Ready for it

Popular Spanish YouTuber Chusita's larger-format sex guide is informal and informative. Bold orange emoji-style graphics and comic spreads speak directly to the teen audience, meeting them at various levels of experience. Advice and educational content are intended for the gender spectrum, with illustrations and text speaking to heterosexual and homosexual relationships. That said, the breezy nature of this book prevents it from more deeply exploring issues of sexuality and gender. While framed as a sex guide, the majority of the book covers broader topics that most teens will relate to in some capacity, such as relationships, crushes, and body positivity. Above all, Chusita preaches consent and assures teen readers that they are normal: their bodies, their urges, their thoughts, and the pace at which they choose to proceed. She's most frank when it comes to dispelling popular myths and misconceptions, as well as responding to viewers who had reached out via her YouTube channel with their concerns and questions. A reassuring, nonjudgmental guide that meets today's teens exactly where they are.--Jennifer Barnes Copyright 2019 Booklist

An exhaustive guide for teens about sex and relationships written by Spanish vlogger Chusita.From the start, readers are primed for a frank approach to the topics on offer. These include descriptions of basic anatomy, proper terminology related to sexual attraction and gender expression, and discussions about consent, emotional readiness, masturbation, and preventing STDs and pregnancy. The final sections address and explain sexual practices, fantasies, and sex toys. Each section is boldly headed with its subject and is briefly but clearly explored in a conversational tone. Highly stylized illustrations and short comic strips depict various trendy young people who appear relatively ethnically and gender diverse in pen-and-ink drawings that are washed in tones of black and red. These are eye-catching, lend a fashionable flair to the guide, and are refreshingly explicit in their presentation of sexual positions and body parts, but they don't completely reflect the reality of variances in body size, shape, and abilityfor example, there is no representation of teens who are overweight or who have a physical disability. Sidebars and stand-alone graphics include lists of slang, statistics, and questions posed by teens to Chusita; a short glossary is featured in the backmatter.Concise and easy to read, with advice that is sex-positive and straightforwardit's a shame the illustrations lack inclusivity. (Nonfiction. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.