THE BOOK OF MASTURBATION

I have to say that this book would have been really helpful in sixth grade! Apparently, this book pissed off the parents of Queens sixth-graders, who were told to read this book that talked about masturbation over the summer. Bowing to pressure from the outraged parents, the principal of Public School/Middle School 114 in Rockaway Park announced Wednesday that "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part -Time Indian" was no longer a reading requirement for the summer. 

According to parents, all incoming sixth graders had been expected to write a graded-essay on the book. Kelly-Ann McMullan-Preiss of Belle Harbor, who refused to let her son read the book, said, "It's about....masturbation, which is not appropriate for my child to learn at 11. It was like 'Fifty Shades of Grey' for kids." Well, where are they supposed to learn about masturbating then? Are the parents going to teach them? If I had this book when I was in sixth grade, I would have been way better off. Considering my parents never read the books that I had to read in school, they never would have known, which brings me to another point. Why was she reading her son's book? There's going to come a day when her son is going to want to learn about a little self-loving and that's when she'll wish she let him read this book. People need to lighten up!

Lines in author Sherman Alexie's award-winning young adult novel include: "And if God hadn't wanted us to masturbate, then God wouldn't have given us thumbs. So, I thank God for my thumbs." Oooo! That is nasty! McMullan-Preiss said she didn't want a school assignment to dictate when she had the awkward conversation about masturbation with her son. I can understand that, but why would she have to teach him about the birds and the bees? She has a long enough name to be married. McMullan-Preiss planned to circulate a petition against requiring kids to read the book before the school abruptly changed its position.

The book, which tells the story of a Native American who transfers into an all-white high school, won the 2007 National Book Foundation award for Young People's Literature. So, the book isn't really about masturbation and is clearly not a "Fifty Shades of Grey" for kids. It just basically refers to masturbation. Like I said earlier, "People need to lighten up!"

After the book was pulled from an Oregon classroom in 2008, the author Sherman Alexie defended the book by saying, "Everything in the book is what every kid in that school is dealing with on a daily basis, whether it's masturbation or racism or sexism or the complications of being human. To pretend that kids aren't dealing with this on an hour-by-hour basis is a form of denial." That is the truth and I say "Amen" to that! Queens and Oregon weren't the only school districts to ban the book and to be honest; those are the school districts where young adults should just be raised inside a bubble. They're going to learn about all of this stuff in the book anyway. It's just plain silly! Again, I'm not a parent of an 11-year-old, so I guess I shouldn't really have an opinion on this. What is yours?