Publication Alert! Sex Ed: a sexual health primer for adolescents and young adults
sexed is now available for $3.00 at the Kindle store at amazon.com on March 1, 2012. The Nook store at Barnes & Noble now has the book as well (March 5, 2012) as does the Google Play Store (formerly Android Market).
Sex Ed: a sexual health primer for teens and young adults is a basic sex education text aimed at providing a thorough but concise preparation for the teenage sexual experience in America. The book stresses the highly individual and personal nature of decisions about sex and consistently promotes respect for all positions, from abstinence to promiscuity, heterosexuality to homosexuality, and many points in between.
Please be aware that as a sex education book, there are descriptions of human reproductive anatomy as well as different kinds of sexual activity. [Warning: editor is jumping on soapbox] You might thing that is sort of a “Duh” statement, but some so-called sex education courses do not describe these things apparently on the theory that “ignorance is bliss” is better than “forewarned is forearmed”. The simple fact of the matter is that abstinence-only sex “education” that does not actually discuss anything to do with sex for fear that it might entice someone into it, does not work. Deciding whether or not to have sex is too big a decision to make without as much information as possible, no matter which way you decide. [OK, editor now off soapbox.]
If you are a high school health, sex ed, or biology teacher and would like to use this as a textbook, but certain sections would not be fall within your school system’s guidelines, please feel free to contact us about customizing a “school-safe” version.
Finally, here is the rough Table of Contents:
1. Introduction.
2. Relationships.
3. The Sexual Body.
4. Pregnancy: When Sperm meets Egg.
5. Contraception.
6. Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
7. Experimenting On Your Own.
8. Consent
9. Who Do You Love?
10. Brain and Body: The Question of Gender
11. Sex
13. NOT all you need to know.
Online Resources
7 Comments
FYI, if you just search for “sex ed kindle” on the amazon.com website, you will probably get at least a couple pages of book covers with racy lingerie and lots of skin before you get to this book! You are forewarned! :-)
[…] Love this. This week’s wrap-up sponsored by Sex Ed: a Sexual Health Primer for teens/adolescents that covers everything from body image to STD’s to sex itself. I haven’t finished the whole thing but I wish I’d had it when I was 15. Plus, it’s crazy cheap. Check it out here. […]
Do you think the book would be appropriate for a 13yo who is just hitting puberty and having sexual thoughts and feeling curious? Or is it geared more for high school or college students?
I’m not entirely sure how to answer this, as every family deals with how/when to talk about sex with their teen a little differently. I honestly think that more information (as long as it’s factually correct) is better, and is useful as soon as a young person is having thoughts about sex, even if she or he is not remotely considering acting upon them. As far as this book is concerned, it does quite frankly talk about details that even include the how-to “mechanics” of sexual intercourse, but it is not particularly elaborate. Further, the book is not illustrated, and is hopefully less casually titillating to adolescents. Please feel free to email me (info@axopub.com or sexed@axopub.com) or post here if you have any further questions.
I bought this and read it last night, with the intention of passing it along to my 15 year old boys. One of them told me yesterday that he was thinking about dating, but wanted to put it off because he was worried about balancing his friends and a girlfriend. The first chapters spoke directly to things to consider about dating, and I liked that. I liked the general approach to sex as well, especially the message that sex is not shameful. However, there were a couple parts that were obviously written toward female readers that felt a little…mocking, maybe, toward boys. I’m not sure the word I’m looking for, but I cringed a little as I imagined my sons reading those parts. As a woman, I agree that there has been a lot of “that’s just how men are” excuses made for men, and we *should* feel that we can confront that with confidence if we’re ever in a situation where we feel pushed, and I agree with the treatment of those issues. Two passages specifically struck me, the one at the end of paragraph 1 of The Sexual Body, “…be prepared for the sometimes inexplicably moronic behavior from the boys you date,” and the bit under “Contraception” about threatening to kick a male partner in the balls if he refuses to use a condom. The rest of the book is very honest and information-based, yet conversational, and these parts just kind of jumped out at me as being somewhat incongruous with the tone of the book as a whole. I understand the sentiments behind both phrases, and the need to help women and girls feel empowered in their sexuality, but as a mom of boys, trying to help *them* navigate this time, as I read those, I wondered if it might make them feel even more uncertain, wondering if that’s what girls really think of them. I will still let my boys read this book, because I do agree with the presentation on the whole. Lots of great information, presented fairly easily. I would also consider it for my 12-yr-old son.
Thanks for the comment. Actually, we had a discussion about that very line, and a few other places that might be considered slightly biased against boys. However, the male copy-editors (both in their twenties and both educators) thought that guys who are at the age that would be reading this book wouldn’t be offended and maybe get the *very important* point across a little more forcefully. But we’ll certainly keep your viewpoint in mind and revisit the issue when we make revisions/corrections to the book. You may have noticed that we tried pretty hard to keep it gender-neutral, but you are correct in that there are clearly times when we came down a bit hard on “typical” guy behavior. Thank you very much for taking the time to give us your input – it is extremely valuable to us.
p.s. my wife, who also did a read-through of the book, gave me the “I told you so” look when I mentioned your comment to her! :-)
Is the book only available as an E-book?
Yes, at this time the book is only available as an ebook. We are looking into possible print-on-demand options, but have not settled on a printer yet.