On Tuesday we told you about this week being “Banned Books Week” if local libraries decide to celebrate it. While Iowa City is highlighting the week with a drag family storytime, even small-town libraries like the Sibley Library are celebrating it.
And why wouldn’t the Sibley Library support it? Sibley, after all, offers one of the more disturbing books. A book called “Sex Is a Funny Word.”
You can read descriptions and see pages from the book below (but be warned, some are disturbing).
Pages 34-38 cover the body and how bodies are like books. Students are asked to draw a picture of what their outside body looks like and what their inside feels like.
Pages 46-49 start with a character saying they would be naked all the time if they could.
“Some people love the feeling of being naked. When you are naked you can see and touch your body without clothes getting in the way,” the book states.
Students are then asked when they wear clothes and when it is OK to be naked.
“What are some things you like about being naked? What are some things you don’t like about it? Do you like the clothes you wear?”
Pages 57-67 include the following images:
This page tells students that learning about these body parts might make them want to see them on other people, but if someone has part of their body covered, it’s probably for a reason. And if they do want to learn and look they need to look in a book with drawings — like this one.
You can watch a review of the book below where the lady reviewing the book said it is a great puberty book. The book is created for especially young people 8-10.
“It’s a groundbreaking book because it is the first truly inclusive book for this age group,” the reviewer said.
Feel free to watch the review of the book, which gets into greater detail at about the three-minute mark.
Other excerpts of the book, according to The Marginalian, include:
“Most boys are born with a penis and scrotum, and most girls are born with a vulva, vagina, and clitoris.
But having a penis isn’t what makes you a boy. Having a vulva isn’t what makes you a girl.
The truth is much more interesting than that!”
…
“Maybe you’re called a boy but you know you’re a girl. You know how girls are treated and what they do. That’s how you want to be treated and what you want to do.
Maybe you’re called a girl but feel like a boy. You know how boys are treated and what they do. That’s how you want to be treated and what you want to do.
Maybe you aren’t sure, or don’t care that much. Maybe you feel like both. Maybe you just need some time to figure it out, without all the boy and girl stuff.
Because everyone’s bodies are different, all our feelings are different too.
Part of being a kid is learning what you like, what you don’t like, and who you are. That’s part of being a grown-up too. We never stop learning or changing.”
…
“Touching isn’t just something we do with other people. We also touch ourselves.
We touch ourselves all the time, in all kinds of places, for all kinds of reasons.
Touching yourself is one way to learn about yourself, your body, and your feelings.
You may have discovered that touching some parts of your body, especially the middle parts, can make you feel warm and tingly.
Grown-ups call this kind of touch masturbation.
Masturbation is when we touch ourselves, usually our middle parts, to get that warm and tingly feeling.”
