LEWISTON – A Lewiston woman who was upset by the content of an acclaimed sex education book published 14 years ago has checked out copies from two libraries and refuses to give them back.

“Since I have been sufficiently horrified of the illustrations and the sexually graphic, amoral, abnormal contents, I will not be returning the books,” JoAn Karkos wrote to the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries last month.

Each letter was accompanied by a check for $20.95 to cover the cost of the book, “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex & Sexual Health.”

“This has never happened before,” said Rick Speer, director of the Lewiston Public Library. “It is clearly theft.”

Speer returned the check, along with a form Karkos could use to request that the book be removed from library shelves. But he said he may seek help from police if she doesn’t return what she borrowed.

“That’s really what we want,” Speer said. “We want the book back.”

Written by Robie H. Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley, the book features frank but cartoonlike illustrations of naked people in chapters on topics that include abstinence, masturbation and sexually transmitted diseases.

The publisher, Massachusetts-based Candlewick Press, said “It’s Perfectly Normal” has been sold in 25 countries and translated into 21 languages.

Championed by Planned Parenthood, the book has come under fire from conservative groups such as Concerned Women for America and the anti-abortion American Life League. It was the American Library Association’s most challenged book in 2005, topping a list that included books by J.D. Salinger, Toni Morrison and Judy Blume.

Karkos, 64, said in an interview Tuesday that she first heard of the book from the American Life League, an anti-abortion group. She felt compelled to act after she checked out the book and found it to be “pornographic” and worse than she originally feared.

“Hopefully, this will harness enough people to be sufficiently horrified and want to speak out, to say it’s gone too far,” Karkos said, adding that she was aware that drawing attention to the book might raise people’s interest in it.

Rosemary Waltos, director of the Auburn Public Library, said Karkos’ decision not to return the book was “an inappropriate act” that likely will prove fruitless.

“If somebody wants a copy, they can get one,” she said, noting that at least three dozen Maine libraries have copies available for interlibrary loan.

Both libraries have ordered replacements for the books Karkos took. Speers ordered two more copies because of an increase in requests for the book after the (Lewiston) Sun Journal published a letter from Karkos condemning the book.