On this week’s 51%, we speak with Robie Harris, author of the groundbreaking children’s book, It’s Perfectly Normal, about the importance of comprehensive sex education, and how parents can navigate “the talk” with their kids.

Guest: Robie Harris, author of It's Perfectly Normal

51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue.

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You’re listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women’s issues and experiences. Thanks for tuning in, I’m Jesse King. 

This week’s topic is sex ed, and particularly the much-debated question: how much should we tell our kids, and when? Our guest today has written more than 35 children’s books on a variety of subjects, but she’s perhaps best known for her lineup of sexual education books: Who Has What? for three to five-year-olds, It's Not the Stork! for four to eight-year-olds, It’s So Amazing! for kids as young as seven, and her groundbreaking 1994 book, It’s Perfectly Normal, for ages 10 and up. The books have undergone several updates and re-releases over the years to accommodate new developments and conversations around sexual health. The latest edition of It’s Perfectly Normal came out in May 2021. 

Each of these titles, especially It’s Perfectly Normal, contain honest depictions of sex and/or the human body, drawn by illustrators Michael Emberly and Nadine Bernard Westcott. As a result, they’ve frequently drawn fire from lawmakers and faced removal at public libraries and schools — so much so that Harris is on the board of directors for the National Coalition Against Censorship. The practice of book banning is nothing new, of course, but it’s a particularly hot topic at the moment: the American Library Association says more than 1,500 individual titles were challenged in 2021, the most it’s seen since it first started tracking banning efforts in 2000. Many of the most challenged books from last year were targeted for portraying LGBTQ experiences, something Harris has never shied away from. 

Harris says the information in her books is crucial for preparing kids to get through puberty and, one day, make healthy decisions as adults. I recently sat down with Harris to discuss what she calls “comprehensive sex education” and look back at the books over the years.

What prompted you to write It's Perfectly Normal?

I was sitting in an editor's office in New York City, it might have been 32 years ago, I can't remember exactly. His name was Michael Demony, and we had done some children's books together. And he was the editor of the first book on HIV/AIDS. And when I say HIV/AIDS, HIV wasn't even a term that was used then. It's called And the Band Played On, and it was about the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. He was a San Francisco Chronicle reporter, and highly, highly respected. So he had done that book, and I was sitting in his office, we were talking about children's books – we were also talking about the state of the nation. It was the day after Election Day, and we were talking about the state of children in America, and that it really wasn't very, very good. And they needed lots of information that they weren't getting. And he said to me, “Would you like to write a book on AIDS for school-aged kids?” And I said, “Oh my gosh, I don't really know enough to write about that.” I mean, I know a lot about kids, because I have a background in child development. But I said, “I really don't know about that. But I wouldn't write a book just on AIDS, I would write a comprehensive book that would include almost every question that kids want to know about their bodies, about puberty, about growing up, and not even just the physical part of it, but the emotional part of going up.” I wasn't writing anything down, because I didn't think I would do this book. And he was writing down