Book about relationships and sex

[midgie]

Hi, I'm looking for a book about relationships and sex for my 16yr old daughter. She's just started her first "serious" relationship and I feel she would benefit from a book about it all....not the "birds and bees" type or "preteen this is my body" book, but a good book for older teens to navigate round the topic. She's quite private and shy so not open to talking to folk she knows .... too icky !!!
Let me know your recommendations...many thanks x

She will have had plenty of lessons in school about this as part of PHSE.
What do you think she needs to know? If it's contraception/safe sex then just talk to her. But if she has been through the average school education she should know all this.

Beartown. YA fiction that provides a lot of food for thought but is not too heavy.

If it's got as far at her being 16 and in a relationship I'm not sure she'll read a book you offer? Perhaps that's just my DD though. You might have missed that boat hy a couple of years.

You could try something like Consent - New Rules though?

To be honest at 16 I'd think she's past those types of books. At that age I was reading adult novels to make sense of relationships. If it helps, my dad gave me The Tenant if Wildfell Hall at 16 as a guide to choosing wisely 🤣

That's brilliant!

As much as she finds icky you do need a conversation about repeated consent, contraception and what would she do if she found herself pregnant. Would she have money to buy a pregnancy test? Would she come to you? Does she know the difference between medical and surgical abortion? Would she want to keep the baby? Does she know how much this would cost and how much money she would be able to claim benefits wise? These are valid concerns and I had the same talks with my sons about this too.

Many an adult has found themselves with an unplanned pregnancy, teenagers are more likely to not use contraception effectively.

We watched TV shows and discussed both friendships and relationships, both positive and negative.

not a book, but something that’s actually really accessible and relatable is an app called We are luna. got the short-term version for dd13 and love that it covers sex and sexual health (very age appropriate writing) along with other female health topics.
So many of the articles on there are things i wish i’d learned in school back in the day, and not sure they talk about much nowadays if i'm being honest

How about Judy Blume's Forever? It's a teen novel about a girl and her first serious boyfriend. It covers a lot of the physical realities of sex, but also things like waiting until you're ready, and discovering that it's not "forever" after all. It's quite an old book (1970s I think), but a classic.

We're huge fans of luna too – super up to date and they keep their finger on the pulse with the big topics in teen communities!

Aside from that the Georgia Nicholson series is a favourite of DD (though granted this is more lighthearted, less educational) and Judy Blume (though this has got some dated references).