Texans talk of ban for sex book. (Notebook: education information from schools, business, research and professional organizations).

An award-winning sex education book that was published eight years ago and has more than 650,000 copies in 17 languages worldwide stirred up a potential ban in a Texas community.

Since 1995, four copies of It's Perfectly Normal: A Book about Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, (Candlewick Press) have been in Montgomery County's libraries. A group of parents complained to the county's Commissioners Court that it condoned homosexuality and called for its removal, according to Library Director Jerilynn Williams.

The book, which is written for children age 10 and up, has been challenged, removed and/or banned in several public and school libraries nationwide. Some parents have complained it is an example of "child pornography."

Williams, who was appointed in 1997, says when the librarians considered buying the book in 1995, they read various reviews to determine ff it was appropriate. The books were placed in the adult section. Usually, if people are uncomfortable with a book or its location in the library, people fill out a written request for reconsideration and a five-librarian committee reviews it.

"I have defended to the death people's right to their opinions," Williams says. "But don't try to take it [my right] away."

Judge Alan Sadler, who chairs the Commissioners Court, does not want to "censor children's books," says Jim Strong, Sadler's special projects coordinator. Strong said that Sadler wants an official review process. Five community members were to be appointed in October to join the five-librarian committee to reconsider the fate of the book in the libraries.