We Need to Talk About Vaginas

We Need to Talk About Vaginas : an important book about vulvas, periods, puberty, and sex!  by Dr. Allison K. Rogers

St. Martin’s Press  9781684492848

A gynecologist explains, examines, and answers questions about female bodies and the changes experienced in the transition from childhood to adulthood.  Topics (in addition to those called out in the title) include: public hair, ovaries, cramps, hymens, masturbation, sexually transmitted diseases, gender identity, and the history of flying vaginas!  The narration is honest and straightforward, using correct medical vocabulary. The illustrations show a variety of differently colored and shaped bodies.  Recommended for age 8 and up.

Birth control, diversity, gender diversity, graphic novel, masturbation, mental health, non-fiction, on-page sex,  parents, pregnancy, rainbow+, sexual assault, teachers

Different for Boys

Different for Boys  by Patrick Ness, illustrations by Tea Bendix

Walker Books, 2023  978-1-5362-2889-2

Anthony (Ant) Stevenson has a lot of questions about sex, but most especially, “at what point is a person not a virgin anymore?”  Is it when they >redacted<?  Or when they’ve >redacted< with >redacted<?  Or >entire sentence redacted<?  

Ant wants to know more…about himself, and about his friends, and about, well, everything.  But it’s hard to learn things when so much is >redacted< – and that’s how this book is written, with big black boxes (which the characters all comment on) obscuring some text the reader will intuit and some that isn’t quite so obvious, even with pictures to help.

Short, quiet, powerful, poetic, and real.  Sex on the page, but it’s >redacted<, of course. Highly recommended for ages 14 to adult.

cussing, friendship, gay friends, high school, homophobia, kissing, masturbation, on-page sex,  parents, rainbow+, redactions, sports, straight friends, teachers

Into the River

Into the River  by Ted Dawe

Te Arepa Santos lives with his grandfather Ra, surrounded by cousins and aunts and uncles, descendants of a Maori woman who married a heroic Spanish pirate.  The day that Te Arepa encounters the giant eel in a haunted stream, his life changes.  Soon Te Arepa, like his piratical ancestor Diego Santos, will leave his family home and his traditions.  Soon, he is on his way to an exclusive boy's boarding school in Auckland.

Into the River was the first book ever to be banned in New Zealand, although that country has much stricter "decency standards" than we have here in America.  The book wasn't even banned when it was first published; actually, it spent two years picking up prestigious awards like the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year first.  Then it got rated "for mature readers ages 14+".  Then it was banned entirely: not available for sale to any reader in New Zealand at all (although sales of the international Kindle edition went up as readers circumvented the ban).

Why all the fuss?  That's what I wondered.  So I read it.

The story contains sexual situations--including naked body parts, masturbation and intercourse--on the page.  There is cussing, and drug use.  There is homosexuality, bullying, underage drinking, suicide, lawless behavior and rampant racism. 

My verdict:  the censors in New Zealand really need to get out more.

In other words, Into the River contains nothing we haven't seen in teen lit before.  Why this particular book bothered the outspoken members of Family First, I cannot say.  

Unfortunately for my feelings of unfettered righteousness, I did not love the book.  

Not because I object to sexual content in teen books (obviously) but rather because I thought that the main character had tremendous potential as a young Maori man entering Western society...and he quickly turned as mainstream as the bullies around him.  

Yawn.  

While the first half of the book raced along with the glory of Maori words footnoted on each page, the last half trudged inexorably towards the main character's expulsion from school.   

Buy this to diversify your collections, or to demonstrate the power of censorship (sales soared!), but if you want to read a great coming-of-age story of Maori New Zealand, you may have to write it yourself.

Somebody Up There Hates You

Somebody Up There Hates You  by Hollis Seamon

Richie has cancer. 

At seventeen,  he knows that it is a matter of a couple of months, not years.  

He is now living in a Hospice unit, one of two teenagers.  The other teen is Sylvie, fifteen, who also has cancer, and also has a matter of months.  

When Sylvie announces to Richie that she does not want to die a virgin (and recruits him to help with this), there is a problem: her father alternates between hovering around his little girl as a protector, and drinking so much the staff is likely to throw him out of the unit. 

