Robie H. Harris, a children's author whose best-selling books introduced young readers to sex and sexuality with a candor that brought her praise as well as bans, died Jan. 6 at a hospital in Manhattan. She was 83.
Nearly from the moment it first appeared on bookshelves, "It's Perfectly Normal," which was aimed at readers ages 10 and up, stirred debate with its frank discussion of topics including puberty, sexual intercourse, homosexuality, masturbation and contraception. Its illustrations, by Michael Emberley, were cartoonlike in style but equally frank in content.
As she anticipated, Ms. Harris was a perennial target of book bans across the United States, with her fiercest critics denouncing her work as pornography. But she emerged as a go-to source for like-minded librarians and families, especially parents who wished to speak openly with their children about sexuality but did not always know how.
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