It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health

Harris, R. (2009). It's perfectly normal: Changing bodies, growing up, sex, and sexual health. Somerville, MA:  Candlewick Press.

This informational title explains everything about puberty and sex to kids.  The book starts off by recognizing that kids have questions about these topics and explaining all the different meanings of the word sex before talking about bodies and the way they change for both males and females during puberty.  From there processes of the body during puberty are detailed which leads into topics like masturbation and having babies.  Much information about pregnancy and childbirth and even adoption follows.  Options regarding preventing pregnancy include postponement, abstinence, and birth control.  A chapter about abortion is also included.  The last chapters address online dangers, sexual abuse, and sexually transmitted diseases.

I think this book is straight forward and approaches what can be a very uncomfortable topic of conversation between parents and children very tactfully.  The gentle voice in which the information is revealed fills me with trust.  The illustrations are certainly cartoonish and detailed, but realistic and I appreciate that it prepares a kid for what to expect when they see naked bodies without showing them photos of real people.  In a school setting, I think the sections about online dangers and sexual abuse would be useful for counselors.  I was thoroughly impressed to see the pages of listed experts who were consulted for the creation of this book.  Keeping the information relevant, I like that the topic of online dangers was covered and that several of the illustrations included kids using smartphones or tablets.  Another win for the illustrations is that people of all ethnicities, sizes, ages, and shapes are featured in the book.  It's Perfectly Normal certainly keeps everything balanced by talking about male and female aspects of sex and puberty as well as heterosexual and homosexual relationships.  It's no wonder the cover boasts over one million copies in print.

George

Gino, A. (2015).  George. New York, NY:  Scholastic Press.

George is a fourth-grader who is anatomically a boy, but feels and believes herself to be a girl.  She also desperately wants to portray Charlotte in her school's production of Charlotte's Web.  With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George figures out a way to do just that.  Kelly also helps George make her public debut as Melissa by letting her borrow her clothes before taking a trip to the zoo.

With the media attention that has been given recently to transgender issues, the topic has worked its way into the schema of school-aged kids.  Because this conversation is happening, some kids may come out to their parents or peers as transgender at a younger age.  George would be a useful tool for a counselor when a student comes to him/her with a trans-gender question or concern.  Since the author, Alex Gino, is also transgender, the thoughts and feelings George experiences in the story are as close to real as one could get.  Not once in this story does George "give in" or try to be a "boy".  She insists and never gives up on being a girl which reflects the theme which is blazed upon the back cover of the book, "Be who you are."  The same is true of other characters in the book.  The older brother, the mother, the best friend, the principal, the bully, the disapproving teacher, they all stay true to who they are. They aren't changed by George, they just accept her, agree to learn to accept her, or continue to reject her.  George is a new way to look at Havighurst's appropriate sex roles task.  The book forces people to consider the plight of transgenders fitting into society.

Annie on My Mind

Garden, N. (1982). Annie on my mind. New York, NY: First Square Fish.

Liza and Annie are two high school seniors who find that they have fallen in love with each other.  They hide their love for one another from their friends and families.  Eventually, their secret is found out my a classmate and school employee.  Things turn out OK for the girls, but a pair of teachers who are also lesbians are fired from their posts.

I absolutely adored this book and I think today's high schoolers would too.  Garden essentially leads readers through the entire process of falling in love.  I feel like I know these girls.  I feel like I know what it's like for someone (gay or straight) to fall in love.  I feel like I can appreciate the struggle of the gay community even more than I already do.  These two fictitious teenage lesbians illustrate the summer's celebratory phrase "love wins".  Perhaps in time, our nation will continue to grow to accept same-sex couples and eventually I hope a book like this would end up as a regular read in high school curriculum.  It's one of the best love stories I've ever read and it's what teens in a world of divorce and one-night stands need to learn about what true love is and what it takes.  Liza and Annie have made an art of falling in and maintaining love.  Kohlberg's concept of postconventional moral development is present in this novel because the girls find out that the social rules about homosexuality aren't necessarily "right".

