'It's Perfectly Normal' to Corrupt Children

CWFA ^ | 8/9/04 | Lee Duigon

[ZGuy]

What book has quietly sold over a million copies, miseducates children about sex, and outrages many parents when they get hold of it?

It’s Perfectly Normal, written by Robie Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley, has been described as "pornographic." That’s putting it mildly. It's chock-full of watercolors featuring assorted sex acts and full frontal nudity. Most of the characters illustrated are pubescent boys and girls. The presentation would not be out of place on the walls of a ruined brothel in Pompeii.

Yet the hardcover copy’s cover includes this at the top from advice columnist Ann Landers:

"At last ... a book for young people about sex and reproduction in language they can understand, plus pictures they will enjoy."

Ann has apparently been hanging around the Kinsey Institute crowd, which thinks child molestation is just part of a good scientific inquiry into sex.

Since the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Candlewick Press published it in 1994, It’s Perfectly Normal has riled citizens all across America. A few examples:

Anchorage, Alaska, 2001: Angry citizens object to the book's inclusion in their public libraries. Montgomery County, Texas, 2002: County commissioners order the book removed from country libraries, after citizens object. Fairfax County, Louisiana, 2002: Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians (PFLAG) raise money to donate the book to public school libraries; citizens object. Waco, Texas, July 2004: Local pro-life group protests the use of the book in "Nobody's Fool," a Planned Parenthood-sponsored "sex education" program for children aged nine to 14.

Why the fuss? One reading of It’s Perfectly Normal will answer that question.

Critics say the book promotes abortion and homosexuality. They're right. It also denigrates Judeo-Christian religion and morality.

Page 73 of the 1996 paperback edition lists nine reasons to have an abortion, capped by this masterpiece of moral anorexia: "The female did not want or intend to become pregnant." There are no reasons offered not to have an abortion. The author probably couldn't think of any.

Harris' enthusiasm for homosexuality is boundless. She dubs it "perfectly normal" and "the highest form of love," according to "the ancient Greeks" (pp. 17-18). Those who object to it are "ignorant" and "misinformed." Harris also lists the anus (pp. 23, 26) as "a sex organ." Perhaps we ought to be grateful she left it at that.

What possesses parents to allow their children to be exposed to this? In my home state of New Jersey, Planned Parenthood "trains" the teachers who teach "sex education" in the public schools. Taxpayer dollars pay for it. This is boiling the calf in its mother's milk.

Cattle don't have votes or voices, but people do. Where are the votes? Where are the voices? Why is this garbage in our public schools and libraries?

My parents, when I was 10 years old, would never have let a "teacher" put a book like this in front of me. If anyone had, he would've been lucky if the police got to him first.

Parents, this is what your public schools are using to teach your children about sex, and they're doing it with your money.

For those parents who are forcing officials to toss this book out, more power to you. As for the others, who are sitting back while their kids are exposed to degrading stuff like this, I guess "it’s perfectly normal."

[HawkeyeLonewolf]

Fortunately, our public library keeps this in the adult section -- so parents can get it for their kids. It should be moved to parental advisory so that kids cannot check it out without an adult.

[Choose Ye This Day]

The Decline and Fall of American Civilization is in full swing.

[Maceman]

She dubs it "perfectly normal" and "the highest form of love," according to "the ancient Greeks" (pp. 17-18).

Did the ancient Greeks recognize gay marriage?

[BraveMan]

Do you approve this use of your tax dollars?

[Podkayne]

Fortunately, Catholic and other Christian schools don't have this problem to start with.

[headsonpikes]

This is boiling the calf in its mother's milk.

Now that is a metaphor!

[newgeezer]

Nothing new under the sun. The slide into debasement is as old as dirt.

[bereanway]

I've said for years that Ann Landers is a fool, that anyone would look to her for advice is a sad commentary on just how morally rudderless much of America has become and lacking in common sense. Her endorsement of this trash pretty much sums up just how clueless she has always been.

[biblewonk]

Nothing new under the sun. The slide into debasement is as old as dirt.

It's not a slide, we're at the bottom. It's just that every once in a while someone turns on a light and we see where we are.

[newgeezer]

Ah, yes, right you are.

[EdReform]

Ping

[oyez]

If those in their formative years are encouraged to have free for all sex, fidelity in marred relationships would be a thing of the past, right? Libido(lust) type love would be substituted for the real thing so a relationship would based on sex alone.

I'll never understand why their so many bent on poisoning off the greatest society in the history of the world. It makes as much sense cutting a hole in a life boat.

[Pete98]

Head, meet pike.

[Telit Likitis]

ANN Landers is dead! (2002)

[ZGuy]

The book originally came out in 1994.

[scripter]

Information for Parents

Targeting Children, Part 1: How the gay movement intends to capture the next generation

Targeting Children, Part 2: How the homosexual movement uses public schools as instruments of change

Targeting Children, Part 3: Activists encouraging experimentation

Targeting Children, Part 4: Access to children: homosexuality and molestation

[ArGee]

As for the others, who are sitting back while their kids are exposed to degrading stuff like this, I guess "it’s perfectly normal."

Hey, when I had my kids I understood they were going to be my problem until they were 6 years old - after that the State would take care of them. That was the deal. Am I supposed to put 18 years of my life on hold justbecause I have a rugrat around? I DON'T THINK SO. I have a life to live, you know. If I'd thought I couldn't trust the State to raise them I'd have aborted them.

Shalom.

[HungarianGypsy]

Sounds like a sex education film I saw back in 8th grade. When the teenage girl who was pregnant was interviewed about how long she thought she was going to have to take care of her child, her answer was, "About three or four years."

[scripter]

Also keep watch for the following books that may be in your school or public library:

123 A Family Counting Book	Bobbie Combs, Danamarie Hosler	4-8
ABC A Family Alphabet Book	Bobbie Combs, Desiree Keane	4-8
All Families are Different	Sol Gordon, Vivien Cohen	4-8
Daddy's Roommate	Michael Willhoite	4-8
Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans	Johnny Valentine, Lynette Schmidt	4-8
Heather Has Two Mommies	Leslea Newman, Diana Souza	4-8
Jack & Jim	Kitty Crowther	4-8
Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin	Susanne Bosche, Andreas Hansen	All
King & King	Linda De Haan, Stern Nijland	4-8
King & King & Family	Linda De Haan, Stern Nijland	4-8
My Two Uncles	Judith Vigna	4-8
Oliver Button Is a Sissy	Tomie De Paola	4-8
The Sissy Duckling	Harvey Fierstein, Henry Cole	4-8
Who's in a Family	Robert Skutch, Laura Nienhaus	4-8