The gay-themed book Revolutionary Voices, an anthology of first-person works by youths in New Jersey, has been quietly pulled from library shelves in Burlington County, N.J., and a high school, reports our colleague Jim Walsh of the Courier-Post.

Walsh writes today that the decision was made in the spring, but is triggering a bit of a furor now with the release of e-mails on the issue by county library director Gail Sweet.

In one of the released messages, Sweet asks a library employee, "How can we grab the books so that they never, ever get back into circulation? Copies need to totally disappear (as in not a good idea to send copies to the book sale)."

When another employee asks why the award-winning book was being removed, Sweet responded, "Child pornography."

Sweet had no comment to the Courier-Post.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey obtained the e-mails and gave them to the newspaper on Wednesday.

"We have concerns (over the removal)," said Jeanne LoCicero, deputy legal director for the ACLU-NJ. She said the book did not face an official challenge at the library and the library's commissioners had not voted on its removal.

More background from the Courier-Post:

The book was pulled from the county library and from the library at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly after objections from Beverly Marinelli, a Lumberton woman and a member of the 9/12 Project, a conservative group founded by Fox News Channel pundit Glenn Beck.

Marinelli, who could not be reached Wednesday, has described the book as "pervasively vulgar and obscene."

About 500 book challenges are reported every year to the American Library Association, said Angela Maycock, who oversees the group's Office for Intellectual Freedom.

(Posted by Steve Marshall)