Literacy Matters Vol. 23 Winter 2023

Children’s and Young Adult Literature that Support Conversations about Consent, Bodily Autonomy, and Sexual Abuse

by Brittany Adams, Shelby Boehm, Kathleen Colantonio-Yurko, and Henry “Cody”Miller

Content Warning: The discussion of sexual abuse may make some readers uncomfortable.

surrounding sexual violence, children and young adults often internalize victim-blaming myths. For instance, in a study (Park, 2012) of middle schoolers reading Speak (Anderson, 1999), the researcher found that many female students voiced the belief that “sexual violence is the result of individual girls making poor decisions” (p. 202). Engaging with this issue head-on can help students shift their thinking and disrupt systems that allow sexual abuse to continue. This text set takes inspiration from our work (e.g., Adams, 2020; Adams et al., in press; Boehm et al., 2020; Colantonio-Yurko et al., 2018; Miller et al., in press) and the work of many others in this area (e.g., Alsup, 2003; Cleveland & Durand, 2014; Jackett, 2007; Malo-Juvera, 2014; Park, 2012; Ulaby, 2016). Decades of research demonstrate the value of literature for learning about sensitive social issues (e.g., Entenman et al., 2005; Johnson et al., 2018; Kuehl, 2021; Levin, 2007; Newstreet et al., 2019; Schenider, 2022), as it can provide a generative space for extending real-world experiences to support learners in taking emotional and mental risks, learning about warning signs and how to respond, and building empathy for victims without experiencing trauma first-hand (Gee, 2017). Such texts might also serve as bibliotherapy for victims of sexual abuse to support their naming and processing of traumatic experiences (Adams, 2020). To this end, the following selection of 16 books focuses on characters learning about bodily autonomy and consent and how to respond to unwanted sexual attention, including verbal harassment, unwanted sexual touching, and rape. Criteria used to select the featured texts include (1) fiction literature in the forms of novels and picture books, (2) racial, gender, and sexual diversity within character representation, (3) books for early childhood students and adolescents, and (4) representation of various experiences related to consent, bodily autonomy, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. The first six picture books were selected for elementary-level readers, the following five chapter books were selected for students in the middle grades, and the final five novels were selected for teenagers/ young adults. We see this guide as helping to facilitate discussion of • recognizing early warning signs (e.g., reading body language); • what is appropriate behavior and with whom; • identifying safe and unsafe feelings; • understanding the difference between safe and unsafe touch; • respecting body boundaries; • understanding the difference between secrets and surprises; • developing a safety network (i.e., when and where to go for help and what to do if the people you are turning to for help do not listen); • developing a plan for how to deal with inappropriate

Caregivers and educators have an obligation to protect minors by teaching them about body safety strategies that can help keep them safe from abuse and recognize the systems of power that reify pervasive sexual violence to ensure that they grow up to be assertive, confident adults. One in 10 girls and one in 50 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault at the hands of an adult (RAINN, n.d.), and rates of peer-on-peer sexual harassment and other forms of abuse range from 1 in 4 boys to up to 1 in 2 girls (Young et al., 2009). During the 2016-2017 academic school year, more than 30,000 incidences of sexual violence were reported (i.e., rape, attempted rape, threatened rape, fondling, taking indecent liberties, and child molestation; U.S. Department of Education, 2020). Further, other forms of oppression can increase rates of sexual abuse (Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, n.d.); youth of color (Boothe et al., 2014), homeless youth (Wong et al., 2016), LGBTQ+ youth (Mitchell et al., 2014), and youth with disabilities are more likely to experience sexual violence (Mueller-Johnson et al., 2014). The dearth of comprehensive K-12 sex education programs in the United States contributes to these dismal statistics. A recent study (Guttmacher Institute, 2021) identified only 11 states that require consent as a vital component of their K-12 sex education programs. Definitions and scope of consent within those state laws vary across state boundaries. Most states only require middle and high school students to learn about consent as part of comprehensive sex and health education programs (Naide, 2020). For our purposes, we turn to the National Sexuality Education Standards to define“consent”: “Informed, voluntary, and mutual agreement between people to engage in an activity. Consent cannot be given when an individual does not have the capacity or legal ability to consent” (Advocates for Youth et al., 2020, p. 61). The failure of schools to enact consent-informed sex education has real consequences for children and adolescents, with more than a 55% increase in recent years in the number of reports of sexual violence occurring in K-12 schools across the country (Jacobson, 2020). Spurred by a lack of commitment by states to implement consent informed sex education programs, this text set responds to calls from scholars (e.g., Rogers, 2017; Vasquez, 2014) to position texts as vehicles for making connections to our broader world to foster critical questioning; specifically, using literature to teach about and prevent sexual harassment and abuse. The use of such literature matters significantly in today’s classrooms, given the increased attention to sexual abuse brought on by the Me Too movement (Jacobs, 2018; North, 2019). Without informed adults to address critical issues

Literacy Matters Feature Article

behavior, including bribes and threats; and • dealing with feelings of guilt and shame.

Literacy Matters | Volume 22 • Winter 2023 | 7 |

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