The Birds, The Bees, and You and Me by Olivia Hinebaugh
Published by Swoon Reads on January 22nd 2019
ISBN: 125019265X
Pages: 304
Goodreads

As the title suggests, this is a sex positive, activist laden story that covers all areas of safe sex practices including issues for the LGBTQIA teen.   Lacey Burke, seventeen-year- old violist, budding composer, and volunteer doula finds that the constraints of her abstinence-only sex education class at her high school demands her response.   Armed with a brochure she has created and the support of her mom who is a nurse, she provides complete sex education to girls who meet her in the bathroom with their questions.  As unexpected feelings among Lacey and her two best friends, Theo and Evita, start creating uncertainty, the school takes clear suspension action to her distribution of condoms and sex education brochures which jeopardizes the group’s college plans and friendships.   Unfortunately, the amount of safe sex discussions becomes information overload and hijacks the storyline.   The dialog between friends seemed unrealistically “sexually” educated at times and Lacey delivering her teen friends baby was over the top, with more information than necessary for an entertaining story.

Reviewed by Sheila Dube, Springvale Public Library