SEXUALLY EXPLICIT, OBSCENE, OR OBJECTIONABLE BOOKS IN

MURRAY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

(This is nowhere near an exhaustive list; it is just a small sample of 100+ books)

MURRAY HIGH – some of these books are also in the junior highs in Murray (noted in parantheticals)

1. Juliet Takes a Breath

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780593108178&appid=4

Summary: Crucial and intense explorations of sexual orientation, gender identity, and race ring true. A white and Korean librarian love interest and a masturbation scene add sweet sensuality to Juliet's self-discovery. A whirlwind coming-of-age story that leaves one breathless.

Quotes:

I want to be free. Free like this line: 'A fully realized woman is at all times her true self. No soul-crushing secrets or self-imposed burdens of shame, these create toxic imbalance, a spiritual yeast infection if you will. So step out into the fresh air and let that pussy breathe.'

I've got a secret. I think it's going to kill me. Sometimes I hope it does. How do I tell my parents that I'm gay? Gay sounds just as weird as feminist. How do you tell the people who breathed you into existence that you're the opposite of what they want you to be? And I'm supposed to be ashamed of being gay, but now that I've had sex with girls, I don't feel any shame at all. In fact, it's pretty fucking amazing. 

****

Raging Flower was both book and shield. I pulled it out, sighing mad loud. The main boy gave me a look. Whatever, papi culo. I couldn't even with dudes lately. All they did was talk smack about how good they laid down the pipe. Anytime I ignored them I was both abitch and all of a sudden too ugly or too fat to get it anyway. Neighborhood dudes sure knew how to slime and shame a girl in one swift move. Reason number five hundred and fifty-oneRaging Flower was so necessary. Reading helped me gather myself, reminded me that I had a right to be mad. It felt like my body was both overexposed and an unsolved mystery. 

"You must walk in this world with the spirit of a ferocious cunt. Express your emotions. Believe that the universe came from your flesh. Own your power, own your connection to Mother Earth. Howl at the moon, bare your teeth, and be a goddamn wolf."

Ferocious cunt. I circled that phrase in neon-purple ink. Was I a ferocious cunt? By tomorrow night, I'd be in Harlowe's home, not on the train in the Bronx. I had planned my escape'chose to come out and run off into the night. What kind of wolf did that make me?

***

"I said you lookin' mad good," he repeated, his breath harsh on my neck. 

My back tensed up. I cracked my middle knuckle with my thumb. Every way this group of man-boys could possibly assault me flashed through my head. A bolt of fear snaked up my spine. I squeezed the can, wishing I was bold enough to clock him with it. I shrugged hard and turned around. His friends had moved in closer, forming a little semicircle around me. Fucking dudes, man.

"Whassup? You too good to say hello?' he asked, smiling. 

"I'm gay and not interested," I blurted out. 

My whole face went hot. Why did I say that? Jeezus. With fluorescent lights above me, stained white tiles under my feet, and a circle of machismo incarnate around me, there was nowhere to run.

'that's a damn shame. Maybe you just need this good D right here," he said as he grabbed his crotch. He stared at me and gave himself a good up and down stroke. His eyes had a hard glint to them. His tattoo-party tattoos showed from beneath his beater: a lion on his right arm, a crucifix on the left, and the name Joselys across his neck.

His boys gave him a pound. They laughed, salivated, and tightened their circle around me. I stepped to the right, and he moved in my way. They laughed again.

****

“Don’t worry, Juliet. Let me help. I can bring you your tampons or my sacred period ritual kit,” she said from behind the door. “Which would you prefer?” What a fucking question. “I don’t ever want to be the person that turned down a sacred period ritual kit,”

***

“No way in carajo was I chancing that. But also, my body, my orgasms, my fantasies. So I didn’t feel too bad either. And obviously I smelled my fingers ’cuz that’s what people do in real life and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Everything was fresh. Thanks for asking.”

*****

“Heavy as a huge set of beautiful ovaries. Get a little hysterical, Juliet. I mean, that’s why vibrators were invented, right? Ask the questions that make you feel like your heart is blasting out of your chest. Society, government, white supremacist power structures, blatant hatred of women, and a whole slew of other institutions are all working together to make it so that you gotta dig to find out even a shred of truth. They don’t want you to dig. That’s how this world is set up. People don’t even want to tell you that your vagina is called a vagina, you know? Why would someone spell out the violent and racist history of their business? Capitalism, baby.”

****

“It’s also wholly dependent on the enslavement of other individuals and animals. That terror and disregard for life seeps into our souls and bodies with every bite. It’s an absolute poison to the pussy. Don’t believe me? Go down on a meat-eater and tell me if you can’t taste the sadness.”

****

It's about women of color owning their own space and their voices being treated with dignity and respect. It's about women of color not having to shout over voices to be heard. We are the dominant force almost all the time. White women are the stars of all the movies. White women are the lead speakers in feminist debates, and it's little white girls that send the nation into a frenzy when they've been kidnapped. ...check your privilege. We're the ones that need to give women of color space for their voices.

***

Dear Juliet, Repeat after me: You are a bruja. You are a warrior. You are a feminist. You are a beautiful brown babe. Surround yourself with other beautiful brown and black and indigenous and morena and Chicana, native, Indian, mixed race, Asian, gringa, boriqua babes. Let them uplift you. Rage against the motherfucking machine.

***

“I understood 'microaggressions' to mean 'little bullshit acts of racism.”

***

“You gonna get a cut?” Blue Lips asked. “I’m afraid of looking like a dyke,” I said. “Are you a dyke?” “I think so.” “Then no matter what you do with your hair, you’re gonna look like a dyke,” Blue Lips said. 

***

“Every day that we exist on this planet the forces of white men in power are aimed at policing women's bodies and subjugating our identities to make us feel lesser than, to control us through physical and economic annihilation.”

***

“Whatever pronouns a person chooses, if they choose any at all, are their right. Not a fucking preference,”

****

“Get a little hysterical, Juliet. I mean that's why vibrators were invented, right?”

***

“I was used to the buttoned up, wealthy, Casper-skinned whites that always spoke in their library voices and used words like sassy and spicy to describe me. I was used to white people that embodied the suburban American dream. White people like Lainie's parents, who wished their daughters weren't dating me, but tolerated it and engaged me in discussions about affirmative action and how I benefited from it.”

***

“For me, everything was internal. I had all the what-if words and fuck-yous in my heart, but they didn't ever come out.”

2. Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=1596431032&appid=4  

The above link says, “the ghastly subject matter, sexual themes and carse language, along with the elliptical narrative structure, restrict this title to a mature audience.”

Quotes/Images:

3. Looking for Alaska

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0142402516&appid=4

Excerpt:

Pg 126-128

“I’ve just never given one,” she answered, her little voice dripping with seductiveness. It was so brazen. I thought I would explode. I never thought. I mean, from Alaska, hearing that stuff was one thing. But to hear her sweet little Romanian voice go so sexy all of the sudden…

“No,” I said. “I never have.”

“Think it would be fun?”

DO I!?!?!?!?!?!?! “Um. Yeah. I mean, you don’t have to.”

“I think I want to,” she said, and we kissed a little, and then. And then with me sitting watching The Brady Bunch, watching Marcia Marcia Marcia up to her Brady antics, Lara unbuttoned my pants and pulled my boxers down a little and pulled out my penis.

“Wow,” she said.

“What?”

She looked up at me, but didn’t move, her face nanometers away from my penis. “It’s weird.”

“What do you mean weird?”

“Just big, I guess.”

I could live with that kind of weird. And then she wrapped her hand around it and put it into her mouth.

And waited.

We were both very still. She did not move a muscle in her body, and I did not move a muscle in mine. I knew that at this point something else was supposed to happen, but I wasn’t quite sure what.

She stayed still. I could feel her nervous breath. For minutes . . . she lay there, stock-still with my penis in her mouth, and I sat there, waiting.

And then she took it out of her mouth and looked up at me quizzically.

“Should I do something?”

“Um. I don’t know,” I said. Everything I’d learned from watching porn with Alaska suddenly exited my brain. I thought maybe she should move her head up and down, but wouldn’t that choke her? So I just stayed quiet.

“Should I, like, bite?”

“Don’t bite! I mean, I don’t think. I think---I mean, that felt good. That was nice. I don’t know if there’s something else.”

“I mean, you didn't---.”

“Um. Maybe we should ask Alaska.”

So we went to her room and asked Alaska. She laughed and laughed. Sitting on her bed, she laughed until she cried. She walked into the bathroom, returned with a tube of toothpaste, and showed us. In detail. Never have I so wanted to be Crest Complete.

Page 127

Lara and I went back to her room, where she did exactly what Alaska told her to do, and I did exactly what Alaska said I would do, which was die a hundred little ecstatic deaths, my fists clenched, my body shaking. It was my first orgasm with a girl, and afterward, I was embarrassed and nervous, and so, clearly, was Lara, who finally broke the silence by asking, “So, want to do some homework?”

4. Ready or Not

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0060724501&appid=4

https://www.megcabot.com/2007/05/readers-unite-to-get-meg-banned%E2%80%94you-can-do-it-if-you-try/

Goodreads Reviews:

I was so so so disappointed in this book it’s not even funny! This book not only was a let down but it angered me too because It sent a terrible message to the millions of young women who read it myself included. I read the book before this one and enjoyed it as a nice light sugar read and so I figured the sequel would be along the same lines but I was shocked and outraged by this books out right support of casual sex. The message any young women would get from reading this book is that there is no reason to wait to have sex and its just meant to be casual and fun. NOT the message that teen girls need to be hearing at all!! My opinion of the Author Meg Cabot has definitely been altered forever because of this book and not in a good way at all!

This book is about Sex. I cannot believe that Meg Cabot could have the gall to write a young adult book about Sex and portray it as a reality when it is a lie. According to this book, if you have Sex with your boy-friend, it won't really change your relationship, it will be pretty much like it was before and you will feel better because you finally Did It. Even though you had heard all the facts about how Sex will change everything and can emotionally scar you and lead to disease and pregnancy you will still do it anyway.

This book's premise was that if that person you were with right now was "The One" you should be able to sleep with them because you knew that you were going to be together forever. Until that boy gets down on one knee and asks you to marry him, there are absolutely NO guarantees. How many high school relationships makes it past high school? How many people actually marry their high school sweethearts? The odds of Samantha and David being together for the rest of their lives are pretty slim.

Further along the road when they've broken up and are seeing other people they will regret giving in to the pressure and giving themselves away to someone whom they didn't even marry. Premarital sex is not something to be taken lightly, studies have shown that people who have had sex before marriage later regret that they didn't wait.

I also did not like the way that Samantha was allowed to "speak her mind" and use her freedom of speech in mocking the president and even disagreeing with him on National Televsion. For one thing, she would no longer be a teen amassador, not with the way she is behaving, in a rude disrespectful manner, she would be kicked out - and good riddance too! Until Samantha can learn to respect authority she should not be in a place of honor and prestige.

