8 to 15.
In Mount Vernon, the "Kama Sutra," disappeared only a few months after it went onto the shelf, director Mary Anne Libby said.
She doesn't know whether the book was removed because it offended a patron, or because someone wanted his or her personal copy. The "Kama Sutra" is translated from an ancient Sanskrit text on the art of lovemaking.
Grant said the Penquis Library has to replace at least one copy each year of "Go Ask Alice," an anonymous author's fictional diary, published in 1971, about a teenage girl's descent into drug abuse and sex.
She said students are probably taking that book and others on sensitive subjects like homosexuality because their parents would object.
"There's quite a range of books that disappear," she said. "I feel the students have a need for them and, for some reason, they don't think their families would let them read them."
Teri Caouette, librarian at Lincoln Middle School in Portland, can't find one of the library's two copies of "It's Perfectly Normal," a book that explains the physical, emotional and social changes that take place during puberty.
Published in 1994, "It's Perfectly Normal" is subtitled "Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health." It includes cartoon-like illustrations of nude people and explores topics such as masturbation, abstinence and menstruation.
The book's frank treatment of those topics has earned it the number seven spot on the American Library Association's list of the top 10 most challenged books in the 21st century. Leading the list is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
The association received a total of 546 challenges last year. The organization defines a challenge as a formal, written complaint that requests a book or other material be removed because of its content.
Most school and public libraries have established policies for challenging materials.
In Maine, librarians say challenges are relatively rare, and most complaints are resolved through discussion.
Rosemary Waltos, director of the Auburn Public Library, where one of the "It's Perfectly Normal" books was removed and not returned, said she's never had a formal challenge in her 21 years heading public libraries.
Speer, the Lewiston library director, said there have been only two challenges in his 23 years in Lewiston.
Many Maine libraries will be displaying challenged books during Banned Book Week. The titles will include contemporary works, such as "It's Perfectly Normal," as well as classics that continue to generate challenges, such as Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain.
Waltos said Auburn's library is planning an open discussion on banned books during National Library Week in April. The event will include a reading of "Fahrenheit 451," Ray Bradbury's classic about a future in which all books are banned. The title refers to the temperature at which paper burns.
"There's a lot of independent-minded thinkers in Maine, certainly in Lewiston," Speer said. "They value their freedom to read and get all types of information at their public library."
School librarians say they encourage parents to set reading standards for their own children.
Grant, at the school library in Milo, said that's important because her library serves students from seventh grade through high school seniors - a broad range of content. She also allows high school students who work in the library for academic credit to help preview and choose new books.
"I provide a lot of student ownership of what we have on the shelf," she said, which helps cut down on book theft and the identification of potentially sensitive materials.
Lewiston library director Speer said the Banned Books Week display always boosts circulation of the featured books, especially classics. He said the library has received six donated copies of the book "It's Perfectly Normal," the book that Karkos removed from the collection and refused to return.
"We put a couple in the collection and we're holding the others in case - God forbid - there are any more guerrilla tactics," he said.
Staff Writer Dieter Bradbury can be contacted at 791-6329 or at:
dbradbury@pressherald.com
TOP 10
National top 10 list for challenged books in 2006:
"And Tango Makes Three" by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
"Gossip Girls" series by Cecily Von Ziegesar
"Alice" series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
"The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things" by Carolyn Mackler
"The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
"Scary Stories" series by Alvin Schwartz
"Athletic Shorts" by Chris Crutcher
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky
"Beloved" by Toni Morrison
"The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
Source: American Library Association
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"First books burn , then people burn "report abuse
Book theft is still theft and, in the case of library book theft, it is a crime again the taxpayers as well. It is an attack on our freedom of thought as well. A democratic republic, such as ours, cannot maintain without a free expression of ideas, and neither government, nor fellow citizens, have any right to interfere with what information is available to each of us.report abuse
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