It has been a while since Sprinkles posted a review to this blog. So Marshmallow and Caramel agreed that she was due for another. This is that long-awaited review!
In October 2021, Sprinkles reviewed a few children’s books about gender identity. Then in October 2022, she reviewed children’s books about where babies come from. Today she reviews a handful of children’s books about puberty. In this particular context, the books are mainly split into boy books and girl books. As a result Sprinkles will review these in two separate posts. The review below is the first of two, about books written for girls.
This review is intended for parents and guardians.
Today I am writing about five books, each with its own strengths, intended to help young bunnies learn about the changes their bodies will go through during puberty. Puberty can be a challenging time for young bunnies. I think the main source of the challenge is the uncertainty of it all: the not knowing what is going on and not knowing whether what is going on is normal or not. These books aim to answer the most natural questions a young bunny may have as she begins to notice changes in her own body and those of her friends.
Unlike most of the books about gender identity and where babies come from that I have reviewed earlier, the books in this genre, that is, children’s books that aim to explain puberty, seem to come in two versions, one for the girls and one for the boys. There are of course exceptions, and I want to start this post with one such exception: the 1994 classic It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley, the team who also brought us It’s NOT The Stork: A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Families, and Friends and It’s SO Amazing: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families, which I have already written about in my post on books about where babies come from.
It’s Perfectly Normal is perhaps the most well-known book in this genre; it even has its own Wikipedia page! As readers can also see from that page, this is a somewhat controversial book as it depicts naked human bodies (in caricature) and certain sexual acts (also in caricature). It also introduces ideas of gender diversity (Chapter 5 is titled “Who You Are: Straight, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, transgender, +”) and discusses masturbation and abortion (Chapter 16: “Perfectly Normal: Masturbation” and Chapter 24: “Laws and Rulings: Abortion”, respectively). So even parents who might find these topics suitable for their young ones might wish to review the book on their own before sharing it with them.
All that being said, I found the book very informative and generous. The laws in the United States are in constant flux in relation to abortion, but other than that, most of the information in the book is up to date and seemed to me to be more than relevant to a young bunny growing into her own body. The generosity I am talking about is in the compassionate ways the book explains differences of opinion about controversial topics like abortion and LGBTQ+ issues, as well as the many ways people can form families by methods such as in-vitro fertilization and adoption. And the bird and the bee that we had met in the other books by Harris and Emberley apparently first made their debut in this book, and they are just the same funny odd couple they were in those other books. Their reactions to the illustrations as well as the content of the text reflect the many types of natural reactions a young bunny may have to them. The bird is often the more enthusiastic one, enthusiastic about learning everything there is to learn, while the bee is often the one who is a little overwhelmed with it all and wants to quit talking about it. Both are natural reactions, and I have seen them in my own children at times when these issues came up. I think therefore that their presence through the book might help a young bunny reading the book to feel seen.
It’s Perfectly Normal is organized into six parts: Part One is titled “What is Sex”, and it includes five introductory chapters (Chapters 1-5) on sex, reproduction, babies, gender identity, and sexual intercourse. Part II is titled “Our Bodies”, and includes four chapters (Chapters 6-9) on human bodies both female and male, and both inside and outside. Part Three is the central part for our review, and is titled “Puberty”. This is the longest part, with seven chapters (Chapters 10-16) on distinct changes to the female and the male body as they go through different stages of puberty, as well as other changes that impact feelings. Part Four is titled “Families and Babies” and made up of six chapters (Chapters 17-22) about pregnancy, birth, families, as well as taking care of babies and genetics. Part Five is the shortest, titled “Decisions”, and includes a chapter on planning (Chapter 23: “Planning Ahead: Postponement, Abstinence, and Birth Control”) and one on abortion (Chapter 24: “Laws and Rulings: Abortion”). The sixth and final part is titled “Staying Healthy” and consists of five chapters (chapters 25-29) and focuses on issues involving sexual health, sexual abuse, sexually transmitted diseases and making responsible choices.
Though written earlier than It’s NOT The Stork: A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Families, and Friends and It’s SO Amazing: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families, It’s Perfectly Normal is aimed for a more mature audience. If your young bunny has already read those two books, this book will be just the right next step for them. There is overlapping content but maybe that is fine for a young person facing so many new things in their lives. Some familiar content melded with some new stuff might just be the right way to avoid the overwhelm and actually make sense of what is going on.
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Next I would like to talk a bit about another series, published via the American Girl franchise, titled The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls. The first book in the series, now called The Care & Keeping of You 1: The Body Book for (Younger) Girls, was written by Valorie Lee Schaefer and illustrated by Josée Masse and originally published in 1998. I happened to get my paws on a copy of its 2018 edition.
The Care & Keeping of You 1: The Body Book for (Younger) Girls is a tall book, and each two-page spread focuses on a specific topic. The topics covered are basic body parts (ears, hair, eyes, mouth, skin, hands, underarms, breasts, legs, feet, pubic area), health topics (food, acne, sports safety, sleep troubles), and other important parts of growing up (braces, bras, periods, changing feelings). The tone is light and the illustrations are bright and cheery.
The Care & Keeping of You 1: The Body Book for (Younger) Girls is aimed mainly at tweens and written like a user’s manual. So it is not only about puberty, but rather about growing into one’s own, and knowing how to take care of one’s own body while doing so. The sections that probably explain the most significant changes in a tween girl’s body, about breasts and periods, are all surrounded by sections which cover topics that are a lot less emotionally overwhelming. So the book reads lightly, and the young one reading it will come away learning a lot and feeling comfortable and confident while doing so.