I was so disappointed in Meg Cabot's portrayal of Samantha Madison, Meg had the chance to redeem herself and let Samantha make the right decision, instead she showed how a "good girl" (who's family and friends had respected and trusted) used their honest intentions and deliberately lied to them to get what she wanted. And worse, she dragged the President's son into it as well by sleeping with him.

The fact that David went along with it in the first place was a complete breach of his character. He went from a nice, thoughtful boy to a boy who didn't have any morals and only did what was best to his advantage, without thinking about the future. Without wondering if maybe what he did to Samantha could potentionally scar her and make her bitter later on in life. He thought only about himself and his needs by not saying no and giving in to the pressure.

This book made me so angry! Meg Cabot has woven this "story" and made it so alluring you cannot help but want to believe it, she shows you how it has to be true because they "love each other" and all the stuff that they've heard has to be untrue because what they've experienced is nothing like it. It is a lie. Don't fall into this trap of disillusionment, you cannot have sex before marriage and come out unscathed, someone will get hurt and it will be you.-
Think about it: you love him and know that he is the one for you, but after a couple months or maybe even years, will it really last, will you still be together? How will you feel knowing that you gave such a precious part of yourself to him and you can never, ever get that back? How will you feel when the guy you are truly meant to be with asks you to marry him and you have already given your virginity away, instead of saving it for him.

I don't like it when authors push an agenda, especially in young adult books. to me, this book was all about a young girl deciding when to lose her virginity. i'm not promoting censorship, but this book does not have a good direction for its audience. with parents unaware of activities, an older sibling willing to purchase contraceptive, and the professions of the two children being 'in love', why would any young reader not think this is acceptable, and even desirable? the girl is 16, her boyfriend slightly older, and it follows that readers of this book could be even younger. i think there is a burden of responsibility on the author to be more careful in choosing subject matter for books that are marketed to impressionable young people. teens are already bombarded with sexual influence in the media. 

Erica rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2009

This book is hardly young adult. Honestly, I was shocked the direction this book went, and was not pleased with the ending. R rating for sure, with such sex talk-though ironic that the author skipped over the scene the whole story was leading up to.

I do like certain parts, about how people stood up to the bully at school, though that is maybe not so believable for real life.

While it may seem good that Meg Cabot is trying to educate teens on sex and contraceptives, the whole thing is screwed up. Parents have no clue, her sister is giving her the info she got from HER friends, and buys the protection for her, etc. The character doesn't do much for herself, and basically spends most of the book freaking out if she should sleep with her boyfriend, and then makes a rash decision.

This book is not as good as the first of the, and I'm really dissapointed that the message of this book seems to be that the decision to sleep with your boyfriend at a moments notice at the age of 16 is just fine and dandy. To say that this is not an issue teens can relate to would be ridiculous, but I just don't think this books character gave the decision the respect it deserves, and for me I think that's the biggest dissapointment. (less)

Jul 16, 2013Kristy 

Rating: 1/10

Terrible book! The first book in this series was so innocent and then the author comes up with the idea of basing the whole second book on sex. Samantha and David have a solid relationship so thus it appears that it is then normal to consider sex. Samantha is still so young and by the end of the book she is quite experienced not only sexually with her boyfriend but also with herself. I hate to think of the ideas young girls would get by reading this book. Samantha's older sister highly encourages her to seek self-pleasuring and gives her plenty of tips on how to go about it. Shocking!!!!! This is basically a book for teenage girls on how to prepare for sex. The age bracket that these books are aimed for should not even be thinking about sex! I know that there are girls as young as 13 who are sexually active but we shouldn't be encouraging it!!

5. I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9781524700492&appid=4

Common-Sense Media Reviews:

This book hits every adolescent social topic and in many cases seemed to normalize what I consider harmful behavior--drinking/drinking and driving, pot use, characters have casual (hetero and gay) sex, sexual and physical harassment and abuse, abortion, self harm and suicide attempt, etc. Extremely poor communication between family members almost all around. It was depressing, the language was very crude, and characters seemed stereotyped.

As an educator and parent, the youngest age I would be comfortable recommending this book to would be 18 unless the parent reads it ahead of time and knows what his/her child is able to handle.

Quotes:

“Be careful. Please. The border…The fucking border.” I feel a wildness spreading through me. “It’s nothing but a giant wound, a big gash between the two countries. Why does it have to be like that? I don’t understand. It’s just some random, stupid line. How can anyone tell people where they can and can’t go?”

I know is that I’m going to pack my bags when I graduate and say, “Peace out, mothafuckas.”

"Shopping, partying, and… fucking" are Juanga's self-cited interests.

Ashley ♡︎ rated it did not like it

I wanted to like this book - I really did. But the portrayal of my culture in this book is appalling. Education is our NUMBER ONE priority and our parents encourage us to pursue it more than anything else. I also didn't like how every male relative she came into contact with was perverted in some way - it was too much.

6. The Hate You Give (Murray High, Riverview Jr, Hillcrest Jr)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780062498533&appid=4

Reviews from Common Sense Media:

"There is lots of foul language, and it broaches the topic of "going all the way" and sex, and pulling out condoms during a make out session, his hands in her pants"

"The main theme is THUG LIFE meaning "The Hate U Give Little Infants F***'s Everybody".... There are 90 F*CK's and a variety of over 200 other words that the author uses for shock value and impact. Lots of chanting of "F*CK THE POLICE" and "MothaF*cker..." ." "s--t" "a--" "b---", "d---" "nigga"

"Overall the themes in this book may create heightened racial polarization and risks preconceived vision of this culture and magnification of racial stereotypes to the next generation."

7. Not Otherwise Specified

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781481405966&appid=4

Quotes:

“Hey. I’m the queer one here and I’m saying leave her alone. She’s fucking fourteen. She doesn’t hate anyone. She isn’t running around telling people they’re going to Hell. She’s struggling because her damn God told her something she’s questioning and that’s really scary for her and she’s fourteen. Leave her alone.”

“I go both ways", I say, "You know that whole thing about there being a misconception about bisexuals being sluts. Like everyone thinks that just because we're into both we're into everybody?" ... "Well I'm actually kind of a slut. I'm awesome for the community, obviously”

“No no no, sweetie, that wasn't dancing, that was being a whore. Good God, what do they teach in church nowadays? Aren't you supposed to be able to pick whores out of a lineup?"
"That's only on Sundays," she says. "It's Thursday, my secret Christian Whore-Spotting Powers aren't activated.”

“The goddamn bullshit of all this, I swear. The world makes you think God forbid, you actually enjoy sex, but at least you've got all your friends to tell you all the right stuff about how a woman's sexual energy is no one's business but her own and should be respected.”

8. Monday’s Not Coming

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780062422675&appid=4

https://www.dailywire.com/news/parent-infuriated-after-virginia-high-school-forced-student-to-read-graphic-book-about-oral-sex?inf_contact_key=490718c44225eca043969a4c4377a25909c74070ac2bf3cfa7869e3cfd4ff832

https://taphaps.com/loudon-county-school-books-1/

“I tiptoed toward the door, peering through the window at the boy — his pants around his ankles — squeezed between April’s straddled legs as she lay on top of a teacher’s desk,” the passage reads.

“I gripped his arms and flipped him around, pushing him against the wall,” another excerpt reads. “I took a deep breath before dropping down on my shaking knees, the ground cold.”

Other passages tell of severe domestic violence scenarios in which the narrator justifies brutally beating, starving, and keeping a young woman captive.

“I came home early from babysitting and see her coming out of some car in these tight-a** little shorts, talking fast, telling my she’s about to leave me. I grabbed her by the neck and started punching her. She wanted to be all big and bad, trying to face me like a grown-a** woman, she’s gonna get beat like a grown woman,” the book reads. “I threw her in the closet for a couple of days. She kept on screaming, begging to be let out, begging for water. Every time she made too much noise, I’d walk in and kick her.”

The book, which is rated for ages 13 to 17, repeatedly describes sexual encounters between children as well as other risky and dangerous situations. One character explains that he “did do something” with the titular Monday, further admitting that she “sucked my d***.”

“She did your homework and you ate her c******?” Is that why you crying? ‘Cause Monday’s not around to do your homework no more?” another character asks.

9. Fan Art

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780062243157&appid=4

Summary: Jamie is perfectly happy to stay closeted at school, particularly when it comes to his best friend, Mason. If Mason found out he was gay-let alone probably in love with him-Jamie is sure that Mason would never speak to him again. So Jamie focuses on editing his school's literary magazine, which is the perfect distraction-until someone submits a short comic (included) about two boys falling in love, and the lit-mag staff are divided over the homosexual content. As Jamie becomes more embroiled in the controversy and closer to new friends in the Gay-Straight Alliance, he feels mounting pressure to come out and admit his true feelings for Mason. 

Quote:

"I wasn't outing you." She goes quiet and then mumbles, "I was, um, bragging."
"Bragging?" I ask.
"That you asked me to prom. Major braggage."
"Um."
"They practically squeed their pants!"
"About me?" I still don't get it. "But Challis is a lesbian?"
"Jamie, Jamie, Jamie," Eden says. "That doesn't matter. If there's one thing that girls -- gay or straight -- like, it's gay boys."
"That doesn't make sense," I tell her. "The very definition of gay boy is that they like boys."
Eden sighs as if I'm the stupid one. "We like you. And all the squeeably cute gay guys like you -- both fictional and in real life."
"But you said you didn't tell them I'm gay!"
"It doesn't matter. They've got good gaydar."

10. The Music of What Happens

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781338215502&appid=4

Goodreads Reviews:  “There was definitely some abuse from Max towards Jordan throughout the book. Specifically, one scene where Max and Jordan are driving together all day, Jordan asks Max, "do you hate me?".  Max replies with "Shut up, Like seriously shut up...you're better than asking me if I hate you...So if you’re gonna be all mopey and shit and act like you’re not worthy, Ill take you home. Otherwise, shut the fuck up...." and then Jordan looks up and smiles and says okay.  W H A T?????????????  i guess Max was trying to be nice, but also I felt very uncomfortable in that moment

****

- not agree in the way how being a victim is portrayed in the story. the character who is raped has some lines in which he says things like: ''I'm not a victim. Shut the hell up with all that victim shit.'''' and even though he's referring to his own situation and not others i think certain people could be very triggered by this kind of comments. i might be wrong but to me that is minimizing the pain/validity of being a victim of sexual abuse coming from a victim himself. i thought it was disrespectful tbh.

oh, and don't make me forget Max's father, which is undoubtedly the cherry on top of this book. the character, apart from having ZERO reason for being in the story (because he literally does nothing besides saying BULLSHIT!!!), he has lines that just made me feel uncomfortable.

Quotes -

He laughs. ''So the girl says no, and the guy doesn't stop, and she just lies there?''
''Yeah?''
Dad laughs again. ''Dude. That's not even like illegitimate rape. That's garden-variety rape, kid.''

***

Man, I could get used to this thing where I don’t think I’m a total piece of shit all the time.”
****

“Hit. The fucking. Bag. Jesus."

I hit it. Pretty hard. My bicep wobbles at contact.

"There ya go. Again."

I hit it again.

"Add a sound."

I hit it again, silent.

"Listen to me. Let the sound out, however it comes out."

