The Digital Public Library of America, a fabulous organization working toward equitable access to ebooks, is running a Banned Books feature on their social media pages, inviting readers to share why they love and support a banned book. (They are taking submissions here!) As a longtime supporter of comprehensive sex education, I picked a sex ed book that frequently comes under fire: the wonderful tween title Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg with illustrations by Fiona Smyth. I reread it to provide my supporting statements this year, and I only came to appreciate it more.
Like earlier pioneers Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley (who penned another frequently banned sex ed book, It’s Perfectly Normal), Silverberg and Smyth created a trilogy of books meant to introduce concepts around sex and gender to kids, approaching the topic from different angles for different eras of their lives. The first book, What Makes a Baby? is an intro to reproduction for little ones, You know, Sex is a book for older teens that gets into the weeds with the extra-grownup stuff older teens may be questioning (pornography, trauma, media depiction, etc), and Sex is a Funny Word is for the in-between years. The time when kids start hearing lewd jokes on the playground and have to decide whether they want to play along or not. The time when kids may start having or be pressured to have sexy feelings, and don’t really know how they feel about it at all.
All three books come to their subjects with social justice and inclusion at the center. Four middle school characters center the narrative, depicting a wide spectrum of identities and opinions on the subject matter. This book broaches the feelings around sex and attraction, gender identity, changing bodies, and changing relationships, without getting too far into actual sexual activity besides masturbation. The focus is more on the self, rather than the twosome.
My favorite aspect of this book (and the others in its series) is its focus on the reader. This series is not meant to be a book that you hand to a child because you don’t want to talk about it. It’s meant to start conversations between kids and their trusted adult. Each section opens with the four middle schoolers talking about the topic from their own varied points of view, and ends with those characters asking the reader for their own thoughts, with guided questions perfect to continue the conversation after the book is closed. To me, it’s the perfect way to ensure that the reader walks away cognizant of their own autonomy, and confident to develop their own boundaries and opinions about a very dicey but important subject.