BALTIMORE, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Students in a Maryland county are conducting a petition drive to protest the district superintendent's ban of a book about an overweight girl.
The book "The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things," was ordered removed from school libraries in Carroll County by the superintendent who said he found the language and sexual reference in it inappropriate, reports the Baltimore Sun.
But he is reported to be reconsidering his decision after students at Winters Mill High School in Westminster, Md., launched their protest.
The book by Carolyn Mackler is a top choice nationally among teenage readers, the report said.
Mackler, who lives in New York, said in the only other incident that she knows of, a Brooklyn, N.Y., principal ordered the book removed after objecting to its romantic scenes.
"I write realistic novels for teenagers, and I do my best to portray their realities by being true to the characters and narratives," Mackler said. She said she wrote the book to help teenagers, who she said are struggling to "make sense of their changing world."