I hit it again and emit this high-pitched squeal that would make me laugh if it didn't carry with it my entire broken heart. And Max doesn't laugh either.”

***

https://geoffwhaley.com/2019/08/20/the-music-of-what-happens-bill-konigsberg/

11. Out of Darkness (Murray High and Riverview Jr)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781467742023&appid=4

https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-school-district-apologizes-to-parents-after-children-assigned-books-with-graphic-sex-scenes?inf_contact_key=287bbd6958668e34cd6d6d0e776e384d16358d5485884e2f31e6019a0d26c8b0

Common Sense Media Book Reviews:

Set in 1936 East Texas in the months leading up to the 1937 New London School Explosion, the book explores a fictional relationship between a Mexican teen allowed to attend the white high school and an African-American teen who lives in the black neighborhood on the other side of town. Language include racial slurs such as the "N" word, "Boy," and "dirty Mexican," as well as occasional curse words, including "s--t," "c--t," and "f--k." The violence is disturbing, personal, and based in racial hatred. Additionally, the book explores the mature and intimate relationship between two teens.

"age 17+ salacious and dark
I am in chapter 64 of 175, far enough along to form an overall impression in five letters: ew, ick.
The review that says this is about race is a half-truth. So far, that’s a minor ingredient in this the author’s recipe.

By paragraph-count, this book focuses on gratuitous sexual situations that should be beyond many 9th graders:
multiple, comprehensive-enough instructions on giving “hand jobs” (adult males training teen girls); female masturbation (protagonist) justified for pain relief and mental escape by a girl living through the trauma of being sexually abused by a stepfather; male masturbation by both the stepdad (villain) and love interest (hero); and the most vulgar of "locker room talk” I’ve ever read/heard (and I’ve not grown up in bubble, for sure).

(Later on the author teaches young-adult males how to "go down" and give girls a "gift.")

The sexualization is not romantic, but rather nasty. Some sexual situations unfortunately reinforce some racists stereotypes (I grew up in this general area, so I know from experience).  If I was black or Mexican and thin-skinned, I might take offense. Most chapter headings are the name of a character—that’s a plot structure used by the author for some rather rough transitions (not great writing). The reader soon learns that it is sometimes a tip-off as to who might orgasm or be abused (or both). To say this book is about teaching kids about race is a little like buying a Playboy Magazine for the articles. Maybe a little salaciousness keeps a teen boy's interest, but this is way over the top.

Intertwined motifs are sweat and semen. They recur in many chapters, both directly and indirectly. They are ghosts that haunt the protagonist.  Diction is juvenile (think Beavis and Butt-Head).  Amongst the salaciousness, the author likes to do things like this:

Jerk of the wood-en window (masturbation of the villain in their house)
The naked trees (the protagonist and hero eventually have sex in the woods)
The author really is describing windows and trees, but used a deliberate word choice to try to be funny (maybe)…

More formally (legally or clinically), I would say that this book:
(A) appeals to the prurient interest of a minor in sex;
(B) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors; and
(C) is utterly without redeeming social value for minors or literary value for anyone."

Out of Darkness - Book Review
 - Caldecott Honor doesn't mean the same thing it used to...

12. City of Heavenly Fire (Murray, Hillcrest, Riverview)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781442416895&appid=4

Review from Common Sense Media:

"Parents need to know that Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series has always been meant for more mature teen readers. But the sexual content is a bit more mature in City of Heavenly Fire and the previous installment, City of Lost Souls, than in the others. Here main characters have sex for the first time (with a condom), and other couples -- straight and gay -- do plenty of kissing and rolling around together. The series continues to be bloody and violent, with some truly gory moments -- guts spilling, heads rolling -- and some profoundly sad ones, such as when a 12-year-old boy must kill his own father because his father drank out of a cup that "turned" him evil. There are more sad deaths, mostly by stabbing, and some battle scenes and talk of massacres. The older teen characters drink wine together. They also fight alongside one another, showing loyalty, friendship, and bravery -- big themes of the series. Clare includes a gay relationship with all the complexity and then some of a straight one -- which is rare, especially for a fantasy series."

13. Real Live Boyfriends: Yes.  Boyfriends, Plural.  If My Life Weren’t Complicated, I wouldn’t be Ruby Oliver

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780385734288&appid=4

Quotes:

14. The Bluest Eye

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0375411550&appid=4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AIp_k2nX-8

Quotes:

The tenderness welled up in him, and he sank to his knees, his eyes on the foot of his daughter. Crawling on all fours toward her, he raised his hand and caught the foot in an upward stroke. Pecola lost her balance and was about to careen to the floor. Cholly raised his other hand to her hips to save her from falling. He put his head down and nibbled at the back of her leg. His mouth trembled at the firm sweetness of the flesh. He closed his eyes, letting his fingers dig into her waist. The rigidness of her shocked body, the silence of her stunned throat, was better than Pauline’s easy laughter had been. The confused mixture of his memories of Pauline and the doing of a wild and forbidden thing excited him, and a bolt of desire ran down his genitals, giving it length, and softening the lips of his anus. Surrounding all of this lust was a border of politeness. He wanted to fuck her – tenderly. But the tenderness would not hold. The tightness of her vagina was more than he could bear. His soul seemed to slip down to his guts and fly out into her, and the gigantic thrust he made into her then provoked the only sound she made – a hollow suck of air in the back of her throat. Like the rapid loss of air from a circus balloon. Following the disintegration – the falling away – of sexual desire, he was conscious of her wet, soapy hands on his wrists, the fingers clenching, but whether her grip was from a hopeless but stubborn struggle to be free, or from some other emotion, he could not tell. Removing himself from her was so painful to him he cut it short and snatched his genitals out of the dry harbor of her vagina. She appeared to have fainted. Cholly stood up and could see only her grayish panties, so sad and limp around her ankles. Again the hatred mixed with tenderness. The hatred would not let him pick her up, the tenderness forced him to cover her. So when the child regained consciousness, she was lying on the kitchen floor under a heavy quilt, trying to connect the pain between her legs with the face of her mother looming over her. (162-163)

Soaphead Church is a self-declared “Reader, Advisor, and Interpreter of Dreams” who Pecola asks to give her blue eyes. He is also a pedophile. This has made a lot of people who have challenged The Bluest Eye uncomfortable, so we felt him to be worth mentioning here.

He could have been an active homosexual but lacked the courage. Bestiality did not occur to him, and sodomy was quite out of the question, for he did not experience sustained erections and could not endure the thought of somebody else’s. And besides, the one thing that disgusted him more than entering and caressing a woman was caressing and being caressed by a man. In any case, his cravings, although intense, never relished physical contact. He abhorred flesh on flesh. Body odor, breath odor, overwhelmed him. The sight of dried matter in the corner of the eye, decayed or missing teeth, ear wax, blackheads, moles, blisters, skin crusts – all the natural excretions and protections the body was capable of – disquieted him. His attentions therefore gradually settled on those humans whose bodies were least offensive – children.  And since he was too diffident to confront homosexuality, and since little boys were insulting, scary, and stubborn, he further limited his interests to little girls. His sexuality was anything but lewd; his patronage of little girls smacked of innocence and was associated in his mind with cleanliness. He was what one might call a very clean old man. (166-167)

15. Crank

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9786074006452&appid=4

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2021/august/concerned-parents-read-aloud-from-pornographic-books-at-indiana-school-board-meeting

Details a disturbing rape that transpires when a young couple goes into the woods to get drunk and high on meth.

Quotes:

16. Perfectly Good White Boy

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781467734806&appid=4

Reviews:

Apr 10, 2018 Melissa 

Sean Norwhalt is a perfectly good white boy- average grades, average looks, average high school experiences. The summer before his senior year, Sean is graced by the presence and affection of the beautiful, older Hallie, and so ensues several weeks of blissful love and sex and time together- until Hallie leaves for college. Sean is caught in a snag, unsure of his dismal-looking future, his impoverished home life, and overall lack of direction.

The real issue here, though, is the lack of sex.

Without Hallie, Sean only has his thoughts to occupy him. And his hand.
And that's pretty much it.

To be frank, Sean is probably one of the worst f*cking people I've ever read about. He's beyond crude and consumed only by his sex drive. Everything is sexualized. He admits he loves Hallie and she reciprocates before leaving, but not once does Sean ever mention why he loves her other than their behavior in the bedroom. Which, honestly, Mesrobian attempts to describe in an "edgy" and "shocking" way. In reality I found it to be pretty inaccurate and just overall gross. Let's get the full picture before we begin that critique, shall we?

When Hallie prematurely returns from college due to a bagful of reasons, their relationship devolves into basic booty calls- Hallie texts, Sean shows up, and they do it in the laundry room. It's obvious from the get-go that Hallie is different. Sean is miffed for maybe half a chapter and then bam, instantaneous apathy. Why? Because he's still getting his lay. He doesn't give a shit about her mental well-being. Later really astounding revelations leave Sean just as cold as ever and I thought damn, who is this guy? And it never changes. He later gets with another girl, one he supposedly really likes, the very next day he makes a comment when he thinks the hotel receptionist is hitting on him along the lines of him panicking because he doesn't have any condoms left. WHO IS THIS GUY? I mean, kudos for writing a wholly unlikeable character. Mission successful, but what's the point? Who wants to read about such a jerk?

Now, to the hyped-up over-sexualized Sean himself.
Basically, if you took every douche-baggy male stereotype and combined them, you'd have Sean Norwhalt. He's only after one thing; he only thinks about one thing. He's insanely crude, to the point of being unbelievable. In my everyday life, I use the "f" word prolifically, in well-placed sentences to emphasize points, stress emotions, and get a few laughs. Sean (Mesrobian) just stuck it in for fun, in really ridiculous places. Was this to make it sound more realistic, because he's a teenage boy? Does Mesrobian believe all boys are this stupid? The answer is a resounding yes, because on top of this abomination, Sean refers to his dick as "The Horn".

Hey. You hear that?

That's me beating my head against my desk.

Sean's behavior towards Hallie is what's really horrifying. When he thought phrases like "Putting his dick all up in her" and the tying of the condoms and squishing it in her hand, I felt like it was Mesrobian trying for that shock value. I was shocked...In that a verified author wrote shit like that. Did I accidentally stumble across a poorly-written fanfiction.net link? Because yeah, boys obviously think about sex (Neecie, a small, redeeming character of this shit storm, is a bit of a kink and displays that girls think about sex too. Whoa!) but to totally deface males as nothing but shallow, lustful shells with no capacity for emotion seems pretty insane and in poor taste. Plenty of women write novels in male perspectives (See: Zac & Mia, Harry Potter) and vice versa (See: The Fault in Our Stars) with flawless characterization. This was the first novel that I really stopped and thought, 'You have o business writing in this perspective.'

A scene was added to (I guess?) make you feel for Sean and see his human side. It wasn't enough to remove the unsavory flavor of such a callous, asshole antagonist from my mouth.

Also- still haven't grasped the point of the title, either. Race had nothing to do with this novel. At all. I felt the title was triggering; that's why I picked it up. Apparently that's all it's there for- attention.

You're supposed to like the main character. Root for them.

