An informative and comprehensive guide to giving and getting consent.
The authors and illustrator of Welcome to Your Period! (2021) return with a guide for empowering youths in a variety of situations where personal choice is a must.
Giving and getting consent can be challenging to navigate, whether it’s about lending a shirt, watching a scary movie, using alcohol, or sexting. By exploring different ways of communicating yes and no, talking about consent with others, managing uncertainty, and acknowledging the freedom to change your mind, this handbook provides opportunities to build confidence and bolster personal autonomy. The authors cover the ways consent can be difficult, such as when there is fear of disappointing others or hurting feelings; how power dynamics, shyness, or feeling inexperienced can impact situations; and how society and culture have made it hard to talk about consent. Using quotes from young people and adults, the book takes an inclusive approach; the full-color, cartoon-style illustrations showcase diversity in religion, race, gender, disability, and sexuality. The section discussing sexual matters, for which consent is essential, opens by acknowledging that not all readers will be ready for the information it covers and directs those who wish to skip over it to the next section, which is about peer support. The advice includes assumptions that young people generally have access to health classes that discuss contraception and that everyone would feel comfortable seeking help from the police, but overall this volume is thorough and empowering.
An informative and comprehensive guide to giving and getting consent. (glossary, resources) (Nonfiction. 11-18)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2617-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Potentially useful insights for youngsters encountering loss.
Advice on coping with loss, from the death of a family member or a close friend to a beloved pet’s demise to life-changing events such as divorce.
Imperi, a chaplain and thanatologist (“someone who knows about death, dying, grief and loss”), uses her own terminology to distinguish between “deathloss” (“when a person or an animal we love dies”) and “shadowloss” (“the death of something, not someone”). These categories make sense, but kids grieving the death of a loved one may find it difficult to wade through sections about other serious problems. Although the recent pandemic caused many actual deaths, this book describes Covid as a shadowloss, a disrupter of normal life. Imperi mentions a few religious traditions, but the book is primarily concerned with practical ideas and individual experiences. Specific thinking, writing, and creative exercises for moving through the grief process are included. She spotlights five diverse teens, along with their coping strategies for different types of loss; they appear to be composite portraits rather than real individuals. The black-and-white line illustrations and charts throughout will appeal to some, but the boxed affirmations on many pages may feel repetitive to others; the work overall feels a bit like an expanded magazine article. Still, patient readers will likely find guidance—and reassurance.
Potentially useful insights for youngsters encountering loss. (grief journal, glossary, note for caregivers, resources, references, index) (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781525309656
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
Cathartic and uplifting.
The experiences of watching a mother succumb to cancer and grieving her death are explored with honesty and compassion.
Feder (illustrator: Unladylike, 2018), the oldest of three sisters in a close-knit Jewish family, grew up with an artistic, spirited, playful, and affectionate mother, someone whose high spirits were the perfect foil for her daughter’s anxious personality. The summer after Feder’s freshman year of college, her mother was diagnosed with cancer, dying in the spring of Feder’s sophomore year. This vulnerable memoir is a tribute to a beloved woman as well as a meditation on losing a parent when one is on the cusp of adulthood. Much like grief itself, the book careens from deep despair to humor to poignancy, fear, remorse, and anger, mirroring the emotional disorientation that comes with such a significant death. By sharing many particulars about her mother—the foods she loved and hated, the silly in-jokes, her endearing (and annoying) quirks—Feder personalizes her loss in a way that will resonate with members of the “Dead Moms Club,” with whom she describes having an immediate bond. Readers who have not experienced deep grief will learn from the missteps of well-intentioned friends and acquaintances. The pastel-toned illustrations effectively convey Feder’s youth and the intensity of her emotions while emphasizing the ultimate message of survival and resilience in the face of life-changing grief.
Cathartic and uplifting. (Graphic memoir. 12-adult)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-55302-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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