Bozeman dad challenges 'Sex God' book over title

A Bozeman father is challenging a Sacajawea Middle School library book over its title, "On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson."

A public hearing on the formal challenge is scheduled for Jan. 12 before the Bozeman School District's Learning Materials Review Committee, said Marilyn King, acting assistant superintendent for instruction.

"It's a popular book at the middle-school level," King said, and is also available at the Bozeman Public Library.

Parent Pius Ruby, 46, a yoga instructor, said Thursday that as the father of a 12-year-old girl, he is concerned because not all sex offenders are locked up in jail. He said someone who is psychologically unstable might see a student reading the book, think the child was sexually permissive and follow her.

"I just couldn't let it go," Ruby said. "My primary concern is just to protect the children."

He said he read the book and the content seemed OK, though there's a constant reference to a character called the Sex God, which tends to make sex seem casual.

"I could see that in the hands of an adult or as a title for a pornographic film," Ruby said. "The sad thing is, a librarian suggested it" as reading material.

The Learning Materials Review Committee is scheduled to meet from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Willson School board room. The committee is chaired by Bill Franks, Bozeman High associate principal, and made up of about 11 people, including school staff, librarians and four community members.

The book was written by British author Louise Rennison as the fictitious diary of a 14-year-old girl who has a mad crush on a handsome 17-year-old boy, Robbie, the Sex God.

Publishers Weekly recommended it for ages 10 and up, according to the Amazon.com Web site, and the School Library Journal called it a "funny romp" that will be "devoured by girls on the brink of becoming teenagers."

Rennison was one of the 10 most frequently challenged authors of 2003, according to the American Library Association's Web site.

The Texas ACLU chapter recorded two challenges to one of her books, "Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging" (a slang term for kissing), alleging inappropriate language and sexual content.

The Bozeman School Board hasn't received a formal challenge to a book since 2000, when a high school student protested the historical novel "Fools Crow," written by James Welch, because of graphic descriptions of rape, mutilation and murder. The book is about the Blackfeet tribe of Montana in the 1870s.

The School Board voted to keep "Fools Crow" in the sophomore English curriculum, but to send parents a warning about its mature content and to offer an alternative Montana novel to those who requested it.

In 2001, a parent objected to profanity and violence in a fictional book, "Nathan's Run," in the Chief Joseph Middle School library. The challenge died when the parent failed to show up at the hearing.

The middle schools teach students ages 11 to 14 in grades six, seven and eight.