The only thing I was rooting for was a semi-truck to come tunneling through Sean's house and just totally demolish him for good.

17. Forever for a Year

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781627791915&appid=4

Quotes:

"I like girls, Carolina. Well, one girl. See?" And I grabbed her hand and put it on my penis.

Katherine continued, "And she still has skinny legs. She doesn't quite get it even though I've told her, like, every day, but every dude with a penis, even the gay ones, are gonna stare at her, want to talk to her, ask her out, and kiss her just so they can reach up her shirt. Trust me, I know this, and this is so true. But your boobs are still small and you dress like a boy, so we are going to have to come up with a thing to make boys like you. I can't put my reputation on the line for you if you aren't willing to make boys like you. So I'm thinking you should learn to talk dirty. Like they do in porn. Guys love it.

Review:

Julia rated it really liked it

I was fine with the plot and the characters and the writing, but this book made me very uncomfortable. Being a high school freshman myself, I only know a handful of people my age who have had sex and with Carolina being a regular fifteen year old girl she doesn't seem like one of those people. Also, there were detailed descriptions of handjobs, orgasms, and other related things. It was a fine book, but definitely not for teenagers to read.

18. Rainbow Boys

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0689857705&appid=4

The last paragraph of the attached review says "The use of profanity and explicit descriptions of sexual activities call for a mature reader." 

*Explicit descriptions of sexual activities should not be in high school libraries, regardless of whether such pornography is heterosexual or homosexual.

19. Rainbow High

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0689854781&appid=4

Summary: Nelson has to have an HIV test after finding out his first sexual experience might have infected him. Since he tests negative, he must then decide whether he can date someone who is positive. All three boys have some trouble and some support at home. The end of the school year and the prom help tie things up neatly. 

20. Rainbow Road

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781416911913&appid=4

Summary: While driving across the United States during the summer after high school graduation, three young gay men encounter various bisexual and homosexual people and make some decisions about their own relationships and lives.

21. Can’t Take That Away

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781547605309&appid=4

Summary: When Carey Parker, a genderqueer teen who dreams of being a diva like their hero Mariah Carey, is cast as the female lead in the school musical, they must fight against discrimination and injustice from their closed-minded school administration.

(notice that the pronoun used is “they/their” in this summary since Casey is genderqueer).  Each chapter heading is titled based on the pronoun that Carey applies in that chapter)

22. The Poet X (Murray, Hillcrest, Riverview)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9780062662804&appid=4

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-poet-x/themes/sexuality-and-shame

Summary: When X starts questioning her faith and realizes her brother is hiding his own secrets from their mother, she starts figuring out how she can stand up for herself and her beliefs. The story, though centered around the family drama, explores other poignant themes facing girls today, diving into human sexuality, the psychological impacts of going through an early puberty, and how girls have to fend off advances from men-as well as the slut-shaming stigma that simultaneously can come from women.

Quotes:

“Good girls don’t wear tampones.
Are you still a virgin? Are you having relations?”

I didn’t know how to answer her, I could only cry.
She shook her head and told me to skip church that day.
Threw away the box of tampons, saying they were for cueros.
That she would buy me pads. Said eleven was too young.
That she would pray on my behalf.

I didn’t understand what she was saying.
But I stopped crying. I licked at my split lip.
I prayed for the bleeding to stop.

Amazon reviews:

Mom from Boston

1.0 out of 5 stars Parents Beware of Mature Content!!

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2020

Verified Purchase

Parents beware of mature content! This book was assigned as required summer reading for my 9th grader who is 14. Thankfully I read it before him so we can discuss the content prior to him reading. Themes include sneaking behind parents backs to engage in sexual activity, masturbation, physical abuse, smoking pot, underage drinking, turning your back on God and questioning the Bible and having a gay sibling. Some of the pages were outright embarrassing for me to read because they sounded like porn! I can’t imagine a 9th grade English class discussing them.

This is not one I would pick to Illustrate how to live morally in a sinful society. And it shouldn’t be a required reading for an entire 9th grade high school, in my opinion.

Krysti

1.0 out of 5 stars Graphic sexual content & profane language

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2021

PARENTS BEWARE!!! This book contains graphic sexual depictions, masturbation, and profane language. Don't just let your child read pornographic & profane material because a teacher assigns it! I was a high school teacher - you need to realize you have the right, and should request, or demand if need be, a replacement resource or healthy ALTERNATIVE. Reading before your child is not enough. Learn to set some healthy boundaries with your schools and teachers and say NO. It's your responsibility as the PARENT. Educators should not be introducing inappropriate content to children and teens. Don't cower, speak the truth in love.

CaraP

1.0 out of 5 stars If I could give it a 0 I would...

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2020

Fine for adults, but this should not be in the library for kids or teenagers.....

23. Beautiful

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781416978305&appid=4

Common Sense Media (17+) - Good-girl-goes-bad tale packed with adult content…There is one tragic death, but it's not enough to really turn this into a cautionary tale -- just a bleak one filled with every kind of very mature content.

24. Sold

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780786851720&appid=4
A thirteen-year-old girl is sold into child sex slavery. The child is raped over and over.

Parent Review from Common Sense Media

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/.../sold/user-reviews/adult

Important Subject, but Not for "under 18s"

While the story provides an unflinching look at the crime of sex trafficking in Nepal and India - a practice that should be condemned and eradicated- the graphic nature if the narrative is inappropriate for children, pre-teens, and teens under the age of 18. The descriptions of the ongoing rape/violation and physical abuse suffered by the girls is emotionally disturbing and traumatic for many younger teens. Additionally, the description of one girl's suicide and the Nepalese mothers drinking the juice from the ink tree so that they will cause themselves to miscarry babies that they do not want to be born only to die later, yields difficult classroom discussions. This is particularly true when the teacher may not be aware of the personal beliefs or opinions of the student's family on such topics. I would strongly recommend that teachers who select this book for whole class guides reading activities first secure the consent of the parents to have their child participate. Encouraging parents to read the book with their child allow them the opportunity to facilitate discussions of the content in a way that they find developmentally appropriate.

25. Perfect Chemistry

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0802798225&appid=4

https://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen4/21b/Ludlow-MA-middle-school/The-library-books/index.html

A novel about teenagers starting sexual relationships. See sample paragraph below:

26. A Court of Mist and Fury

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781619634466&appid=4

https://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen4/21b/Ludlow-MA-middle-school/The-library-books/index.html (says this book reads “like a lurid pornographic novel”)

Sample paragraphs below:

27.  33 Snowfish

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0763618748&appid=4

https://nowthisnews.com/news/virginia-school-board-members-outraged-over-sexually-explicit-books

https://scarlet2snow.blogspot.com/2007/06/33-snowfish.html

https://www.theblaze.com/news/virginia-school-board-orders-libraries-to-remove-sexually-explicit-books?fbclid=IwAR12Kpbp9AQlkEx295bPc0EhnW4DsTvM-ugA0c8pPiaZkBtXhWUJ3vrWyDY    (Quote from article states that: The book, "33 Snowfish," by Adam Rapp, has mature themes involving sexual abuse, drug addiction, and child prostitution and features strong language.

A review for Publisher's Weekly described it as a "dark tale about three runaways who understand hatred and violence better than love." The reviewer warned, "Readers may have trouble stomaching the language ... as well as the horrors so flatly depicted and, in the end, so handily overcome."

Quotes:

"On top of everything else, Boobie's got the clap". The clap = gonorrhea. This is the first sentence.

28. Prostitution

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0737741368&appid=4#top

Several of the chapter headings appear to glamorize and justify prostitution, such as:

A union leader explains how the International Union of Sex Workers is helping sex professionals gain basic labor rights that most professionals take for granted;

A writer expresses his belief that the danger and illegality of prostitution heightens the experience of anonymous sex;

A young woman discusses her belief that courtesans have the potential to fulfill a spiritual calling, one that achieves an intimacy of spirt; and

Sex work, a courtesan believes, can be empowering to women, even though many feminists argue that the profession is degrading. 

29. Marriage of a Thousand Lies

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781616957902&appid=4

Summary: Lakshmi, called Lucky, is an unemployed millennial programmer. She likes to dance, to have a drink or two, and she makes art on commission. Fifty bucks gets you high-resolution digital images of anything you want (orcs, mermaids, cos-playing couples in sexy boudoir scenes) and a nice frameable print. Lucky's husband, Krishna, is an editor for a greeting card company. Both are secretly gay. They present their conservative Sri Lankan-American families with a heterosexual front, while each dates on the side. When Lucky's grandmother has a nasty fall, Lucky returns to her mother's home to act as caretaker and unexpectedly reconnects with her childhood best friend and first lover, Nisha. Nisha has agreed to an arranged marriage with a man she doesn't know, but finds herself attracted to her old friend. The attraction is mutual and Lucky tries to save Nisha from entering a marriage based on a lie.

Quote:

Kris stares hard at his glass, now mostly filled with ice, the dark tea slurped down to the last inch. Even at twenty-seven, he is still all angles that push at his clothing.

            I drain the last of my beer and walk toward the bar. Kris's two o'clock is a man sitting at the table next to ours in a Red Sox hat and a white Hanes shirt. He holds his Bud Light to his lips but doesn't drink.

            I walk up next to a woman on a bar stool whose sad eyes droop down at the outer corners like they're going to tip the pupils right out of her face. My phone buzzes. I ignore it. The woman smiles at me, her mouth edged in red lipstick. I could take her into a bathroom stall and push her up against the cold brick walls. I think of that red, red mouth gaping open, lipstick smeared, fingers clutching at me, lips slippery on my fingers and mouth.

             I smile back. She slides her bar stool closer and touches my arm when she talks, her fingers tingling the skin where I've pushed up the sleeves of my button-down. Kris would say it was worth it. A fuck's a fuck, he would say.

            My phone buzzes. Amma again. I leave the woman smiling and walk back to where Kris is standing, stirring the ice in his glass around and around. This is the first time we've gone out in months-my unemployment and his busy work schedule as a second-pass message editor for a greeting card company keeps us out of the bars and at home doing normal married people things like Amma always wanted. Kris spends his nights trying to write his own greetings and staring at the cards framed over his desk, the few he got published when he first left engineering and started in this business. I spend my nights drawing commissions for horny suburban fanboys with money to waste-too-thin elves facing off against tentacled monsters, custom Sailor Scouts, coy anime girls frolicking at the beach, well-endowed geishas undressing in dimly-lit rooms.

      "So?" Kris says. He tips his glass back and shakes an ice cube into his mouth.
      "The one at the bar? I don't think so."
      "A fuck's a fuck." He holds the ice cube between his teeth and talks around it. "Emily's getting laid. Why shouldn't you?"
      "Shut up." I wish I had bought another beer so that I'd have something to hold onto, so that the cold of it could take my mind off the ache in my stomach. My hands grasp at the air.

     The man in the Red Sox hat stares hard at Kris through the darkness of the bar.
      "Emily was no Nisha," Kris says. He raises his empty glass. "To Nisha, your oldest and truest."

     I feel the outline of my phone through my pocket and think about calling Nisha.
      "Red Sox Hat seems interested," I say.
      "He's drinking a Bud Light."
      "A fuck's a fuck."