The second book in the series, The Care & Keeping of You 2: The Body Book for Older Girls, was first published in 2012. It is written by Cara Natterson, who served as a medical advisor for the first book, and illustrated by Josée Masse, the same artist who illustrated the first book. So you can definitely sense a continuity between the two books. If your kiddo has read the first book and found it helpful, this second one might be a good next step for her.
This second book can also stand on its own, as a book written for a slightly older crowd. It uses slightly smaller font, and the book itself is in a smaller format. And the girls in the cover of the first book also adorn the cover of this one, but now they are a bit older. In this book there are chapters on growing taller (or not), a more detailed discussion of the female body and physiology, some discussion of sleep and periods too. The content is organized into four main chunks: Back To Body Basics (about taking care of one’s changing body), Puberty Power (about periods, hormones, changing breasts, and body hair), Mental Health and More (about body image, exercise, mood swings), and Your Body, Your World (about family dynamics and peer pressure). Overall, this book does take the reader a bit more seriously and expects a bit more from them in return. There is also a Q&A section in each part where the author answers specific questions from readers.
Overall both these books can be helpful to a tween girl as she learns to take care of herself and understand the changes she is going through. As a package deal I think the two books cover a good amount of material, though perhaps they do not get into some of the more nuanced (and thus somewhat more controversial) topics that It’s Perfectly Normal goes into.
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The next book I want to write about is The Period Book: A Girl’s Guide to Growing Up, written by Karen Gravelle with Jennifer Gravelle Stratton, and illustrated by Debbie Palen.
The Period Book, first published in 1996, was written by Karen Gravelle with the help of her niece Jennifer. For the current edition from 2017, the authors consulted a few young people, too, to make it more up to date and relevant to today’s youngsters. Indeed the authorial voice of the book reads really like a friendly aunt or a good older sister chatting with you and answering some real questions you might want to ask her. And it is not only about periods, even though that might be what the title leads one to believe at first.
The Period Book is a small format book, written in purple font with purple illustrations. It is a quick and easy read, and goes through the standard physiological changes, hormonal and emotional changes, and changes in friendships. Its twelve chapters, titled “Changes of Puberty–Those You Can See”, “Changes of Puberty–Those You Can’t See”, “Your Period”, “What to Wear”, “Is This Normal?”, “Puberty Bummers and How to Handle Them”, “What If …?”, “Braces–The Non-Bummer”, “No Body is Perfect”, “Changing Friendships”, “Romantic Feelings”, and “Dealing with Harassment”, cover a good range of topics that will help a tween or a teen understand what is going on with her body while also getting some of her most salient questions answered. And since the author is a cool aunt, she will not laugh at your questions, so you can ask her anything. At least that is how this book feels. However keep in mind that such a cool aunt is probably not going to be too embarrassed to talk about how to put in a tampon and what vaginas look like, and there are indeed accompanying illustrations for these topics, too.
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The last book I want to talk about in this review is Celebrate Your Body (And Its Changes, Too!): A Body-Positive Guide for Girls 8+, written by Sonya Renee Taylor and illustrated by Cait Brennan.
Celebrate Your Body (And Its Changes, Too!), published in 2018, is the newest of the books I read for this blog post. At 156 pages, it is also the longest. But I did not feel like this would make it more of a burden to read. It is first of all very colorfully illustrated, and the author has a strong and supportive voice, once again kind of like that of an older sister. Her voice is maybe a bit less chill than the one you hear in The Period Book, but she does sound a lot more enthusiastic about supporting your young one in how she chooses to grow into her own body.
Celebrate Your Body is a newer book, and some of this shows in the way the author talks about gender identity and safe spaces. But it is all around sound advice, about understanding and taking care of one’s changing body, but also about alcohol and drugs, sleep, and changing friendships. The seven chapters of the book (“Fabulous You!”, “Your Changing Body”, “Breasts and Bras”, “Below your Belly Button”, “Your Period”, “Feeding and Fueling Your Body”, “Feelings and Friends”, and “Family and Other safe Spaces”) are well organized, and the young bunny who reads this book will leave it very well informed. Once again, there is an illustration of how to use a tampon, as well as a half-page vagina viewed straight ahead. These illustrations are definitely not indecent or sexually suggestive in any way, but of course families differ in how comfortable they are with these things. So if you are not willing to have your young bunny see these types of illustrations, this might not be the right book for you and your family. Otherwise, this is indeed a good book, and your young one might learn a lot and gain some confidence in her body along the way.
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Having read all these books, I am most excited by the fact that today’s young bunnies have these kinds of options. When I was a young bunny going through my own changes, I did not have many books to turn to. My family was supportive and open in many ways, but of course, sometimes a book is easier to learn from, and one might not want to ask all their questions to their family. And sometimes older folks do not know how to approach these issues themselves, and they are even more embarrassed than the younger folks.
For parents, these books offer an excellent opportunity. Introduce one or more of these to your tween or teen, and let them have at it. Or if you have that kind of relationship with them, you might want to read one of these books together. In any case, it is best to have the young ones have access to these books, and also make sure they know that you are open to a conversation while or after they read them. It is important for young bunnies to have access to accurate information, and reading any one of these books can be an empowering experience for a young bunny in her tweens or early teens. But of course, most importantly we want to have our eyes and ears and minds open for when they are ready to talk.
BookBunnies 