The result of this long-term, communal effort is one of the most clear-eyed, responsible investigations of puberty and the emergence of sexuality in the medium's history, making a metaphor of the metamorphosis from child to adult.

"[2] In 1998 Barnes & Noble was indicted on child pornography charges in the US states of Alabama and Tennessee for selling The Last Day of Summer and Radiant Identities by Sturges, as well as The Age of Innocence by David Hamilton.

Then talk-show host Randall Terry has been credited with causing the prosecution, as well as protests, after he encouraged his listeners to locate prosecutors interested in taking the case.

[5] When questioned regarding the prosecution, Sturges stated it would waste taxpayers' money, as the photographs "are not done flirtatiously" and have been displayed in major museums.

"[5] The charges were dropped in Tennessee after Barnes & Noble agreed to move the books to an area that was less accessible to children.