Answering Teens; Tough Questions

More teenagers than ever turn to librarians and teachers to ask private questions they are too afraid to share with family and friends. This book offers any librarian a quick primer on talking with young adults about the tough and often controversial topics of sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence. You’ll have quick overviews on the issues themselves as well as tips for navigating these waters with teens.

Each chapter offers background information on a particular topic followed by real-world strategies for supporting teens who may ask for help, often indirectly. Chapters include sex, sexuality, homelessness, tattoos and piercing, dating violence, abuse, drugs and alcohol, emotional and mental health, and the juvenile justice system. Within these chapters, you’ll find answers to specific questions about maintaining online sexual health resources, creating passive health displays, working in a school or community with abstinence-only values and/or curriculum, creating positive atmospheres for healthy discussions, making the library a safe space for everyone, and maintaining teen privacy when other teens speculate about a certain situation – real strategies for the issues teenagers face every day. You’ll also learn how to develop protocol for all of the above situations, notice signs of abuse, report to the proper authorities, develop partnerships with agencies inside and outside the justice system, and provide much-needed mental health resources in a confidential way.

With a straightforward, conversational style, mk Eagle, YALSA blog manager and high school librarian in Holliston public schools in Massachusetts, gives you the tools to answer any question for teens to support their mental, physical, and emotional well-being.