Booklist

“More than 700,000 girls become pregnant each year; the U.S. teen birthrate is higher than in all other industrialized countries, and tens of thousands of young people have been infected by STDs.” Drawing on a wide range of primary sources––from the Mayo Clinic and Yale University to Seventeen magazine and students’ websites––this title in the Compact Research: Teenage Problems series confronts today’s urgent, controversial issues; provides detailed information about both abstinence and contraception; and debates what should be taught in sex education, including the role of religious values. With lots of individual profiles, subheads, and feature boxes, the spacious book design will encourage browsers, who will find the need for sex ed for nonheterosexual teens, and much more. With the current hot debates about access to contraception, this is a great title for group discussion, for adults, too. The detailed back pages include key advocacy groups. — Hazel Rochman