A U.K. crafter came under fire this weekend when parents discovered that his handmade hedgehogs had been assembled with pages from an erotic novel.

As The Guardian reported, the unidentified hobbyist made his “little creations” from donated books, often to raise money for charity. An apparently friendly sort, the man also liked to hand his paper creatures out to area children.

So far, so sweet. But alas, not all hedgehogs are created elegant. On closer inspection, “some parents were horrified to discover the hedgehogs had been made from the pages of an erotic novel.” Specifically: Nicholson Baker’s The Fermata.

Baker’s novel—alternately praised and derided as “an X rated sci-fi fantasy” on its release—follows a sexual voyeur who discovers he can stop time. In her 1994 review of the book, Michele Slung of The New York Times summarized the story as “a sort of boys’ own horrid adventure of fondling the forbidden flesh of insensate maidens.”

On discovering that passages invoking murder and the age of consent were smuggled inside a seeming tchotchke, some parents saw red. The matter got as far as the local police. But when Merseyside officers spoke to the bewildered crafter, he insisted “he normally checked the pages before using them and was mortified by the mistake.”

The matter now appears settled. Especially since others have come forward with agenda-denying evidence. One four year old received a hedgehog made of pages from Rosemary Enright’s The Walled Garden, which is much tamer as romances go. Said her parent, “I don’t believe [there was] any malicious intent.”

But as far as branding goes, this could mark the beginning of a beautiful business opportunity—so long as the hogs are marketed to the right readerly demographic.

As critics like Tom Bissell and Adam Mars-Jones pointed out on The Fermata’s release, that novel arguably captures a pubescent male sexuality.

So perhaps this hedge fares better as a graduation gift.