Title: If You Loved Me

Author: Marilyn Reynolds.  

Publisher and year:New Wind Publishing, 2014

• This book is about a high school student and her long-term boyfriend. The main character, Lauren, is working through life as a teenager and experiencing pressure from her boyfriend to have sex. This book covers topics from sex, relationships, drugs, race, and dealing with all of those at one time. This is the best choice book to use in the classroom, I think, because it covers many health-related concepts that students will face in the near future. It is also based on a student that will be close in age with my students, so they will be able to make connections to the book easier.  

• The National Health Education Standards:
  • Standard 2: Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology, and other factors on behavior health.
  • Standard 5: Students will demonstrate the ability to use decision-making skills to enhance health. 

• Core Integration:
  • I would use this book in a language arts lesson with my students. I would use some common terms throughout the book and integrate them onto our vocabulary list. The book has many health-related terms throughout it that would be important for the students to know. This would work well for grades 6-8.
  • Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.