"It's about . . . masturbation - which is not appropriate for my child to learn at 11. It was like 'Fifty Shades of Grey' for kids."

That's how New York City parent Kelly-Ann McMullan-Preiss, 39, described the book The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, which her child was asked to read over the summer by Public School/Middle School 114 in Rockaway Park, Queens, NY Daily News reported.

One line in Sherman Alexie's award-winning children's novel particularly stuck out in the minds of parents with sixth graders at the middle school: "And if God hadn't wanted us to masturbate, then God wouldn't have given us thumbs. So I thank God for my thumbs."

McMullan-Preiss and fellow parents from the school united in protest against the book being on the summer reading list and demanded it be removed. The school complied after surmounting pressure.

Although Teri Lesesne, who teaches young adult literature at Sam Houston State University, does admit that six-year-olds may be too young for the book, she also declares that everyone should read it at least once in their life.

"Everything in the book is what every kid in that school is dealing with on a daily basis, whether it's masturbation or racism or sexism or the complications of being human," Alexie told the central Oregon newspaper The Bulletin in 2008 when the book was taken off of Oregon schools' reading lists.

"To pretend that kids aren't dealing with this on an hour-by-hour basis is a form of denial."