This is a reality-based book of teens dying; of teens not giving up; of those dying around them, and of elderly people whom we see in a different light.  With lots of plot twists inside a narrow story line, the entire cast of characters is simply wonderful, unusual, and not at all predictable.

While Richie’s mother is ill herself with a cough and cold, but not allowed into Hospice because of the germs she carries, Richie is entertained by his uncle and grandmother, characters you will love and cheer.  Then you will be glad they aren’t your relatives.  Richie’s uncle sneaks him out of the Hospice unit on Halloween, allows him way too much beer, pays a girl to pay attention to him, then disappears.  Richie’s grandmother is a gem of a smart-mouthed (wonder where Richie got his mouth?) blowsy woman who barges her way through situation.

Alternately sad, poignant, and hilarious, smart-mouthed Richie and SUTHY (Somebody Up There Hates You- the persona who is responsible for the cancer in his body) are impossible to forget.  A tough subject so very well handled, any teen will love it, although the parents might balk at the potty mouth on that kid!  Obviously ready to pair with Green’s Fault In Our Stars.  The parallels are impossible to ignore, although Somebody Up There Hates You easily stands on its own pedestal. 

Recommended 14 up. 

alcohol, bullying,(a lot of) cussing, death, drinking, gay friends, grieving, kissing, masturbation, nekkidness, prejudice, religious beliefs, sexual situations, Star Trek Sex, and violence.

The F*** It List

The F*** It List   by Julie Halpern

                     

As our story opens, Alex is at her dad’s funeral when she learns that her very best friend forever, Becca, is having sex with Alex’s boyfriend.  Never mind that Alex really knows he is a jerk, this just isn’t BFF behavior.  Alex decides to avoid Becca for the remainder of the summer.

As their senior year opens, Alex finds out from another girl that Becca is not at school because she has cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma.  After school, Alex rekindles the BFF status with Becca, only to find that Becca, while hopeful for a cure, also has a bucket list, which they rename. (see the title)  

The catch:  since Becca won't be able to complete her list, Alex must now complete the list on behalf of Becca.

The list contains some easy items, like #7  Eat a hot pepper.  (in a charming scene with Alex’s younger brothers).

But it also contains some more interesting items like #20:  Masturbate  and #23:  Make love with someone you love and who’s in love with you.  

Along the way, Alex meets Leo, fortunately, a boy who smokes (#30:  Kiss a boy who smokes) who brings some harsh reality to Alex, who has still not really dealt with the death of her father, let alone the fact that her best friend might be dying.

            

The silly premise actually works into a very sweet book about two friends dealing with lots of high school issues in unusual ways.  It is funny, sad, and since it is high school, angsty.  Alex is not a heroine.  She is self-centered, tactless, and abrasive.  We love her as we watch her grow up.  Perhaps not an award winner, but a great summer read. 

One pique:  why aren’t these teens at least talking about unprotected sex????

Recommended 15 up.

Cussing (lots!) death, grieving, kissing, masturbation, sexual situations, star trek sex,

Losing It

Losing It.  (short stories)  Keith Gray, ed.

“It hurt.  A lot.  There was a lot of blood too.”   Of course, Keith Gray is talking about being hurt in soccer practice…

With this quick start, Losing it is about just that.  Ten short stories of losing your virginity from some vary famous British authors, including Melvin Burgess, A.S. King, and Patrick Ness.  Jase wants to lose his virginity even if he loses the soccer championship as a result; Emma wonders why she did it;  Finn’s grandmother gives some great advice; Charlie and Ant are just fooling around until the right girl comes along- aren’t they?

At times, the British slang gets in the way, but more often the stories themselves talk around the sex part of the story that teens might well lose interest.  Teens won’t learn anything new here, nor will they gain any new insights, although some stories are quite poignant: The White Towel (Bali Rai,)  a story of not-too-distant India, and Finding It (Anne Fine) from the sex ed teacher’s point of view that teens will shrug off.

In reality, there is very little actual feeling here.  While some stories actually deal with emotion, (Different for Boys, Patrick Ness and Age of Consent,  Jenny Valentine) most are simple stories of wanting sex.  The stories are more “feel good, sweet” stories.  In only two of the stories the act of losing one’s virginity is observable.  In one of those stories, the actual references to sex are black boxed out, creating more in your imagination than there would be if left in the narrative.  The reality of being protected during sex is never taken seriously.  This would have been a stellar opportunity!

