ABSTRACT
Most love stories in young adult literature, whether realistic or romantic, are told from the girl's point of view. Novels that dealt with the sexual problems of young males were rare until recently. An early exception was Judy Blume's 1971 book Then Again, Maybe I Won't. In this story the thirteen-year-old protagonist is mortified by sudden erections and worries about nocturnal emissions. Novels that view sexual learning through the eyes of teenage boys have tended to feature older protagonists to focus on a more advanced set of anxieties. Contraception is a crucial adolescent learning that could be effectively taught in fiction. Techniques and devices could be described in action, fear of an internal exam and a diaphragm fitting could be allayed, and, most important, characters that young readers like and admire could be shown using birth control as an indispensable part of lovemaking.
