Bronwen Pardes’ book, Doing it Right: Making Smart, Safe and Satisfying Choices About Sex, is an example of a good piece of informative writing. Pardes’ “zesty” and “up-to-date”[1] informational approach to sexual education makes her book appealing to young adults who are searching for answers to their questions about sex. Pardes’ experiences, writing style, and organization of her book exemplify the characteristics, developmental needs, informational needs, and changing world of today’s teens.
Pardes provides a captivating cover for her readers that intrigue them before they open the book. The first three words of the title, “Doing it Right,” are captivating because it is in young adult terms. The title of the book sets the stage for “a reading level, vocabulary, and a tone of writing that are at a consistent level appropriate to the intended audience.”[2] The organization of the book also captivates its readers. It begins with background knowledge of the author. She gives her credentials and motivations for writing the book. The book then goes on to discuss what sex is, sexual development, sexual protection, ways to have sex, sexual orientation, masturbation, sexually transmitted diseases, unfamiliar sexual terms, orgasms, sexual abuse, and where readers can get more information. In each chapter she provides a question and answer section. The questions are from real young adults, who she has come in contact with. By writing in terms young adults can understand and organizing her book in a way the focuses around young adult questions, Bronwen Padres provides a book that is appropriate to the needs of its readers.
[1] Selection Criteria for Young Adult Resources, Suggestions for Evaluating Informative Nonfiction, INLS 530, 2008.
[2] Selection Criteria for Young Adult Resources, Suggestions for Evaluating Informative Nonfiction, INLS 530, 2008.
Dana McCullum
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I'm glad you commented on the age-appropriateness of the book's cover and introduction. To young adults (and adults, for that matter), these type of books can be incredibly daunting. By making sure the cover is neutral and modern-looking allows the book to appeal to both genders and attract their attention. Like you said, the title is someone perverse and surprising to the reader, drawing their attention to the topic without getting technical. I like how this is continued throughout the format in the rest of the book, making it visually ok for boys to read the section on girls, and vice versa.
I hear their voices:
Doing it Right. What kind of book is this? A hookey-dookey kama-sutra liberal instruction manual. I don’t want my kid reading this junk. Okay. The drawings. Straight-up. Scientific. Okay. The stuff about birth control. I’ll live. The…Now, this is just too much. Transgender, intersex. My kids really don’t need to be hearing about that kind of stuff. In our household, we’ve got male and female. Mamma goes to church in a dress. Daddy goes to church in a coat and die. I’m not going to mix up my kid. I’m not going to fill my kid’s head about all these crazy notions about some cultural construct of gender…
I see Dan:
A couple of days ago Dan pulled, oh so very discreetly, some kind of a sex book from the library shelf. Quietly, shoving the book under a pile of Spider Man Comics, Dan crept to a corner of the library and began reading Doing it Right.
I try to reconcile their impassioned speeches with the developmental needs of Dan. I try; I try; I stop.
I stop because I’m tired. I’m tired of letting the loudest mammas and most boisterous daddys dominate the discussion about sex education. I’m tired of perpetually flirting with a real discussion of sex. I’m tired of listening to a gym teacher stand in front of a room of middle school students equipped with nothing more than an abstinence based curriculum.
Okay. Look at the female genitalia. Soak it in. Soak it…Close your eyes. Presto. Look at the male…Enough of that. Let’s talk about STDs. Don’t have sex. You might get STDs. STDs are bad. Look at these pictures. Really, really bad. AIDS. People die. Die. Die because of sex. Any questions? Good. Go back to the gym.
Dana couldn’t be more right. “Pardes’ experiences, writing style, and organization of her book exemplify the characteristics, developmental needs, informational needs, and changing world of today’s teens….By writing in terms young adults can understand and organizing her book in a way the focuses around young adult questions, Bronwen Padres provides a book that is appropriate to the needs of its readers.”
If somebody’s got a problem with the content, with the age-appropriate but up-front discussions of all aspects of human sexuality (anal sex anyone?), well…Just because somebody makes a lot of noise, doesn’t mean I have to listen.
Post a Comment