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5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, August 9, 2007
This review is from: 101 Ways to Dance (Paperback)
101 WAYS TO DANCE is an amazing collection of short stories that each deal with a different aspect of teenage sexuality. The stories vary in length and tone, covering a vast array of topics that include everything from teen pregnancies, mental illness, and terminal cancer to struggling with coming out to friends and feeling inappropriate lust for cousins.
As is bound to happen with a collection, there were certain stories that I enjoyed more than others, but each one is brilliant in its own way. Some of my favorites include CHICKEN, which is less than two pages long and involves a game of chicken between two teenagers in a church basement, and the title story, 101 WAYS TO DANCE, which is just that: a very creative list of one-hundred-and-one ways to dance.
Kathy Stinson has created believable, likeable characters and realistic storylines that teenagers will be able to identify with, even if they have not had similar experiences. Each story is a gem, a refreshing coming-of-age tale, and I would highly encourage every teenager to go out and read this book, because it shows us that there truly are one-hundred-and-one (and many, many more) ways to dance.
Reviewed by: Andie Z.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Should be a part of teen sex-ed programs everywhere!, September 5, 2010
This review is from: 101 Ways to Dance (Paperback)
Readers of my reviews might think this is an unusual choice of book for me, but really, when you feel passionately about something, there comes a time to step outside the bounds of "usual" and take a chance on something that could be awesome.
Which is what I did. And I don't regret it one bit.
What this book is about isn't love, but lust, and all the associated feelings behind and it and reasons for it and the things that young people experiencing those feelings will actually do. It's a wonderful departure from all the books that present sex in a purely clinical way, or all the teen novels that only deal with sex and lust in the sense of characters wanting it but deciding, for the ultimate good, that they will wait because, well, teens just shouldn't have sex. Or the very opposite, portraying teens as little but horny people who don't know the meaning of the word "consequence".
Whether teens should or shouldn't get down and dirty wasn't the issue for this collection of short stories. It deals with teens wanting to, or at least wanting to explore aspects of their sexuality that many adults would rather avoid discussing with them. From heterosexuality, sexuality among those with disailities, homosexuality, and masturbation, this book protrays a wide variety of characters in diverse situations that feel, at the heart of it, so very real. They're not sanitized, they're not cardboard cutouts masquerading as people, and it's a treat to find a book that deals with teen sexuality so openly and honestly.
Finding a book that portrays positive sexuality for teens is more difficult than people may think. With stories ranging from sweet to bittersweet to fantastically erotic, this book should be in teen sex-ed programs across the country!
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