It's Perfectly Normal
Encyclopedia
It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health is a children's book about going through puberty
. It is written by Robie Harris
and illustrated by Michael Emberley. Harris was prompted to write it when an editor asked her to write a children's book about HIV
/AIDS
, and she felt the subject needed to be treated more generally. It was first published in 1994, and has since been translated into 30 languages.
The book is considered highly controversial and is #12 on the American Library Association
's Most Challenged Books of 2000-2009 list. In 2007, a woman in Lewiston, Maine
made national news when she checked the local libraries' copies out and refused to return them, claiming the book was 'pornographic'.
The book has received awards from at least 10 distinguished publications, including Publisher’s Weekly and School Library Journal (both named it “Best Book of the Year”), the American Library Association and the New York Times (both named it “Notable Book of the Year”), and the San Francisco Chronicle (listed among “The Century’s Best Children’s Books”).
Puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
. It is written by Robie Harris
Robie Harris
Robie H. Harris is an author, specializing in books for children. She was born in Buffalo, New York, and currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts...
and illustrated by Michael Emberley. Harris was prompted to write it when an editor asked her to write a children's book about HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
/AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, and she felt the subject needed to be treated more generally. It was first published in 1994, and has since been translated into 30 languages.
The book is considered highly controversial and is #12 on the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
's Most Challenged Books of 2000-2009 list. In 2007, a woman in Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
made national news when she checked the local libraries' copies out and refused to return them, claiming the book was 'pornographic'.
The book has received awards from at least 10 distinguished publications, including Publisher’s Weekly and School Library Journal (both named it “Best Book of the Year”), the American Library Association and the New York Times (both named it “Notable Book of the Year”), and the San Francisco Chronicle (listed among “The Century’s Best Children’s Books”).