This article is not about teen books, it’s about teen sex.

But what teens are doing has a bearing on what they are reading. And what they are reading has a bearing on what they are doing.

What I found most interesting is this, found at the very bottom of the article:

Tania says she and her friends talk about the right and wrong of what they do. “We learn morals from other people’s experiences,” she says.

According to Mitchell, now many sexual rules have gone, young people can develop personal ethics. “We need to understand that kids will have sex when they are not married,” she says. “Our concern would be to make them safe and enjoy it.

We learn morals from other people’s experience? How messed up is that?

And why on earth would we be concerned with making sure kids enjoy the sex they are having? 

That is so silly. As if they need to enjoy it more. Isn’t the problem that they do enjoy it a lot already, with a whole lot of people they shouldn’t be enjoying it with?

And should we really just give up? I mean, kids are going to commit suicide whether we like it or not. Does that mean we should teach them to enjoy it?

Just because the rules have gone and kids are developing their own personal ethics (code language for following the pack off the cliff) doesn’t mean we need to teach them to enjoy sex. Maybe we need to teach them to enjoy being responsible and obedient and hard-working, and self-sacrificing.

Teen sex is greedy. It’s selfish. It’s not about commitment and love and hard-work. It’s about enjoying yourself and who gives a flip about the other person? I don’t owe you anything–no strings attached. Why would we need to teach them to enjoy that? We are all greedy enough without being encouraged.  We need to teach kids to fight their ugly selfish urges.

Are there books out there that don’t glorify the sex but paint a true picture of it? I think the movie Juno did a great job of being real without glorifying the sex (and without condemning anyone) while showing that there are some consequences.

What else is out there?

I got a little kick out of this article on the Wasilla Library and how the librarian had to justify not shelving the two original gay picture books aimed at introducing tykes to families with same-sex parents.

I mean, there was this group that started a Librarians Against Palin site and I thought that was just silly since the woman never did ban books. But I guess librarians are not immune to the same disease that plagues Evangelical Christians: Fringe hysterics that make the whole body look bad.

Oh, and the fellow who sent Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate to the Wasilla Library, also, apparently sent condoms to Wasilla High School. What is that about?

Meanwhile the Christian publishers can’t be bothered to even publish many children’s books, let alone give them away free. Maybe some of the reason we’ve lost so much ground in this country is that our missionaries aren’t as zealous as the world’s.

Second Story Press Celebrates Gay Marriage in California With Their Classic Picture Book “Mom and Mum are Getting Married!”

Second Story Press will be giving away copies of their picture book “Mom and Mum Are Getting
Married!” to librarians at this year’s American Library Association Conference on Saturday,
June 28 in Anaheim in celebration of California’s newly legislated legalization of gay marriage.

Anaheim, CA (PRWeb via PRWeb) June 26, 2008 — Second Story Press will be giving away copies of their 2004 picture book Mom and Mum Are Getting Married! to librarians at this year’s American Library Association Conference on Saturday, June 28 in Anaheim in celebration of California’s newly legislated legalization of gay marriage. Author Ken Setterington will be on hand signing copies and available to talk about the book and its impact on the children’s literary community, from the controversy it generated when first published to the relevance it has in light of this new legal decision.

The book tells the story of young Rosie and her two mothers. When they tell her they are going to get married, Rosie can’t wait to start planning the big day. Rosie has so many questions. Will she get to be a flower girl? Can she get a new dress? Will there be food and a fabulous wedding cake? At this party, family, friends and fun come together for a joyous celebration of love in a changing world. Author Ken Setterington is the Toronto Public Library’s Children and Youth Advocate. His awards include the Ontario Library Association’s Librarian of the Year and the prestigious Toronto Arts Award for Writing and Publishing. He has authored several other children’s books, a play, and regularly reviews and recommends children’s literature. Ken has served on the Siebert, Newbery and last year’s Caldecott committees.

The American Library Conference is being held at the Anaheim Convention Centre, and Second Story Press can be found in booth #2653.

It’s All About Us, a novel by Shelley Adina, brings out mixed emotions in me. So I guess I’ll start with the disclaimer. I’m a long, long way removed from high school crush days. Also, back when I was in high school we drank soda. If someone had offered me a mocha macchiato I would have thought he wanted to give me some kind of machete used for slicing coffee beans from their branches, perhaps.

And I was poor. So were all the other kids. This was back, even, before kids started getting their Nike’s stolen. Or their Air Jordans. (Whatever.) We wore ripped up elephant bell jeans with suede waffle stompers. And no one wanted to steal those puppies.

So here I am thirty-some years later and I’m reading a book about a rich girl at a boarding school full of rich kids. They drive expensive cars and they rub shoulders with stars. And our girl’s problem? The thing that is supposed to make me root for her?

She. . .uh. . .she wants to be popular.

Color me unsympathetic. And know that when I say the writing is compelling and the dialogue is great, I’m not saying that because I want to give the author a break. I don’t love the book, but the truth is that it’s very easy to read and the author is quite talented.