30. Thirteen Reasons Why (Murray and Riverview)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=1595141715&appid=4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p922w6biwyopqy9/Asher_PENGUINGROUP_ThirteenReasonsWhy_2007_Burkhardt-final-11.docx?dl=0

Seems to normalize sexual assault, "I've had my ass grabbed before, no big deal!" It seems the intent of most of these books is to normalize sexual behavior.

31. Speak (Murray, Riverview, Hillcrest)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=0374371520&appid=4

A high school girl is raped at a party by an older boy at that school, and then later has to interact with him. In 2020 Speak was 4th most banned book in US. It was thought to contain a political viewpoint and was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the inclusion of rape and profanity.

32. The Glass Castle

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=074324754X&appid=4

https://www.texanswakeup.com/post-1/book-review-the-glass-castle

https://youtu.be/MgRsqrMC4Lk

"On one of the mattresses, Billy’s father was snoring unevenly. His mouth hung open, and flies were gathered in the stubble of his beard. A wet stain had darkened his pants nearly to his knees. His zipper was undone, and his gross penis dangled to one side. I stared quietly, then asked, “What’s the funny thing?” “Don’t you see?” said Billy, pointing at his dad. “He pissed himself!” Billy started laughing.” Ch. 21, Pg. 262

“Mom, Uncle Stanley is behaving inappropriately,” I said. “Oh, you’re probably imagining it,” she said. “He groped me! And he’s wanking off!” Mom cocked her head and looked concerned. “Poor Stanley,” she said. “He’s so lonely.” “But it was gross!” Mom asked me if I was okay. I shrugged and nodded. “Well, there you go,” she said. She said that sexual assault was a crime of perception. “If you don’t think you’re hurt, then you aren’t,” she said.” Ch. 41, Pg. 582

“Keep this up and people are going to think you’re a nigger lover,” she said.” Ch.32, Pg. 450

(Grandma molests grandchild)...."They’d been gone for a minute or two when I heard Brian weakly protesting. I went into Grandpa’s bedroom and saw Erma kneeling on the floor in front of Brian, grabbing at the crotch of his pants, squeezing and kneading while mumbling to herself and telling Brian to hold still, goddammit. Brian, his cheeks wet with tears, was holding his hands protectively between his legs. “Erma, you leave him alone!” I shouted. Erma, still on her knees, twisted around and glared at me. “Why, you little bitch!” she said. Lori heard the commotion and came running. I told Lori that Erma was touching Brian in a way she ought not to be.” Ch. 33, Pg. 461

"The other girls talked endlessly among themselves about who still had their cherry and how far they would let their boyfriend go." Ch. 46, Pg. 632

PROFANITY COUNT (or other sensitive words to give context)

• f*ck 1
• p*ssy 1
• c*nt 1
• a*s 4
• b*tch 9 (sonofab*itch, etc.)
• b*stard 6
• n*gger 6 (n*ggers, N*ggerville, n*gger lover)
• screw 1
• whore 8
• faggot 1
• rape 3
• drunk 21
• beer 21
• pissed 3
• sh*t 7 (sh*t-hole, bullsh*t, sh*t-for-brains)
• demon 17
• damn 44
• Jesus 2 (in vain, Jesus H. Christ)
• virgin 1
• penis 1
• wanker 2 (also wanking off)
• God 34 (in vain, oh my God, by God, godforsaken, Goddamn, Goddammit)

RED FLAGS

• Sexual Content (Masturbation, Molestation, Sexual Assaults)
• Physical abuse (Peer to Peer)
• Extreme Violence
• Bigotry
• Alcohol & Drug Use (Beer/Cigarettes, Alcoholism & Drunk Driving)
• Extreme Profanity
• Condemnation of Christianity
• Mental Health Issues
• Extreme Poverty
• Child Abuse, Abandonment and Neglect
• Solicitation of Prostitutes
• Adult Situations

33. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780765387561&appid=4

https://ratedreads.com/invisible-life-addie-larue-fiction-book-review/

Reviews:

“Between 15 and 20 instances of strong language and 20 or 30 uses of milder language. Violence refers to wars and battles happening but is brief. Sexual content is scattered throughout the book; each instance is fairly brief, but the title character has had plenty of sexual partners throughout her long life. She has to prostitute herself sometimes. There are scenes of drunken, impulsive sexual encounters with strangers, mostly brief, and not just with Addie, for whom most people don’t get to be much more than strangers, but with Henry, the other primary character. Most content includes kissing, but there most sexual scenes include short references to oral sex. Both characters are bisexual, and Henry has longer relationships and brief encounters with either gender.”

https://www.ageratingjuju.com/the-invisible-life-of-addie-larue-age-rating/

The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue” book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of lots of Sexual content and Violence.

• Violence refers to wars and battles happening but is brief.
• Sexual content throughout the book.
• Prostitute
• Drug and alcohol use
• Most content includes kissing, but there most sexual scenes include short references to oral sex.
• The title character of this book has had plenty of sexual partners.
• Bisexuality

Quotes:

34. Nineteen Minutes

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0743496728&appid=4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i3u55n6zdife58t/Picoult_Washington%20Square%20Press_Nineteen%20Minutes_2019November11_Herbst-Final-31.docx?dl=0  (this link has explicit sexual quotes from the book)

Here is one excerpt:

35. Dreaming in Cuban

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780345381439&appid=4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t5hlkflogpyze55/Peters_BrownAndCompany_grl2grl_2007_Harvey-final-23%20%28LGBTQ%29.docx?dl=0 (this link contains quotes)

Here are some excerpts:

36. Synchro Boy

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781551527444&appid=4

Summary:  When 16-year-old Bart quits his high school's swim team to become, instead, the only boy on the synchronized swim team, he creates quite a stir, along with allegations that he's gay. Because synchro swimming is a girl's sport, right? Nevertheless, he is quickly smitten by Erika, his teammate and swim partner. She returns his affection, and they begin a relationship. But then Bart meets handsome diver Dave, and, feeling an instant attraction, the two boys make out. But Bart's straight, right? To complicate matters further, the team's top swimmer, the aloof Chelsea, begins flirting with him, and he, in a moment of supreme stupidity, kisses her and is caught in the act by Erika, who, understandably furious, ends their relationship and their swim partnership. In this Canadian import, McFerran does a nice-though slightly didactic-job of dealing with gender stereotypes and the fluidity of sexual identity

Reviews:

"Synchro Boy is a funny, bittersweet story of a teenaged boy's self-awareness and acceptance, set within that ultimate crucible of teenage lust: the swimming pool. By joining synchro, Bart pushes against the narrow cage of masculinity, only to discover just how hard the bars will push back. Armed with perseverance, hope, and some edifying relationships, he finds the courage to follow his synchro dreams. Readers will come to know and appreciate the challenge and camaraderie of synchronized swimming." —Douglas Davey, author of Switch

"Synchro Boy is the kind of book the world needs more of: a book that challenges readers to think more deeply about gender and gender expression. Bart's story—of a boy who has never fit easily into a gender stereotyped box, who has endured years of gender policing, who is bravely determined to find his own path in both sports and relationships—is an important and powerful one. Readers will cheer Bart on as he swims his way towards 'living a different kind of maleness.'" —Robin Stevenson, author of Pride: Celebrating Diversity & Community

Quotes:

 I keep my eyes on the synchro girls practicing their egg beater, doing laps of it across the dive tank.  “You know you’re such a fucking ballerina, you should just go join them.” “Who?”  “The goddamned water ballet, Bart. Isn’t that what you want?”  “No! Geez.”  “Oh, come on. You’ve been staring at them every chance you get.”  “Well? So what?”  “So… it’s Try It Day. You should go.”

37. The Carnival at the Bray

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780989515597&appid=4

Quotes:

38. Homegoing

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781101971062&appid=4

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10223427113578746&set=pcb.1045349895869900

Colleen

I looked up the reviews and I quote: "this might be too late, but as someone who teaches 13 yr olds, I think this book might be too adult. The book contains sexual themes, rape, violence, and drug use". and then: someone asked if it's appropriate for a high school class, and response was: "I think it's a bit too graphic for a school classroom. It deals with very adult issues, and there are some disturbing scenes involved, rape, a hanging and other violence. I don't believe high school is the best audience for this book".

Quotes:

39. A Certain Slant of Light

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=061858532X&appid=4

Goodreads Reviews: I REALLY wanted to like this book. Up until page 53 or so, I really DID like this book. Interesting premise, and for once, it seemed like young adult literature actually written intelligently and almost poetic in places.

I don't know what happened after that. It almost seemed like another author picked up the book to finish it. In all fairness, I only read to page 94. By that point, the secondary characters had pretty much ruined the book for me. I understand that the characters in question are supposed to be horrible, abusive people, but I really don't enjoy reading the f-word every other paragraph. Also, all of the lewdness with Mitch's friends was entirely unnecessary. I skimmed ahead, hoping the book would return to the style in which it started, only to run across a fairly explicit sex scene between the two main characters.

I know that everyone says that kids these days know all about sex, talk about it, and all too often participate in it, but quite frankly, it is appalling to me to find a sex scene like that in a YOUNG ADULT novel. So kids hear about it from their lewd friends in school...does that mean that Young Adult authors have to encourage that?? It was so sad to see an author with true promise completely ruin this book.

Barnes and Noble Review:

Anonymous - Ok i liked this book but didn’t love it because the publishers classified it incorrectly. As a teen book its not for anyone under 17.

Amazon Review:

Gina  Hate It

Okay, before I say what I don't like about this book, I have to say that it has a great premise. The thought of a story about a lost ghost who meets and falls for a living person is a great idea. But there are a lot of things that I'm not okay with.

The first thing is that this book is unbearably slow. Sometimes I felt like the story wasn't going anywhere and that the author spent so much time on one little topic. I often found myself getting bored throughout the whole book and wanting to put it down. Another thing that I'm not really okay with is that Helen and James seem to fall in love very quickly even though they barely know each other. And I know that Helen used to live a long time ago when relationships went at a faster pace then they do today but I still don't buy that the two had some sort of love at first sight kind of thing. Third, the fact that Helen is willing to take over the body of somebody who is alive annoys me. Like another time in this book that I'll mention later, she has no regards to Jennifer and only thinks of herself when inhabiting Jennifer's body. James makes it seem like it's an okay thing to do as long as they "don't have the will to live" or something like that. So getting back to the other thing I was talking about how Helen has no respect for Jenny. On the first day that she goes to school as Jenny her and James sneak up to the tower that's well hidden from other people I guess. And then her and James proceed to have sex while Helen is in Jenny's body and James is in the teenage boy's body. And in the middle of it James asks if this was Helen's first time having sex. Helen says no James asked if this was Jenny's first time having sex and Helen doesn't know. But considering that Jenny comes from an extremely religious household it is obvious that Jenny was still a virgin before then. Helen and James had no regards to the fact that they were having sex in other people's bodies. They have no respect towards the people they are inhabiting. And it's not like they even feel bad about it afterwards when they realize that Jenny was still a virgin. In fact they continue to have sex several times throughout the rest of the novel.

