School is upon us. Awaiting anxious students are new schedules, new teachers, new challenges and in some school districts, old controversies about what books should be read in school. Wow, where did the summer go?

School districts have been facing challenges over what should be in the library as long as there have been libraries, but recent changes in the world of children's literature and our society have focused the debates on matters of teen sexuality.

A recent MSNBC article regarding adolescent reading material describes growing parental concern over the explicit nature of books aimed at young teens.

Correspondent Janet Shamlian reports on some recent hot selling teen titles: "In 'Claiming Georgia Tate,' a father has sex with his daughter. In 'Rainbow Party,' teens make plans for an oral sex party. And in 'Teach Me,' out this month and seemingly ripped from the day's headlines, there's a student-teacher affair."

While I am not aware of challenges to any of these specific books, if they find their way into schools, there probably will be. Recent disputes over books in Lexington, Mass., Pleasant Valley, Iowa, and Columbus, Ohio, have divided communities and led to legal action.

Perhaps the mother of all of these disputes over school reading material is in Fayetteville, Ark.

Laurie Taylor, mother of two school-age children in Fayetteville, recently found numerous volumes of fiction that vividly described sexual acts of all sorts.

"Doing It" features teacher-pupil sex, "Rainbow Boys" describes adult-teen unprotected sex, and "Choke," uncovering the world of sexaholics, was graphic enough to have portions excerpted in Playboy.

Perhaps the worst find was "Push" by author Sapphire. Filled with graphic sex, perhaps the low point is the lead character's description of sex with an infant.

Mrs. Taylor is formally challenging these and other fiction books with similar content. She is not asking that the school remove all of the books permanently from the shelves; she simply wants librarians to gain a parent's permission before allowing children to have them.

She also wants the school to follow its own review policy while access is mediated by parents. The Fayetteville schools have a policy that requires the school to review materials parents find objectionable.

For these reasonable requests, she has been pilloried in the local press as narrow-minded and bigoted. The school district has received a veiled treat of a law suit from national groups including the National Coalition Against Censorship.

Is Mrs. Taylor overreacting? Should these books be in public school libraries? Before I throw in my view, let me jump