Relationships & Consent

Relationships & Consent is part of Crabtree’s “Our Values” series. This series is an eclectic mix of topics which claims to help students “appreciate the diversity of cultures and faiths of the people around them, [so] they will discover what it means to be part of a society”.
Relationships & Consent achieves this goal with some success. It is well-written but hampered by the some of the visual presentation decisions.

The material in Relationships & Consent is sensitively presented, and the content is well-chosen to be respectful and informative.

Romantic relationships can be between two people who identify anywhere on the gender spectrum.

The text is clear and supported by many colourful photographs. The photos include an appropriate age group and a diversity of ethnicity and gender. One omission is that there are no photos of young people with physical ability challenges.

Each topic is presented in a double-page spread. Chapters include: “Types of Relationships”, “What is Consent?”, “Recognizing Consent”, “What Makes a Relationship Healthy?”, “Emotions and Consent”, “Healthy Decisions”, “Respecting Privacy”, Relationships in Media”, and “Speaking Out”. Bullying, in person and online, is well-covered in the chapter, “Showing Respect”.

Our differences should be celebrated, not bullied.

Relationships & Consent follows the traditional nonfiction format with a table of contents, glossary, and index. Also included is a page titled “Think About It”. “Think About It” includes five questions or activities for the reader to reflect on individually or discuss with a group. This will provide students with the guidance to think about their own limits and responses to the content of Relationships & Consent.

Weaknesses:

The text and photos in Relationships & Consent are presented to look like torn pieces of paper. The result is messy. It looks like a poorly presented Grade 4 project. It is sometimes difficult to follow where you are supposed to look or read next. Some pages have as many as six different chunks. On page 10, in the chapter, “Recognizing Consent”, there is a photo of one man on his knees pointing his finger and apparently yelling at another man who is doing pushups. It seems out of context.

Conclusion:

Relationships and consent are very important and relevant topics to this age group (and every age). The written content of this book is well-chosen and well-written. It is a disservice to the author that the presentation is not more professional looking and reader-friendly.

Overall, I highly recommend Relationships & Consent because of the quality of the information in it. It will be useful for individual students to read on their own and when discussing this important topic with students in class.