April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, otherwise known as #SAAM. April is also Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, or #SAAPM for short. Sexual Assault is an epidemic, one that crosses all countries, continents, genders, ages, ethnicities, and does not care about how much money you have or don't have, or what class you are or aren't. Here are a few statistics:
- 1 in 4 girls experience unwanted sexual assault, abuse, or rape before they turn 18.
- 1 in 6 boys experience unwanted sexual assault, abuse, or rape before they turn 18.
- Individuals who identify in the LGBTQIA categories experience even more unwanted sexual assault, abuse, or rape than those from heteronormative gender categories.
Survivors heal best in community. Books give survivors voice. Therefore, survivors need to find themselves represented by books that talk about their lived experiences and how to heal and recover from those lived experiences when they include trauma such as sexual assault.
I am also a survivor of sexual assault myself, and I needed books like these growing up, mostly because I had to find my way through the trauma to healing on my own. My family didn't know how to help, and I didn't trust counselors. Funny thing, I became one, and now I am helping other trauma survivors find their way out of the burning building of trauma and into the fresh air of healing and recovery.
To that end, I have created a curated list of #YAsurvivorBooks which I will share in increments of 15 books at a time. This list includes titles which discuss child abuse, incest, rape, human trafficking, and sexual assault. My goal for sharing this list is to help survivors and their loved ones find books that represent their lived experiences.
Please read, review, and share these books among your friends and family and loved ones, as it is very likely you know, or they know at least someone who could benefit from these books. Keep coming back each week for more titles and let's see how big this list grows.
In the USA, there are approximately 70 million survivors of sexual assault. In the UK, that number is just below 14 million survivors. Worldwide, that number is well over 100 million survivors. Will you help me change that number? Let's get it to go down, instead of climbing higher and higher.
List of #YAsurvivorBooks 16-30:
16. All the Rage, Courtney Summers
17. What We Saw, Aaron Hartzler
18. Stained, Cheryl Rainfield
19. The Mockingbirds, Daisy Whitney
20. Panic, Sharon M. Draper
21. Punch Like a Girl, Karen Krossing
22. I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This, Jacqueline Woodson
23. What Happens Next, Colleen Clayton
24. Because I Am Furniture, Thalia Chaltas
25. Where the Stars Still Shine, Trish Doller
26. Dime, E. R. Frank
27. Pointe, Brandy Colbert
28. Run the Game, Jason Myers
29. Bait, Alex Sanchez
30. Period.8, Chris Crutcher
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