Sexuality and reader’s advisory

A question was posed to me as part of my studies in Children’s and Young Adult Literature: How would I provide reader’s advisory for young people who are looking for books related to sexuality?

Books about “sexuality” could encompass all sorts of topics. Do kids want to know about “where babies come from?” Do readers have questions about their sexual orientation, or their gender identity? And to incorporate the asexual community’s “Split Attraction Model,” does a reader have questions about their romantic orientation along with, or opposed to, sexual orientation as “distinctly different experiences” (Gender & Sexuality Resource Center, n.d.)?

Maybe a reader is concerned about body image as opposed to what society says is attractive or desirable.

Regardless of focus, the first place I’d need to start is by ensuring a broad selection of materials in the library in the first place: Identifying titles that fit the age range of my customers, learning what I can about them, and then purchasing and adding them to the library.

Willey (2017) recommended books for seventh- through ninth-grade and older, but I was interested in locating titles intended for younger readers.

I did a search in the Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database on the term “sexuality.” I filtered my results for books that were suitable for grades 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. One book that looked interesting was Under Our Clothes: Our First Talk About Our Bodies, by Jillian Roberts and Jane Heinrichs. Published in 2011 and intended for ages 6 to 12, this book “introduces young readers to the ideas of body safety and body image” (CLCD, n.d.).

I was especially interested in recommendations from people who were actively using books with young people, so I did a search via Google for “books on sexuality for children.” This led me to recommendations by sex educator Nadine Thornhill, who writes from the perspective not only of an educator, but also as a parent who has shared books with her child.

Among Thornhill’s selections:

• What Makes A Baby by Cory Silverberg, suitable for “Toddlers and up.” Thornhill stated that “One of the first sex-related questions many children ask is ‘where do babies come from’? Sex educator, Cory Silverberg has created a book that explains conception, pregnancy and birth in a simple, concrete way that young children can easily understand. But what makes this book extra-special is the way the story works for children who come from adoptive, single-parent, poly-parent, foster, multi-generational, gender diverse, sexually diverse and traditional families” (Thornhill, n.d.). 
• Nonnie Talks About Gender by Mary Jo Podgurski, for “Kindergarten and up,” “illustrates the concepts of gender, gender identity and gender roles using everyday language that young kids will understand” (Thornhill, n.d.). 
• “The Robie Harris Trilogy of Awesomeness,” It’s Not The Stork, It’s So Amazing, and It’s Perfectly Normal, suitable for “Preschoolers and up,” “Early elementary and up,” and “Mid-elementary and up,” respectively. “The books follow the adventures of the open-minded and enthusiastic Bird and his slightly more reserved pal, Bee. They want to understand more about human beings and how our bodies work. All three books have lots of pictures.There’s ethnic, age, and body diversity. Different types of families are represented. In It’s Not The Stork, Bird and Bee learn about body parts, how babies are conceived and born and good and bad touches. In It’s So Amazing, they learn more about conception and pregnancy, adoption, sexual safety and some basics about sexually transmitted infections. And finally, in It’s Perfectly Normal, Bird and Bee find out how human bodies change through puberty, relationships, making sexual decisions, taking care of sexual health, sexual diversity, gender diversity and social media” (Thornhill, n.d.)

My list of returns also included a list by librarians at the Ypsilanti District Library: “Gender Identity & Sexuality Books for Little Ones.” The list features titles addressing gender identity and expression, as well as some of the various forms that a family can take.

One question that occurred to me during my studies this week was, would readers seeking books about sexuality even approach me, the librarian: either to ask about these books in the library or approach me during check-out? Some young people who most needed this information might be too embarrassed to ask a near-stranger, one from whom they might fear condemnation or judgment.

One of the reasons I feel it’s important to be visibly queer when safe to do so, is because “It is important for LGBTQIA+ folks, especially youth, to have queer role models. Visibility normalizes queerness, decreases societal stigma, and makes youth safer” (McNabb, 2020, p. 114).

According to Walters (2022, p. 6), “It’s easy to create a welcoming space with subtle touches. Unobtrusive stickers on monitors, small flags, a pronoun pin on your lanyard, even choices of colors can create an environment that feels safe to marginalized people.”

Reluctance by a young person to ask an unknown adult for help, would make it all the more important to offer “passive” reader’s advisory: perhaps in the form of a brochure or poster listing sensitive topics along with their Dewey Decimal classification to find those books in the library.

I saw an example of one such poster at the Sacramento Public Library (Parkhill, 2015). Such a poster, like that at SPL, could alert teenagers not just to books about sexuality, but also to books about other sensitive topics that they might struggle with asking for assistance: Mental health issues, eating disorders, abusive relationships, etc.

Once a young reader found a book at their local library, they could then use self-checkout to obtain the book without risking embarrassment.

My public library’s teen department has a shelf of “Honor System” books addressing topics that students might not feel comfortable talking about with an adult. Students don’t even have to have the book show up on a transaction record, they can simply take the book discreetly and the library trusts them to return the book once they are done with it.

One final issue in the matter of reader’s advisory, not just concerning books about sexuality but around any type of books: there’d be the matter of how I’d talk about what books and to whom.

There was a lot to unpack in my reading of Widdersheim and McCleary. One thing that stood out for me was avoiding the practice of “Assignment,” (2016, p. 726) that is, making assumptions about what books a person should like based on how they looked, or on what the librarian assumed to be their orientation or their sex.

Instead, I would want to “recommend literature [or feature it during a read-aloud or book talk] based on the quality of the story, not the gender or sexuality of its characters, and not based on the perceived gender or sexuality of readers” (Widdersheim and McCleary, 2016, p. 732).

References:
Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. (n.d.) Under Our Clothes: Our First Talk About Our Bodies, by Jillian Roberts and Jane Heinrichs. CLCD Enterprise [University of Central Missouri : James C. Kirkpatrick Library]. http://enterprise.clcd.com/#/singlebook/KfpLioNojoHNhkln/Roberts,%20Jillian/Under%20our%20clothes

Gender & Sexuality Resource Center. (n.d.) Split attraction model. Princeton University. https://www.gsrc.princeton.edu/split-attraction

McNabb, C. (2020). Queer adolescence: Understanding the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual youth. Rowman & Littlefield.

Parkhill, C.M. (2015, July 30). Teen self-help with self-checkout for privacy. Cynthia Parkhill. https://cynthiaparkhill.blogspot.com/2015/07/teen-self-help-with-self-checkout-for.html

Thornhill, N. (n.d.) 6 books about sex for toddler to teen. Talk with your kids. https://www.talkwithyourkids.org/lets-talk-about/6-books-about-sex-toddler-teen.html

Walters, J. (2022). Out of many, one: Practicing defensive librarianship. Children & Libraries, 20(4), pp. 5-7.

Widdersheim, M., & McCleary, M. (2016). Gender and sexuality, self-identity, and libraries: Readers’ advisory as a technique for creative (dis)assembly. Library Trends, 64(4), 714-740.

Willey, P. (2017, Nov. 13). Puberty, consent, and sexuality: A few new titles. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/puberty-consent-sexuality-new-titles

Ypsilanti District Library. (n.d.) Gender identity & sexuality books for little ones. https://www.ypsilibrary.org/book-list/picture-board-books-about-gender-identity-sexuality/