Off the Hook

Officials in Lewiston, ME, have decided to halt prosecution of a woman who refused to return a library book on sex education that she calls obscene. JoAn Karkos still must pay a $100 fine and is barred from the Lewiston Public Library, but she won’t be sent to jail for violating a judge’s order to return a library copy of Robie Harris’s It’s Perfectly Normal (Candlewick, 2004). Last year, Karkos tried to get the book labeled obscene, but police, noting that the book had circulated 30 times without previous complaint, disagreed.