Kissing, gay friends, gltbq, masturbation, Star-Trek sex, violence

Anatomy of a Single Girl

Anatomy of a Single Girl by Daria Snadowsky

I always knew I wanted my first time to be with someone I loved and who loved me, which it was…. But shouldn’t I want that for every time?

Dom (Dominique) returns the summer after her first year in college.  She has had a bad break up with the boyfriend she thought would be forever.  Her first love, first kiss, first sexual experience, and now first breakup. (Anatomy of a boyfriend, 2008)  Then she meets a handsome guy- named, appropriately enough, Guy. He wants no part of romance, but does want sex.  Duh.  Dom is sure that she wants the whole romantic love thing, but sex is fun too.  Duh again.  What this book really is, is a treatise on safe sex.  

Before Dom, a pre-med student, will agree to the “friends with (lots) of benefits thing, she wants to be sure they are both following the right rules.  It’s pretty one-sided:  Dom tells Guy all the requirements, and he agrees.  We don’t see enough discussions of safe sex in teen lit, but this is pretty clinical - like Snadowsky was trying too hard to get the information out.  Because it’s couched in Dom’s pre-med background, it is understandable within the plot.  Will it be ignored because it is so dry and one-sided?

There are other parts that help get the book through its tough times:  Dom’s feelings ring true as an eighteen-year-old, just out of first year college.  She alternately loves her parents (she declares that she won the parent lottery) and hates her parents being too restrictive.  Her best friend Amy is fun and believable.   There is a nice balance between wanting to be a little girl, and wanting to grow up, and lots of frank talk about sex.  

Dom’s parents are a hoot.  Even Guy is not entirely one-sided.  He does care for Dom, and he is honest about just wanting sex, not a relationship.  Perhaps he shares a few too many sexual positions with Dom, or maybe just the reader?  This is not meant to be a sex manual, but it comes close at times.

But really, as Dom says, shouldn’t ALL her sexual experience be with someone she loves and loves her? 

100 Questions You'd Never Ask Your Parents

100 Questions You'd Never Ask Your Parents : straight answers to teens' questions about sex, sexuality and health  by Elizabeth Henderson & Nancy Armstrong, MD

When I have sex for the first time, will people be able to tell?
How old do I have to be to buy condoms?
What is the best birth control?
Does alcohol really kill brain cells?

These, and 96 other common questions are answered in simple, straightforward language. The questions are arranged in a random fashion (perhaps from most-frequently to less-frequently asked?), and the answers are succinct and factual--most Q/A entries are dealt with on a single page, with no fancy color formatting, no sidebars and no illustrations of any kind.

Most questions are related to sex and sexuality, but topics also include drug and alcohol use, suicidal thoughts, and friendships.  The "hot" topics of homosexuality, birth control (including abstinence, condom use and pills), and pregnancy are each addressed several times, but the topic of abortion remains untouched by this book.  Not all the responses are complete--it's notable that Planned Parenthood is not mentioned anywhere in the text or index, despite that agency's importance in the field of teen sexual health issues nationwide.

Index and glossary of terms are included. A list of additional resources, books, websites and governmental agencies would have been helpful, but was not included.

Ivy

 

Okeksyk, Sarah. Ivy.  (graphic novel)

Ivy is a talented high school artist growing up in a small town in Maine.  Her mom wants her to study business at a local college, but Ivy wants to study painting...as far away from her hometown as possible.  Her emotional roller coaster sometimes derails Ivy's good intentions, but gradually she works towards creating her own kind of freedom.

Although Ivy was published in 2011, one gets the feeling that it is set in a much earlier time.  She exchanges hand-written letters with her long-distance boyfriend, and they call each other on land-line telephones (the kind with cords!).  Still, the emotional journey towards adulthood is universally uncomfortable, and the story is well-drawn and well-told.  This graphic novel features on-page sex (tactful, but unmistakable), drug use and under-age drinking as well as lots of cussing and depictions of some seriously dysfunctional families.  Ivy is not a happy story, but the end promises just a bit of hope for the future.

