Explicit sexuality is fine,
too, but should have an
educational component — whether about the awkwardness of one's «first time» (like in Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas, when narrator Steve and his girlfriend fumble through a first sexual encounter), about what being a sexual person feels like (like Norah's erotically charged feelings of desire for Nick when they're alone in a hotel ice room in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan) or even about how to reclaim a sense of self as a survivor of sexual violence (like Melinda does after being raped in Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson).