By Haleigh Ehmsen-
The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta is set in Stonewood Heights, a small town where everyone knows everyone, and everyone knows everything. Ruth Ramsay, a single mother and a sex ed. teacher at the local high school, is asked to teach an “abstinence only” curriculum. She finds this very difficult because she doesn’t believe in it. She wants to educate the kids about safe sex. While struggling with the school board, she also finds herself struggling with her kids, who have decided that they want to go to church, after praying with their soccer coach, who Ruth seems to have some sort of attraction to.
This book is very enticing and talks about many issues that are pretty common, like: abstinence, praying with public groups, and even gay marriage. I’d rate this book about three and a half stars because I didn’t absolutely love it, but it was good.