And then at the end of the book we find out that Jenny is only 15 years old and the guy that James is inhabiting it's like 17 or 18 years old. Helen didn't even bother to figure out how old this girl is before she went and inhabited her. Plus Helen makes a mess of Jenny's life. She gets on her parents’ bad side and causes her parents to lose trust in Jenny. Plus she almost ruined a marriage between her teacher and his wife. And unsurfaced Jenny's father's affair.

I could go on and on about what I find problematic about this book, but I don't want to turn this into a dissertation so I'll stop here. But if I could give this 0 Stars I would. This is one of the worst books I've ever read and that's saying a lot because I rarely ever dislike a book that I read.

40. I am Alfonso Jones (also at Riverview)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781620142639&appid=4

Goodreads Review:

J. rated it did not like it

Poorly written propaganda. Truly repugnant in every sense of the word.

41. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0671027344&appid=4

https://www.kcci.com/article/parents-complain-about-school-books-graphic-sex-scenes/8291824#

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/pasco-parents-complain-about-the-perks-of-being-a-wallflower-in-7th-grade-class

Parents in Iowa and Florida complained about the book’s “graphic sex scenes” and depictions of drug and alcohol use.

Goodreads Review:

I find it a bit concerning, that Chbosky wrote a book with so many serious issues like suicide, death, rape, social exclusion/inclusion, relationship violence, abortion, drugs, homosexual adventures, child molestation/incest, parties, fights, without really dealing with any one of them in depth. To have all of these issues crammed into one book, without giving it the time and place it deserves, I felt, was a huge fault.

Quotes:

42. This One Summer (Murray, Riverview)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781626720947&appid=4

Shortlisted for the 2014 Caldecott Medal, the first graphic novel ever so-honored, This One Summer ignited a controversy with its relatively mature themes for a teenage audience.

“My trust in the integrity of the Newbery Medal has been shaken to the core by the filth in this book,” wrote one reviewer at Barnes and Noble.

Common Sense Media Reviews:

"This graphic novel (discusses) an unwanted teenage pregnancy is an integral part of the story, as do a miscarriage and a suicide attempt. Dialogue in This One Summer contains about a dozen instances each of "s--t," "f--k," and "a--hole." "Boobs," "prick," "douche bag," "slut," and "butt" are employed a few times each. Adults are shown drinking wine, and older teens drink and smoke at an outdoor party."

"should not be included in an elementary library. The subject matter is not appropriate 1) references to porn, oral sex 2) language. Very discouraging as an educator and a parent."

"I was appalled at the content in this graphic novel. My 12 year old checked this book out from her school library via the SORA app for a so called "fun" afternoon read. The cover of the book nor the descriptive summary of the story line gave any signs that it might be inappropriate. After all, it was an "award winning" children's book. It was determined pretty quick that the content was ANYTHING BUT appropriate. Multiple use of profanity - and that wasn't the worst part. How about having your daughter read about "blowjobs" and "oral sex" and "porn" along with multiple other sexual innuendos! Common Sense Media says the book is for ages 13+ ?! No 13 year old should be reading this kind of material. As others have stated, this type of content would be rated R in movies. If they're not old enough to see it in the movies, they're not old enough to see/read it in a book.  Shame on the app/library for making it available for innocent eyes to see & read... ESPECIALLY with no warning of the graphic nature of the book! There is plenty of time in a person's life to be exposed to such filth/material.... why push it onto such young kids?? Let them stay innocent while they can!! Totally unacceptable."

Quotes:

• On page 204, Rose says, “I think it’s stupid that girls can’t like. Take care of their stuff and then everything is fucked up. Maybe she deserves it?”
• On page 218, we see Rose looking (undiscovered) at Jenny, upset that a kid on her Huron tour asked a question about birth control and being comforted by another boy. On page 248, Rose revisits that image of Jenny being comforted, but this time the boy is intimately kissing her.

43. Leah on the Offbeat (Murray and Riverview)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9780062643803&appid=4

Quotes:

“That's right, Simon. Be totally open and tell him everything that's bothering you. Okay? You should definitely take my advice, because I'm just so fucking good at all this sharing and caring stuff myself. Feelings. I rule at them.”

“It has to be easier for people with penises. Does this person get you hard? Yes? Done. I used to think boners literally pointed in the direction of the person you’re attracted to, like a compass. That would be helpful. Mortifying as fuck, but at least it would clarify things.”

“I’ve never actually been on one, but Simon says it’s just a flock of mortified kids cringing while their parents ask questions. Apparently, Simon’s dad asked the tour guide at Duke to “please elaborate on the campus gay scene.” “I wanted to fucking die,” Simon told me.”

1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars

“I hate when assholes have talent. I want to live in a world where good people rule at everything and shitty people suck at everything. In short: I want Martin Addison’s voice to crack like an earthquake.”

“This is what a mess I am. I can’t write a two-word text without losing my shit. And I’m not even particularly attracted to this boy. If I were, I’d be dead. RIP Leah Burke. She died of acute awkwardosis.”

“And of course, Garrett, who ordered scattered, smothered, and covered waffles with sausage and hash browns, leaves literally a dollar. I don’t get that. Leave a fucking real tip. I throw an extra couple of dollars down myself to make up for it.”

Like“Maybe I’m a dick, but this is how I test people. I never judge someone for not knowing a band. I only judge the ones who”

44. The Opposite of Innocent

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780062370310&appid=4

A coming-of-age novel about a 14-year-old in love with an adult male friend of her parents.

Removed in Canyons District.

Summary:  Lily has been crushing on Luke, a friend of her parents’, ever since she can remember. He’s been away for two endless years, but he’s finally returning today. Lily was only twelve when he left. But now, at fourteen, she feels transformed. She can’t wait to see how Luke will react when he sees the new her. And when her mother tells her that Luke will be staying with them for a while, in the bedroom right next to hers, her heart nearly stops.

Having Luke back is better than Lily could have ever dreamed. His lingering looks set Lily on fire. Is she just imagining them? But then, when they’re alone, he kisses her. Then he kisses her again. At first, the secrecy and danger of their relationship thrills Lily. But soon Luke begins to expect, then demand much more than kissing. He won’t stop pressuring her to do things she doesn’t want to do. Lily wishes she had never flirted with Luke. She feels imprisoned in a situation that’s all her fault. How will she escape?

Review at https://www.theyakitten.net/2020/08/13/review-the-opposite-of-innocent-by-sonya-sones/:

Warnings: pedophilia, child grooming, sexual assault

A fourteen-year-old kid ain’t old enough to do anything sexual with another person. Holding hands? Kissing? That’s fine–when it’s with someone their own age. That isn’t what happens in The Opposite of Innocent. Lily is preyed upon by her father’s twenty-nine-year-old best friend Luke. All the first she should have had in late high school or college are ruined by a pedophile who uses her for his own pleasure and blackmails her into letting him rape her. Reader discretion is advised, folks. This book gets dark.

Luke has been around for most of Lily’s life and she told him when she was a little girl that she’d marry him one day. Much like my own experience with sexual abuse did, Lily’s nightmare begins when Luke accidentally sees her naked right after puberty starts doing its thing to her body. Luke and his British accent charm her at a time when she’s starting to get the sexuals (my way of referring to sexual curiosity and desire), but readers see him for what he is: a creepy, child-grooming monster who makes out with her while her six-year-old sister is asleep next to them and rents a scummy apartment just so he has a place to abuse her without the fear of being caught. I shivered when he said he put pink satin sheets on the apartment’s bed “just for her.”

As Luke’s abuse escalates from kissing to making Lily give him handjobs to rape, Lily is set adrift. She emotionally isolates herself from her best friends Rose and Taylor, the romantic teen books she used to inhale like air lose their appeal, and her falling grades give Luke the opportunity to “tutor” her, aka take her to an abandoned parking lot or that awful apartment so he can abuse her some more. Mine and Lily’s experiences were world apart, but Lily’s feelings are all too familiar.

Though the novel’s verse format is unremarkable and the abrupt ending provides no concrete resolution, The Opposite of Innocent is a difficult read for your heart. No book about child sexual abuse is easy, but it’s a bit beyond the pale. See: Luke manipulating Lily into sex and silence by threatening to pull his money out of her father’s business, which would bankrupt the family.

If you think you can handle the subject matter, go ahead and read The Opposite of Innocent. But seriously, it’s a lot. I’m a pretty hardy reader and have read plenty of CSA books like this, but the novel still hit me harder than most do.

45. Beyond Magenta

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780763656119&appid=4

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/antitransgender-activist-slams-library-book-describing-sex-act-by-sixyearold/news-story/081170749739074579c3a31261719592

https://www.protectstudenthealth.com/legislation

Quotes:

46. Autoboyography (Murray High, Riverview Jr)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9781481481687&appid=4 

Summary: Autoboyography follows Tanner Scott as he moves from California to Utah, and from out of the closet as bi… to back in. When he begins a class known as the Seminar, where students must draft a novel in four months, he meets Sebastian Brother. Sebastian is a devout Mormon (son of a Bishop), and there to mentor the class since the novel he wrote during the Seminar is about to be published. Sebastian becomes Tanner’s muse, but falling for him only causes problems when he’s all Tanner can think– or write– about.

Quotes:

“I am a monster beneath him, with arching hips, an octopus with hands everywhere at once. I don't think anything in the history of time has felt this good.”

“He's so far buried in his own dogma and his own world of shoulds that he can't admit to himself that he's into dudes, that it's a piece of him, a perfect part of him, and it deserves admiration and respect and space the same way anything else about him does.”

“His smile ruins me. The feeling makes me uneasy, a dramatic lurch that tells me I need to have him or I won't be okay.”

“Something is happening between us. Something has been happening between us since our eyes met on the first day of class. I want to see him before he leaves town. I don't care what Mom says. I don't care what the doctrine is. After all, it's not my church.”

“I like you,' I say. But when I look over, I see that these words aren't enough; they don't clear away the expression on his face. 'And I know your church doesn't allow that kind of feeling. 

“I don’t actually care if you break my heart, Sebastian. I went into this knowing it could happen and I gave it to you anyway. But I don’t want you to break your own. You have so much space in your heart for your church, but does it have space for you?”

47.  Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781419719462&appid=4

Quotes:

“Are you gonna eat her pussy?”

“Son, I don’t have time for that.  I got like twenty pussies over here that I need to eat.”

“You’ve got twenty vaginas, all lined up in a row.”

“I’m also gonna be that gay uncle.  Draw a fake mustache and pretend to be all fat and shit.  Be like, Boy, I’m gay as hell.  I’ma fuck you.”

48. A Young People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn

https://destiny.murrayschools.org/cataloging/servlet/presenttitledetailform.do?siteTypeID=-2&siteID=&includeLibrary=true&includeMedia=false&mediaSiteID=&bibID=143840&walkerID=1636829755181

Review:

https://www.oregonlive.com/books/2020/01/debunking-howard-zinn-portland-talk-will-feature-critic-of-a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states.html

“What I’ve tried to do is just look at what he says and provide a factual rebuttal,” Grabar said. “I was quite surprised by the extent to which Howard Zinn distorted history, deliberately lied.” For instance, she noted, Zinn wrote that internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II were kept secret. “Not until after the war did the story of the Japanese-Americans begin to be known to the general public,” he wrote in Chapter 16. In fact, numerous newspapers and magazines wrote about the camps at the time, quite a few editorializing in favor of them.

