The book, Welcome to Sex: Your no-silly-questions guide to sexuality, pleasure and figuring it out, by former Dolly Doctor and youth health expert Dr Melissa Kang and TV personality Yumi Stynes, has been divisive since its launch in May.
The book traverses everything from consent and sexuality to sexual positions, and was written in response to questions from adolescents.
A Selwyn resident recently addressed district councillors with her concerns in the public forum.
“It is a book that has very graphic pictures. It is available for children aged 10 and 11 years old and up, but the authors have stated it is suitable for mature 8-year-olds,” she said.
The resident said the book was “disgusting” and asked district councillors to look at it.
“It’s definitely not appropriate for my 12-year-old ... She does not need to know how to pleasure herself, pleasure someone else or anything like that.
“This book, any child can go into the library and look at it.”
She said the book and others like it should be off the shelves.
Opinion has been divided over the book since its release, with educators such as Canterbury University adjunct lecturer Tracy Clelland calling it a “fabulous” parenting tool, while other people have deemed it too graphic for young teens.
Australian retailer Big W pulled the book from its shelves in July, making it available online only.
Selwyn Libraries holds one copy of the book in its young adult non-fiction collection.
District council staff will review the resident’s request and report back at the next district council meeting.
As part of the review, staff will check such books are being shelved correctly and review their collection guidelines.
District council chief executive Sharon Mason said she would also go through the book, as she was not familiar with it.
“It would be useful to understand the contents.
“The response that we will give will be in terms of looking at how the broader community may respond to the book because people’s perceptions can be quite different.”
District council head of arts, culture and lifelong learning Nicki Moen said this was the first time staff had been made aware of any issues with the book.
She also said there had been no restrictions placed on it by the Library and Information Association of New Zealand or the Te Mana Whakaatu Classification Office.
“We acknowledge that everything in our collection will not necessarily appeal to everyone and people will have different views about what they wish to access from a public library.
“The decision of what content to borrow or engage with is up to the individual and we trust that the responsible adult who has accompanied the child to the library on that visit will supervise the items that children borrow and guide their children’s reading choices as they feel appropriate.”
She said the young adult collections are separated from the children’s section.