If you are a teen girl and you like reading about teen girls having crushes and longing for riches and beauty and popularity, and I suspect most teen girls do like to read about such things, then you’ll like this book.

Here’s an excerpt that will give you a glimpse of how well the dialogue flows and how fun this book is to read.

“Did it ever occur to you that the only fun those girls get is from making other people miserable?”

“That’s not true.” Not entirely. “The whole committee is working for a good cause. I’ll get community service credits. We need twenty hours every term, you know.”

Gillian sighed. “Missing the point.”

Don’t care. “Are you coming to lunch?”

The book is witty, and it moves fast. The author assumes her readers are not idiots and she doesn’t over explain, but she puts everything into context so that even if we’ve never heard of the designers she refers to, we understand the point she’s making.

Another good thing about the book, I think, is that the author is writing about things girls want to read about and she’s doing it from a Christian worldview. The publisher makes no bones about the fact that these books are the Christian versions of the Gossip Girl books. Well compare covers, for starters:

And then there’s this from the publisher:

Young Adult Fiction is Heating Up!

All About Us is sophisticated, edgy and relevant for today’s high school teens

That kind of language makes me want to rebel. Sophisticated, edgy, and relevant mean different things to different people. After reading the book did I find it sophisticated? Um. I think shallow might be a better word here. Edgy? Not for most teens, probably. Relevant? Well, if you’re super rich, and beautiful and have no real problems, maybe.

But the press release continues:

This fresh new series is sure to be a page turner for any girl who wants a book that is trendy, sophisticated, and relevant. Written in Adina’s realistic and quirky style, the books give readers a peek into the sometimes intimidating but always fascinating life of high school—with the added impact of a spiritual worldview.

Now this is where I’m torn. Yes, girls are reading gossip girl books and they are full of sex. Graphic, hot tub sex scenes and more, I’ve heard. And I do want girls to have an alternative to that. I do want someone to look at teen sex through Christian glasses and write a story about how Christian girls deal with sex. Because, let’s face it, girls, Christian or otherwise, are all thinking about sex these days. Unless you are an isolationist home schooler (in which case you aren’t reading this review) your daughters are thinking about sex and dreaming about the hot guy at school. My own daughter is home schooled and more naive than most and she hasn’t escaped the influence of our sexually preoccupied society. No, she is a regular girl with a crush of her own on a dorky kid at youth group that she thinks is cute and funny.

But here’s my problem with it’s all about us. It sets out to deliver a sex book with “the added impact of a spiritual worldview” and ends up not working as a sex book or as a Christian book or as a compelling story.

But I’ve carried on long enough today so I’ll get to my specific complaints tomorrow.

(go to part two)

No, you didn’t miss a post. We weren’t actually speaking of celebrity authors. It’s just one of my favorite gripes so . . . here we go again.

Kylie Minogue has apparently written a children’s book now. Don’t know her? Just plug her name into Google and look at the pictures that come up. What could this women possibly have to say to children? Use a condom?

I mean she seems to want to follow in Madonna’s g-string. And the article says that Madonna “has written five books for children so far, all of which contain strong moral messages and multiracial and denominational characters, as well as being beautifully illustrated.”

So I wouldn’t be surprised if Kylie is also putting out a moral message.

OK I’m sorry. Even people who don’t have a shred of self-respect may have something to say that others want to hear. So, seriously, what’s the book about? Well Puffin says it, “will appeal to little princesses everywhere who love to have fun” and that “little girls who dream of dressing up and going on stage” will enjoy it.

Excuse me but I think you meant to say little girls who dream of undressing and going on stage will enjoy it. Unless Kylie has broken one of the cardinal rules of writing and has written what she doesn’t know.

But go read the article. It gives a roundup of celebs who have written books, from directors to super models. It’s a very popular pastime, this writing of children’s books.

I’m with Herbie Brennan, who says:

“To my mind, if a celebrity writes a good book, I think that’s brilliant because the name means it will reach a wider audience than before. If it’s a bad book, I think the publisher should be ashamed of themselves, because then it’s just a commercial proposition.”

Except I don’t think the publishers should be ashamed for making money off of idiot consumers. I think they ought to be ashamed for putting out books written by amoral women. Why does anyone give Madonna the time of day? Why not just ignore her? Well, I know why men don’t ignore her. But why on earth would any mother introduce her daughter to this woman?

Georgiana Walsh has a daughter who is four and is “already a fan of both Madonna’s books and her music.” Yikes!

When Georgina Walsh, Alex’s mother, read ‘The English Roses’ with Alex last week, it brought up an unexpected issue.

“I think there’s always a big message in the Madonna books,” says Georgina. “‘The English Roses’ sparked this conversation about death and Alex is four years old! She said, ‘Are you going to die?’ and I said, no. Then she said, ‘but you’re going to get old and die.’ Death stopped us in the middle of reading for a good 10 minutes. I ended up promising I won’t die,” she says, laughing.

It sounds to me like the four-year-old is the smarter of the two. Still, the poor little thing doesn’t have much chance in life. Lord, have mercy. And I mean that as a serious prayer.