AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/Gray News) – A children’s book is causing controversy at a Georgia bookstore after a mother and grandmother said it is too explicit for young children.
Lanel Williams said she was shopping at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet in Augusta for her grandchildren’s Christmas gifts when she came across “Was I in Mama’s Stomach, Too?” by Dagmar Geisler.
She was interested in the book, aimed at helping young children learn about their bodies. But the book was more explicit than they expected.
“We thought it was going to be like a big brother, big sister type book, you know, and having a brand-new grandbaby… And then it was like, oh, wait a minute,” Williams said.
The book is designed for children ages 3 to 6 to learn about sex and how babies are made – but it contains graphic drawings of naked men and women having intercourse.
“It embarrassed me. It was disgusting. It was very graphic, the visuals with the pictures that were in there. They were, you know, hand-drawn pictures. They weren’t actual real people. But it was very graphic,” Williams said.
Williams compared the book to porn.
“The things that it demonstrated visually was pornography in animated cartoon character form, which is also inviting to the children to look at,” she said.
As a teacher, mother, and grandmother, Williams is passionate about education, but in a way that is age-appropriate for little ones to understand.
“[Kids] don’t have any experience. They don’t have the knowledge to understand the words, except ‘feel good.’ And even then, the correct terminology, you know, you grow up differently. Different people have different names for the different parts of your body,” she said.
Williams told the manager at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet that the book needed to be removed from the store. The manager responded, saying he would look into it, and ultimately pulled the book from the store’s shelves.
“Was I in Mama’s Stomach, Too?” has grabbed attention across the nation. If you Google the book’s title, you’ll find a sea of controversy, including over other children’s books by the author.
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