Yes, It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health Is Banned!

It’s Perfectly Normal is a sex education book for children and young teens, illustrated by Michael Emberley and written by Robie H. Harris. First published in 1994, it covers puberty, reproduction, birth, sexual health, consent, and gender identity with straightforward language and cartoon illustrations. The book has been updated multiple times to reflect current understanding of gender and sexuality, and has been translated into over 30 languages. Pediatricians and educators have widely recommended it as an age-appropriate resource for kids entering puberty.

The book has appeared on the ALA’s Most Challenged Books list almost every year since publication. In January 2022, Llano County, Texas, removed it from the public library alongside In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, sparking a lawsuit that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. That same year, members of the Idaho Liberty Dogs spoke out against the book at a Meridian District Library board meeting, calling it pornographic. Brevard County, Florida, and Elkhorn Area School District in Wisconsin also removed or restricted the book during the 2022-2023 wave of challenges. The objections center on its illustrations of nude bodies and its inclusive treatment of LGBTQ+ identities.

Why You Should Read This

Harris and Emberley made a book that answers the questions kids actually have about their bodies, in language they can understand, without shame or panic. That’s what terrifies the people who want it banned. A kid who understands their own anatomy and has words for what’s happening to their body is harder to manipulate and less likely to be harmed.

The illustrations are the flashpoint. They show bodies, labeled and matter-of-fact, the way a health textbook would. Critics yank individual images out of context and parade them at school board meetings. What they don’t show is the surrounding text about consent, boundaries, and self-respect, the parts that make this book genuinely useful for young people navigating puberty without reliable adults to ask.

Every generation of parents has to decide whether they’d rather their kids learn about sex from a carefully written, medically reviewed book or from the internet. The internet is not going to be gentle about it. This book is.