Teens: Not All Have Been There And Done That

Remember Ralph? Oh, you remember him. One of the “members” of the gang in Judy Blume’s Forever? C’mon, you remember him — just think about it a little longer. Ralph. OH FOR CHRISSAKE HE’S THE PENIS, REMEMBER?!

There. We knew you remembered.

Like many young things, FBLA got its virgin, um, feet wet by reading Judy Blume’s instructional tales of awkward teenage sexuality.

Well, if Borders has anything to do with, young adults these days are going to have to rely on our old pages-stuck-together Blume books to get their vicarious freak on. Jessa Crispin reveals that Borders won’t carry Aury Wallington’s debut novel, Pop! — and perhaps other YA books that contain sexual content.

Wallington is particularly bummed — not just because this will greatly hurt her sales, but because, she says, “There are so many contemporary young-adult novels that trivialize teen sex, where the characters are so glib and sophisticated that sexual intimacy seems like no big deal, and sex has few or no physical or emotional consequences, as opposed to the awkward, confusing struggle that most real teenagers go through, which I tried to capture honestly in my book.”

If you can’t do anything about the fact that Wallington’s been banned while Borders sells Truly Tasteless Jokes Vol. 1-10 (we’re not making that up, one of us went out and checked during lunch), at least you could offer Wallington condolences in person at the book party mediabistro’s throwing her at the Geisha House on Nov. 6.

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