Ready Player One

Ready Player One  by Ernest Cline


The year is 2044 and 18-year-old Wade Watts, like almost everyone else in the world, regularly escapes from grim reality to spend most of his waking time in OASIS, the online community that has grown up from early beginnings as a network of online video simulation games.  Wade is a "gunter", a game player dedicated to locating the elusive "Easter Egg" hidden somewhere in the nearly-infinite OASIS.  The creator of OASIS was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980's, and left hundreds of clues for gunters hidden within 1980's movies, books, music, television shows and even commercials  The first to find the Egg will inherit a fortune in cash and controlling interest in the OASIS.  Unfortunately, there are some unscrupulous bad guys who don't mind cheating--or even killing--to win the Egg.

Anyone who has ever gotten immersed in a book, a movie, a video game, or a face-to-face session of Dungeons and Dragons will relate to Wade's experience in OASIS.  Anyone who can recite the entire script of Monty Python and the Holy Grail,  knows every line ever spoken on Star Trek (original series and/or any of the prequel/sequel/spin-off series), played PacMan or Joust for uncounted hours, or who ever rolled for damage to an imaginary monster will revel in the retro-geekiness of the narrative.  Anyone who wants a fun, action-filled dystopian adventure is advised to hide this book from family members who might grab it for themselves and demand a roll of the dice to determine ownership (as happened to this reviewer).

Comic book violence and some off-stage "real world" violence, cussing, and two paragraphs of non-graphic virtual sex with an ultimately unsatisfactory anatomically-correct haptic doll, plus some awesome friendships and a sweet romance.

Highly recommended for readers ages 14 to adult, maybe especially for adults who were teens in the 1980's...but since this book was given to me by a 16-year-old boy, I must recommend it also for those who weren't even a naughty notion in the 1980's.

The Half-Life of Planets

The Half-Life of Planets  by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin

"I am not a slut," says Lianna in the opening line of this dual-narrator novel. 

Lianna doesn't ever go farther than kissing with boys, but she has kissed a lot of boys.  Does that make her promiscuous?  She isn't sure.  To answer the question, Lianna embarks on a self-imposed scientific inquiry: to see what changes in her life when she focuses her attention on her summer research project and refrains from kissing boys.  Then, she meets Hank.

Hank has never kissed a girl, but he would really like to try it--and when he meets Lianna, who doesn't seem freaked out by his atypical interest in (and continual babble about) music, he thinks that he would like to kiss her.  Hank, however, has a very typical Asperger's Syndrome inability to read social cues, and so he isn't sure if Lianna wants to kiss him.  Intellectually, he has learned the meanings of conversation gambits and body language, but the details remain mysterious to him.

The narrator perspective bounces between Lianna and Hank, giving readers insight into both characters...and an opportunity to laugh more than once at each of the interactions between them. 

This is a fun summer book for readers who enjoy snappy conversations and rock-and-roll trivia, with lots of humor and a tear or two.  No sex, no violence; a few kisses, minimal cussing, and references to off-page masturbation.  Recommended for ages 14 to adult.

Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
cartoon illustrations by Ellen Forney

14-year-old Arnold Spirit ("Junior") describes himself as a weird-looking dork Indian. Born with water on the brain, a talent for cartooning and a brilliant sense of the absurd, Junior's diary and cartoons chronicle his simultaneously tragic and outrageously funny attempt to escape from life on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

Junior's parents want to support him in his new adventure, but their own alcoholism often interferes with their good intentions. Most of the other tribal members, including Junior's best friend Rowdy, think that Junior is just a traitor--an "apple" who looks red on the outside but is really white on the inside. Junior knows that he'll always be an indian...but he wants out of the society that seems to be mostly drunk indians killing themselves and each other with their destructive addictions.

Sherman Alexie's "semi-autobiography" is clearly based on real events and people near to the author's heart, and Junior's coming-of-age story will certainly appeal to adults as well as teens.

I predict that the Part-Time Indian will be included on high school required reading lists in the future, despite some minor cussing and a few references to teen masturbation. The writing is that good, and the story depicts a portion of American culture rarely addressed in modern literature.

Recommended HIGHLY for teens and adults, ages 14 and up.