"The a tome of nearly 1,000 pages, weaves architectural and religious history into a story about 12th century cathedral building.

But stifle all yawns: Prostitution, rape, deaths by hanging and sex, sex, sex are written about in language too lurid and too profane to appear in this newspaper.

So 'The Pillars of the Earth,' by popular novelist Ken Follett, could be taken off the shelves in 16 Fairfax County high school libraries after a review next week by the School Board,

'It's age-inappropriate for teenagers,' said Kathy Stohr, of Centrevine, the parent who's asked the School Board to remove the book. 'It's sexually explicit. It borders on being pornographic, if not technically so.'

In the past 20 years, about seven books have been challenged in Fairfax county schools. In a recent 15-month span, there have been three others, and challenges to more books are waiting in the wings.

The recent challenges are coming from a small group of determined parents moving beyond the traditional book-by-book fight. The group has petitions signed by 800 parents so far, a four-month-old Web site, www.pabbis.org, and a list of books the parents want subjected to the kind of scrutiny given movies, television programs and Internet surfing.

The group's ultimate goal: a set of specific standards as to what is appropriate reading material for children of different age groups.

'The rule now seems to be, if it doesn't have pictures, its okay,' said Richard Ess, a parent, who writes most of the Web site text including the easily accessible fink to a long list of actual sex-and-violence quotes from 41 books, many of them used in Fairfax schools.

The books listed on the Web site include such titles as 'Black Boy,' 'Shogun,' and 'The Joy Luck Club' and are read by elementary school students and adults. Quoting works by authors such as Isabel Allende, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, the site includes profanity, racial insults and extremely graphic descriptions of sexual acts.

'I think parents have the right to choose what their children will read when they're a minor,' said Ess, who lives in the Alexandria section of Fairfax.

The controversy illuminates a rising conservative parents movement in Fairfax. The same movement also has been active in the debate over how to teach children to read and what new math textbooks should be used in classrooms. In this case, the subject is books and the group has a name: PABBIS, for Parents Against Bad Books In Schools.

'For them, it's really a matter of personal conviction, sometimes religious conviction but not always, and it's their right to challenge [books],' said School Board member Tessie Wilson (Braddock). 'It's up to us to decide what to do.'

Regardless of the outcome of the 'Pillars' challenge, Stohr said she intends to challenge other books, which she would not name. 'There is no lack of books that deserve to be challenged,' she said.

The fledgling group of about eight parents is growing more vocal and active, delving into literature in school libraries, on summer reading lists and in English classes in Fairfax.

'We have no argument whether or not some of these books are very well written,' said Kristine Nicholls, a parent from Centreville. 'But I understand the 'Playboy' articles are well written too. . . . I don't know why we're groveling in the filth that we are.'

Several Pabbis members said they were satisfied with the education their children were receiving in Fairfax schools, but not overwhelmingly so. They say their mission is as much about parents as it is about students. They said they believe that most parents, even involved parents, are unaware of the mature literature that their children are reading in school.

So they are getting the word out. They are appearing on radio talk shows and asking for signatures at community forums and even an Islamic mosque.

Nicholls said she has seen a surge in interest in her group's activities in the last few months. 'It's just snowballing,' she said.

But School Board member Stuart D. Gibson (Hunter Mill), who is critical of the group's mission, disputed their claims of broad support.

'This is not a huge groundswell,' he said. 'This is a snall group of people who have made this a personal crusade.'

Nicholls and Stohr attracted the attention of School Board member Mychele B. Brickner (At Large) when the two women spoke about the issue at a School Board meeting in March. Brickner has asked formally that the board consider drafting the policy that Pabbis wants.

'I think we need to find some way to resolve this so we don't have book challenges,' Brickner said. 'There must be some objective measure to use for the selection of books.'

The Fairfax School Board will meet June 25 to review 'The Pillars of the Earth,' which ranks 91st on the American Library Association's list of the top 100 most challenged books in the last decade. Seven school copies were checked out a total of 15 times in the past year.

'This is not required reading,' Schools Superintendent Daniel A. Domenech said. 'It is made available to more mature students in some schools and those who do not want to be exposed to it don't have to be. So the issue is, we're not here forcing anyone to read any material that they don't want to read. But it's not the goal of the public schools to exdude materials that some students might want to read.'

School board members who oppose the book challenge have remarked that students searching for sex and violence will not turn to the two-pound, 973-page 'Pillars,' which has an architectural drawing of a cathedral on the cover of most editions.

'They can find out what they're looking for more easily in the grocery store checkout line,' said Jane K. Strauss (Dranesville), the board chairman.

It was Ess--not Stohr--who first discovered the explicit passages in 'Pillars.' But because he is concentrating on the expansion of www.pabbis.org and she had filed requests to remove two other books, Stohr agreed to navigate the district's multi layered process once again to challenge 'Pillars.'

The School Board restricted access to the other books, 'Druids,' by Morgan Llywelyn, and 'Daughters of Eve,' by Lois Duncan, to high school libraries but did not ban them outright.

Stohr read 'Pillars' in its entirety--'But I didn't take my time to read it for pleasure because I didn't find it a pleasurable book'--before she filed the book challenge application in early February.

A committee of 10 students, parents, teachers, school librarians and administrators met in February, March and April before voting unanimously to deny Stohr's application. The decision was upheld by Maribeth Luftglass, the district's chief information officer, who oversees school libraries, and by Domenech.

It now is in the hands of School Board members, who have the final say." (Liz Seymour, The Washington Post, June 17, 2001)