El Deafo

Bell, C. (2014). El deafo. New York, NY: Abrams.

An illness leaves Cece with hearing loss at the age of four.  Soon she starts to use a hearing aid and goes to a special school where she learns some strategies that help with her disability.  When she goes to regular school, she makes a couple of friends over the years that are inconsiderate to her needs.  Additionally, she becomes increasingly self-conscious of her deafness.  Along the way, she develops an secret alter-ego superhero known as "El Deafo" that she uses to cope with her anger about the way she gets treated and other things that frustrate her about being deaf.  Eventually, Cece finds a worthwhile friend she can trust.

The graphic novel format makes this memoir very accessible and enjoyable.  Bell chose to illustrate herself and the other characters as bunnies, which is unbelievably adorable.  Memoirs can be heavy at times because they represent an emotional time in the author's life.  Cece's struggle to find the right friend is a great example of Havighurst's developmental task that adolescents regarding adolescents getting along with peers.  Students in grades five and six would particularly enjoy reading this book and sixth grade teachers would be wise to use this book to introduce memoirs (part of the grade six ELAR TEKS). Another graphic novel memoir I would recommend to students who enjoyed El Deafo would be To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel by Siena Cherson Siegel.  Siegel's book tells the story of her years as a ballerina as a young girl and teenager all the while enduring the growing animosity between her parents which eventually resulted in divorce.

Speak

Anderson, L.H. (1999). New York, NY: Square Fish.

Melinda Sordino, a fourteen-year-old freshman who lives in Syracuse, New York, was raped at a party over the summer.  No one knows about this incident except her and the rapist, who goes to school with her and who she, unfortunately, encounters at school regularly.  She goes through the school year depressed and nearly mute as a result of the rape.  Her parents and school administrators try to intervene after her behavior and poor academic performance concern them, but their efforts fail.  When she eventually lets out just a small bit of information, she finds that she's not alone as the rapist's victim.  This knowledge empowers her to find her voice, which becomes extremely important when she gets attacked by the same person again.

I hope Anderson paved the way for more authors to write about this important topic.  I think this book will appeal to a variety of audiences but particularly teenage girls and I would recommend it for readers ages 12 and older.  As someone who has taught sixth graders for ten years, I feel that only a small number of 12 year old girls would be mature enough to handle this book's content.  It's easy to see why this title was a finalist for the National Book Award. The character's internal conflict propels this story along.  The reader is desperate to know if Melinda will ever tell about the rape.  Anderson, much like her character Melinda, keeps mum about the incident until just the right moment.  The voice in which Melinda narrates the story is mostly what's going on inside her head since she doesn't speak and because of that sometimes has a stream of consciousness-type quality.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true story of a part-time Indian. New York, NY: Scholastic.

At age fourteen, Arnold Spirit, Jr. (he goes by "Junior") has been dealt a rough hand in life.  He lives in poverty with his alcoholic father, former-alcoholic mother, sister and grandmother on a Spokane Indian Tribe reservation, also known as the “rez”.  He realizes that his key to overcome his situation is to get a better education, so he starts going to school off the rez.  Tragedy hits Arnold pretty hard towards the end of the book and although he starts doubting his decision to attend school off the rez, he realizes that it is a path he must follow to try to break out of the cycle and curse that is rez life.

This book does not hold back.  Told from Arnold's point of view, his first-person voice uses every cuss word with the exception of the F-bomb to narrate his tale.  To be honest, if I had to suffer through his life, I'd be using the F-bomb frequently to punctuate my story.  Also, Arnold discusses masturbation in the book a couple of times.  That being said, I would recommend this book to teenagers 13 and up.  I've never read a book like this before, but having read it, I feel that there needs to be a lot more Native American-centric literature for young adults out there.  Joseph Bruchac can't do it all on his own.  With an admirable, real character like Arnold and a message about hopes and dreams that endures to the very end of the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian nails the criteria for a quality specimen of young adult literature.