“It’s amazing what you’ll find in that book when you start digging and it’s really shocking that historians have not raised a ruckus and demanded the book be withdrawn,” Grabar said. “He really has harmed traditional scholarship and the kinds of conversations that we should be having – having a balanced and honest look at our history, the good points and the bad points.”

“What if everyone had a ‘Debunking Howard Zinn’ alongside their ‘People’s History’? Well, that’d be a pretty great education,” Gilley said.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/09/book-review-debunking-howard-zinn/

Grabar demonstrates through her research that Marxism clearly influenced Zinn’s portrayal of this nation’s history and its free market system. For example, every era had its oppressors (i.e., white men) and victims (i.e., people of color and women). Grabar tracks down Zinn’s sources and demonstrates how he essentially lifted large swaths of leftists’ criticisms of America while blatantly ignoring credible scholarship that negated his points. She also shows how Zinn uses selective quotation of sources to convey the exact opposite message intended by the various authors.

There are so many great sections in this book, it was hard to pick one to share. However, as I have an interest in World War II history and the development and use of the atomic bomb, I chose one that shows how Grabar deftly addresses Zinn’s assertions that the use of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was racist.

“If only,” Zinn wails, “the Americans had not insisted on unconditional surrender—that is, if they were willing to accept one condition to he surrender, that the Emperor, a holy figure to the Japanese, remain in place—the Japanese would have agreed to stop the war.” Then Zinn launches into full conspiracy mode: “Why did the United States not take that small step to save both American and Japanese lives? Was it because too much money and effort had been invested in the atomic bomb not to drop it?”

In fact, the insistence on “unconditional surrender” was intended to prevent remilitarization of a nation that had sought “world conquest,” as the Potsdam Proclamation of July 26, 1945, stated. Zinn ignores this fact and presents U.S. unwillingness to allow a “holy figure” to remain on his throne as the only stumbling block. Germany had surrendered, but the Japanese would fight to the death, as evidenced by the increasing use of kamikaze fighters and villagers committing suicide instead of surrendering. Zinn ignores the fact that the Potsdam Proclamation, which demanded unconditional surrender, also promised “eventual establishment of a ‘peacefully inclined and responsible’ Japanese government ‘in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people.’” The Japanese rejected this offer on July 28. And in fact, when the Japanese did surrender, Hirohito was allowed to “remain on his ancestral throne as nominal Emperor.

49. The Handmaid’s Tale

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780385539241&appid=4

https://www.comprehensivesexualityeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/SB226-physical-book-examples.pdf

https://www.protectstudenthealth.com/legislation

50. The Truth About Alice

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781596439092&appid=4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ludz9c8yzjd9qzf/Mathieu_Macmillan_TheTruthAboutAlice_102019_Gilbertson-final-29.odt?dl=0

Quotes:

51. Little and Lion (Murray and Riverview)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9780316349000&appid=4

Summary: Suzette learns to navigate key elements of her identity-black, Jewish, bisexual.

Quotes:

“She hovers over me, her breasts bare.”

“I hate that I feel like nothing good is ever going to happen to me again. And that sometimes I don’t really feel anything at all. Like I’m just watching some dude who looks like me and it’s really fucking boring to spy on him because all he wants to do is stay in bed.”

“We're sixteen. People expect us to fuck up.”

52. The Handsome Girl and Her Beautiful Boy

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781627798525&appid=4

Summary: Declared gay by their peers despite not being certain themselves, Zee and Art forge a powerful connection based on their mutual admiration of personal qualities that others find strange, a relationship that enables them to explore their complex views about gender, sexuality and identity.

Review: Amid tumultuous family circumstances-Zee meets her estranged father after her mother dies of cancer, while Art's parents' marriage falls apart-the duo explores their confusing attraction to each other and what it means for their senses of self.  This exploration includes sex (masturbation, blow jobs, nights in a motel room, and relationship drama involving other characters).

Quotes:

53. My Sister’s Keeper

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0743454529&appid=4

https://bannedbooks.library.cmu.edu/jodi-picoult-my-sisters-keeper/

Review: The novel has been challenged and banned repeatedly, accused of having inappropriate displays of drug, violence, suicide, offensive language, sexually explicit behaviors, and homosexuality. In 2008, the novel was challenged in Clawson, Michigan, for being too racy for middle school students. The specific case involved a mother who found the book inappropriate for her daughter to read for an assignment. Mainly concerned about the offensive language and sex education, the mother brought her concerns to a committee who removed the book as an assignment. As a result, the novel was banned in all schools in the Clawson area and was removed from the classroom curriculum. In 2009, a challenge in Illinois claimed the novel’s depiction of sexism and homosexuality were unsuitable for middle school and high school students, though there were no direct consequences from this challenge. In 2010, there were also many reported challenges based on the way the novel depicts drugs, suicide, violence, sexism, and religious viewpoints.

54. Beloved

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=0307264882&appid=4

https://freebeacon.com/campus/virginia-public-school-books-contain-images-too-pornographic-for-tv/

McAuliffe in 2016 vetoed a bill that would have prevented students from having to see such sexually explicit material in schools. The so-called Beloved bill, which was named after a parent objected to sexually explicit content in the eponymous novel by Toni Morrison, would have allowed parents to review and opt out of engaging with sexually explicit books that might be shown to their children.

McAuliffe at the time called the bill "unnecessary" and said the matter would be resolved by the Virginia Board of Education. In 2017, however, the state board rejected a similar proposal to allow students to opt out of engaging with sexually explicit reading material.

When asked during a recent gubernatorial debate about vetoing the bill, McAuliffe defended his decision and said parents shouldn't have the final say about what reading materials are allowed in schools.

"I'm not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision," McAuliffe said. "So, yeah, I stopped the bill. I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/outrage-as-mcauliffe-accuses-youngkin-of-trying-to-ban-black-authored-books-this-is-a-lie

55.  Damsel

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780062742322&appid=4

Quotes:

“Then knowing the dragon was watching, he unbuttoned the front of his trousers, freed his yard (penis), and pissed a streaming stream right there, at the top of the cliff, marking it as his own.”

Reviews:

Common-Sense Media: Romantic, loving sex is completely absent.  What’s not absent is constant over-the-top pressure on female characters to accept a life of being passive “vessels.”  When it’s not actually violent…sex mostly involves womanizing, penis-brandishing men taking their pleasure with women.  Nudity, with descriptions of body parts, etc.

Aside from the constant penis references (Emory’s “yard” is practically a character in itself), there are assorted crude references to women’s “slits” and the like.  Also matter-of-fact description of body parts, pubic hair, etc.  “God’s balls!” is a typical oath.  References to “pissing,” “shit”, other crude language.

Imaginative but sexually oppressive and often brutal spin on the classic tale of the hero who rescues a girl from a dragon....  No sunshine and rainbows are involved in this tale of a young girl who awakens naked and flung across a stranger’s saddle with no knowledge of who she is or where she came from.  Womanizing, rape, dismemberment, and assorted forms of killing are essential to the story, and crude references to body parts are common….A man’s still-beating heart is ripped out and eaten, and people’s eyes are gouged out as punishment for a crime.  The shocking ending has especially disturbing, violent images.

Vicky Who Reads Blog: Trigger Warnings - TW: rape, self-harm, abuse, animal abuse, graphic violence, bestiality.

Barnes and Noble:

Not An YA Book

even if the concept of the story is good, I felt very uncomfortable while reading some passages, which were very graphic and was about sexual assault and rape. I seriously do not understand why it is rated YA and I do not recommend it for teenage girls.

Mel-Loves-Books

“You see, Ama, it is for men to create. It is for men to decide. It is for men to speak. It is your place to listen, and follow and gestate. And those are no small things! For without women to listen, how would the men’s words be heard? Without your fertile womb, how could my son hope to grow? You are important, Ama. Desperately important. But do not over reach.”

Damsel by Elana K. Arnold was nothing like what I was expecting, and unfortunately I do not mean in a good way. First of all I thought this book was marketed as being young adult. If that is the case, I think it is very very wrong. There [sic] are very descriptive and disturbing sexual scenes in this book. Stuff that made me cringe. And the bodily descriptions were really bad 80s romance novel level of bad. The story itself had some promise, and I like the direction she took with empowering women and even some of the elements with the dragon. I just cannot overlook the writing and the disturbing elements that were really unnecessary to the story. I give the book 1.5 stars, and frankly I asked myself several times why I was even bothering to finish reading this book. I wish I had stopped when I was first turned off.

The Bookworm’s Den Blog: I want to start this out with something that I think is the most important thing to say about this book, before I even begin: THIS IS NOT A YA (YOUNG ADULT) BOOK.

“It’s (his penis) basically never in his pants.  What even is the purpose of pants in this world?!  They’re obviously not being used correctly.”

My Library Card Wore Out Blog: “ Now we can get into why I thought the book was just so bad.  This book was definitely not YA!  This book is classified as YA Fantasy, but holy crap was it not. First off, there were some seriously messed up undertones of rape, sexual assault, the injury of animals and even some subtle bestiality undertones (with dragons, but that doesn’t matter)…Then he comes into her room at night and pretty much almost rapes her.”

Amazon reviews:

A. Cooper:

This is NOT YA! Read before purchasing

This book is not for teen readers at all and this should not be labeled as young adult. This book has graphic depictions of: rape, sexual assault, threats of killing an animal, bestiality, sexual violence and strong language of both profanity and describing human anatomy. This isn't recommend for any sensitive readers and any teens under 18 due to the disturbing content.

This book tackles the damsel in distress trope and is about a tradition that a man goes to slay the dragon in the tower and the damsel he rescues becomes his bride. Ama doesn't have any memories before she wakes up after being rescued by the man called Emory. But when coming to the kingdom, she realizes that women have no rights and can't stand up to the men in society. Emory is abusive in many ways to her and sees nothing wrong with it. All the male characters are awful, horny and violent men that are completely one dimensional. The "social commentary" this book tries to make is kind of offensive to me. I'm sick of media only portraying men as terrible people that doesn't deserve redemption in general. I get that this world sucks, but I'm sick of these type of violent stories being hailed for being "feminist" and "compelling."

You get NO answers until the last 15 pages and the answers you do get aren't enough for the other several questions that are never addressed again. The answers you do get though are deeply disturbing and disgusting. Ama's character development at the end is so abrupt and has no room to really sink in that's it's all just surface level to me. This is way too violent, over done and again, not for teens. I was deeply disturbed by what was happening in this book.

Katy – This book should NOT be marketed for kids.

