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A children’s book with explicit illustrations of animal mating has sparked a challenge in Florida’s Orange County Public Schools this month but will remain available in four middle school libraries after a board vote.
The controversy centered on the nonfiction book, “Do Animals Fall In Love?” by German sex education expert, Katharina von der Gathen, which is available at four middle school libraries in the district.
Its publisher describes the book on animal reproduction and courting behavior as having “frank and honest illustrations — some full-frontal.” It is recommended for children age 6 and up and says it can help adults discuss puberty and sex education through “the more neutral animal kingdom.”
At the school board meeting Jan. 13, the board voted 6–2 to keep the book in circulation, with board member Alicia Farrant and board chair Teresa Jacobs voting no, according to the West Orange Times Observer.
Penguins play before mating at Chile’s military base Presidente Eduardo Frei, in the King George island, in Antarctica, on March 13, 2014. (VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP via Getty Images)
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The challenge began after a parent objected to the book’s content in a request for reconsideration.
“The entire book’s purpose is to describe sex acts between different types of animals,” the parent wrote, adding: “There’s even information and depictions of animals having group sex,” according to the Observer.
According to a report by UK outlet The Times, the book also shows “lively, graphic and humorous depictions of three-meter blue whale penises and deer threesomes.”
Farrant also argued the book is inappropriate for middle schoolers.
Orange County School board member Alicia Farrant voted against keeping the animal mating book on middle school shelves. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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“My youngest is in fifth grade, I can’t imagine him being in sixth grade and being handed a book like this,” she said, calling it “an added perversion,” according to the Observer.
A literacy committee reviewed the book and recommended it remain on shelves for its educational value. One parent spoke in support of keeping the book, pointed to the committee’s recommendation and said the content aligns with sixth- and seventh-grade science standards.
Supporters on the board described the book as educational and age-appropriate.
“I think the book is an engaging book about animal reproduction. I think it’s written in a way that students would be actually interested to pick it up and to learn something,” board member Stephanie Vanos said, according to Fox9.
Orange County Public Schools board member Alicia Farrant said parents have told her they are concerned about inappropriate content in their student’s school library. (In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)
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Board member Vicki-Elaine Felder argued parents should be allowed to have the choice on what is appropriate for their own kids.
“As members of the Orange County School Board, we must allow parents to have the choice and also allow them to control and direct the moral barometer of their families. So that is why I voted to keep the book in the school,” she said, according to the report.
Under Florida law, school districts must publish a process for parents to limit their child’s access to materials in school or classroom libraries.
Farrant said that she would continue to fight for the book’s removal, citing feedback from parents over inappropriate content in school libraries.
“That’s a huge concern,” she said. “We lost almost 7,000 students just this last year alone.”
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Von der Gathen told the Times she wrote the book to answer curious kids’ questions about animal reproduction and sexual behavior.
“They would ask things like: Can animals go into puberty like us? Do snakes have sex? Can animals be gay, too?” she explained to the outlet.
She also said the book’s content was based on research she conducted with the help of a curator from the Leipzig Zoo.
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The book’s popularity led to it being translated into 15 languages since it was originally published in German in 2017, according to the report.
Von der Gathen did not immediately return Digital’s request for comment.