Let me start by saying that I have absolutely no idea why this book would be marketed to children. It deals with sexual assault, which I know can happen to children, but it includes explicit sexual descriptions and sexually deviant acts that do not belong in a kid’s book. For example, (spoilers I guess?) a male character stabs a female character and then rapes her via the stab wound. Seriously. Additionally, it felt like the author was more concerned with writing descriptions of the characters’ bodies, pubic hair, etc., than she was with the actual plot of the story. In several instances (such as the above mentioned rape) the how or why seemed to make zero sense. I appreciate that Amazon describes the book as being about sexual assault to warn readers and parent about the content, but I would hate for a parent to purchase this book for their child thinking that the author handles this topic in a way that is even remotely appropriate for kids or teens.

Zarrin Reynolds - NOT for a teen audience!

I will begin by admitting I only made it half way through this novel before stopping in disgust. I literally couldn't stomach it... The further I read the more nauseated I became. As a high school teacher I read a lot of young adult fiction, and I'm not usually squeamish about sex and violence. However, the way this novel combined sex, violence, and the powerlessness of women was incredibly upsetting. The big reveal was obvious early on, and innovative, but did not make up for watching a helpless young woman be continuously and thoroughly abused and terrorized.

56. Out Now: Queer we go again

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781335018267&appid=4

57. GLBTQ : the survival guide for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning teens

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=1575423634&appid=4

58. Double challenge : being LGBTQ and a minority

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781422242766&appid=4

59. Gender Identity: the Search for Self

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781534560239&appid=4

60. Queer There and Everywhere

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780062474315&appid=4

61. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781442408920&appid=4

62. Coming Out and Seeking Support

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781422235034&appid=4

63. Confronting LGBTQ+ Discrimination

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781538381724&appid=4

64. When You’re Ready: Coming Out

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781422242810&appid=4

65. Invisible Man Got the Whole World Watching, A Young Black Man’s Education

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781568585284&appid=4

66. Gender identity : beyond pronouns and bathrooms

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781619307568&appid=4

67. Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ guide for teens

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781541578586&appid=4

68. When they call you a Terrorist: a story of Black Lives Matter and the power to change the world

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781250194985&appid=4

69. Sexual Behavior and Unplanned Pregnancy

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780816076345&appid=4

70. Speaking Out: Queer Youth in Focus

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781629630410&appid=4

71. Did I Mention I Love You?

Drugs, teenage sex, all kinds of swearing, falls for stepbrother

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781492632153&appid=4

72. A Guy’s Guide to Sexuality and Sexual Identity in the 21st Century

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781448855247&appid=4

73. Home and Family Relationships: Rainbow families

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=1435835794&appid=4

74. How it all Blew Up

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780593202876&appid=4

75. Trans+: Love, Sex, Romance and Being You

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781433829833&appid=4

76. Bait

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=1416937722&appid=4

77. If I Was Your Girl

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781250078407&appid=4

A boy who has transitioned to “become” a girl moves to a new school and falls in love with a boy there.

78. You Don’t Live Here

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9780062568113&appid=4

79. Music from Another World

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781335146779&appid=4

80. Black Lives Matter

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781534502895&appid=4

81. When They Call You a Terrorist: a story of Black Lives Matter and the power to change the world

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300235&isbn=9781250194985&appid=4

HILLCREST JR

82. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9780316013697&appid=4

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/160930-some-parents-seek-to-ban-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-india

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/08/01/report-book-pulled-from-reading-list-after-parents-object-to-sexual-content/

The Daily News reported parents objected to passages about masturbation as inappropriate for 11-year-olds. The reference to masturbation was not the only subject that drew the ire of parents, 1010 WINS reporter Eileen Lehpamer reported.  “There are racial slurs against African-Americans in the book, profanity, references to female genitalia,” a parent named Kelly said.

Quotes:

Most guys, no matter what age, get excited about curves and circles, but not me. Don’t get me wrong. I like girls and their curves. And I really like women and their curvier curves.

I spend hours in the bathroom with a magazine that has one thousand pictures of naked movie stars:

Yep, that’s right, I admit that I masturbate.

I’m proud of it.

I’m good at it.

I’m ambidextrous.

If there were a Professional Masturbators League, I’d get drafted number one and make millions of dollars.

And maybe you’re thinking, “Well you really shouldn’t be talking about masturbation in public.”

Well, tough, I’m going to talk about it because EVERYBODY does it. And EVERYBODY likes it.

And if God hadn’t wanted us to masturbate, then God wouldn’t have given us thumbs.

So I thank God for my thumbs.

But, the thing is, no matter how much time my thumbs and I spend with the curve of imaginary women, I am much more in love with the right angles of buildings.

Reviews:

One review: I read this book because it was on my son's school required reading list. I felt it was incredibly juvenile for a 10th grade honors English class. The swearing was bothersome but not a deal-killer. Then I got to the masturbation discussion that went on for over a page. Flipping through it I found a variety of sexually related musings. This is like handing my son an R rated movie with sexual detail and saying it's okay because the historical aspect is good. Students could learn the cultural and social aspects without reading the vulgarity.

Another review:

I strongly recommend that you do not allow your kid to read this book. It is highly vulgar for most audiences. There are high amounts of references to various sexual acts, violence, alcohol use, and the likes of such. It is an utter travesty of literature. It pretends to be comedical, but it is mostly blue humour, which is terrible for younger audiences. Even when one reaches the age where it is acceptable to expose them to such vulgar references, the text itself is childish. Any educational value provided by this novel is overpowered by the brain cells a child will lose reading the crude humour. In short, this book should be recommended for absolutely nobody.

83. Stage Dreams

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9781512440003&appid=4

84. The Breakaways (also Riverview)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9781250196941&appid=4

This book is intentionally deceptive.  Looks like it is an innocent book about soccer and friends.  Turns out to be transgender indoctrination.  No child would know that looking at the cover.  No child would know this from the book summary either: “"Faith, an introverted fifth grader with a vivid imagination, starts middle school worrying about how she will fit in. To her surprise, Amanda, a popular eighth grader, convinces her to join the school soccer team, the Bloodhounds. Having never played soccer in her life, Faith ends up on the C team, a ragtag group with a tendency for drama over teamwork. Despite their losing streak, Faith and her fellow teammates form strong bonds both on and off the soccer field, which challenge their notions of loyalty, identity, friendship, and unity"

Quotes/Images:

85. Being transgender

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9781422235027&appid=4

86. Understanding sexual orientation and gender identity – two different books with same title

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9781422235119&appid=4

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9781682822814&appid=4

87. Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9780062348678&appid=4

88. A Queer History of the United States for Young People

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9780807056127&appid=4

89. A Good Kind of Trouble (also Riverview)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9780062836687&appid=4

90. Cinderella is Dead

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9781547603879&appid=4

91. Civic Unrest:  Investigate the struggle for social change

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300231&isbn=9781619302419&appid=4

RIVERVIEW JR

92. Hearts Unbroken

https://destiny.murrayschools.org/cataloging/servlet/presenttitledetailform.do?siteTypeID=-2&siteID=&includeLibrary=true&includeMedia=false&mediaSiteID=&bibID=179604&walkerID=1636751042221

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/60178419-hearts-unbroken

Undermines parents – and sex and drinking at prom

93. George  (Riverview and Hillcrest)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9780545812542&appid=4

https://oomscholasticblog.com/post/alex-gino-melissa

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/30/matt-krause-texas-schools-books/

https://redeemedreader.com/2018/05/transgender-confusion/

Quotes:

“She immersed her body in the in the warm water and tried not to think about what was between her legs, but there it was, bobbing in front of her.”
“Hey Rick. It looks like someone is finally starting to grow some balls.”
“Nothing makes her more uncomfortable than when boys talked about what was in her underpants.”
“George had been reading websites about transitioning since Scott taught her how to clear the web browser history on Mom’s computer.”
“….what she has between her legs was nobody’s business but hers and her boyfriend.”
“Boys are dirty and try to look up our skirt.”
“She would do cartwheels leaving her pink underwear showing.”
“She lifted her skirt to see her underwear, covered in tiny red hearts, she pulled it down, sat and peed, just like a girl.”

Goodreads reviews:

Johanna Saarni rated it did not like it

How can 10-11-year old identify as asexual? Its the default for many at that age still! Does the author even understand puberty and biology? Would have made more sense if he was 16 or something.

Kimberly rated it did not like it

This is absolutely not a book for young kids. It's pretty disgusting how much the schools are pushing sexual behavior on to CHILDREN!! CHILDREN!! This book only serves to further confuse children who are going through hormonal changes, as well as to undermine efforts of parents trying to help their children navigate through their confusion. It's one thing to teach the concept of "love who you want to love" but they've now gone as far as denying basic science and lying to children about their bodies. This is beyond disgusting and frankly borderline child abuse as it leads to PERMANENT changes and damages to the body. I beg parents considering indulging in their child's confusion, think back to your pre-teen years. Are you the same person? With the same values and wants? At 34 I'm not even the same person I was when I was 21. How are you going to explain to your adult child that you mutilated and poisoned their bodies 10-15 years later when they've come to accept their biological gender? 90% of children who question their gender come to the realization and acceptance of their gender by age 21. When I was 13 I wanted to be a boy- THANK GOD my parents didn't put me on puberty blockers and shave my head!! I love being a woman!! I'm not saying I know the best approach or how to help your child navigate through such a difficult and confusing time, I'm just saying don't make permanent life decisions based on feelings that are most likely temporary.

Common Sense Media Reviews:

While I understand there is an audience for this book-- children who are exploring transitioning -- I do not feel it is a significant literary work. The author is careless in the use of language, throws around gender stereotypes and presents characters who are underdeveloped. It is a junior high stories embedded in an elementary level book. I would definitely not recommend this book for anyone younger than 14 years old.

94. Rick (Riverview and Hillcrest)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9781338048100&appid=4

Google Review:

Meem Meem

Disturbing book polluting the mind of innocent children who are going through enough changes and confusions in life. Children at this age find it hard to make simple decisions let alone what they “identify” as. SICKENING.

95. Rainbow Revolutions : Power, Pride, and Protest in the Fight for Queer Rights

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9781623719524&appid=4

96. Sex

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9780778721864&appid=4

97. The Big Questions Book of Sex and Consent

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9781646140183&appid=4

Quotes:

This quote is teaching kids to not have difficult conversations with parents:

Sample of Chapter Headings:

98. You Do You

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9781541540224&appid=4

99. Being Jazz – my life as a transgender teen

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9780399554674&appid=4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tomdapk9b21qnj1/Jennings_RandomHouse_Ember_191119_Zacovic-Final-26%20%28LGBTQ%29.docx?dl=0

Quotes:

100. A Good Kind of Trouble (Riverview and Hillcrest)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313975&isbn=9780062836687&appid=4

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

101. Drama (Viewmont, Parkside, Riverview, etc)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313910&isbn=9780545326988&appid=4

102. Rainbow revolutionaries : 50 LGBTQ+ people who made history (Viewmont)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300236&isbn=9780062947758&appid=4

103. The list of things that will not change (Horizon, Parkside)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4300236&isbn=9781101938096&appid=4

104. My Two Dads (Parkside)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313960&isbn=9781624021084&appid=4

105. My Two Moms (Parkside)

http://titlepeek.fsc.follett.com/tp/query?action=3&subnumber=4313960&isbn=9781624021107&appid=4