A straightforward explanation of growth and changes in puberty aimed at girls approaching their teens.
A pediatrician who also serves as an online expert for several parenting sites offers sensible descriptions of and answers to common questions about body basics, physical, emotional and mental changes, and relationships with family and friends in this latest self-help title from the American Girl group. The target audience for this follow-up to The Care & Keeping of You (1998) is clearly the upper end of the company’s publishing focus (ages 8-12), but the information provided about puberty is generally similar to that in the previous title, which covered girls’ good health more broadly. There are clear instructions for breast self-examination and for inserting a tampon. (Shaving one’s legs and determining bra size return from the earlier book.) The text does not include sexual feelings among its set of physical and emotional changes. In the diagram of the vagina, the clitoris is shown but not labeled. Parents will be particularly pleased by the author’s repeated reminder that parental rules rule. Preteen readers will appreciate the positive, personal tone. Sure to be welcomed, and especially useful for families and collections where the more explicit It’s So Amazing, by Robie Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley (1999) would be unacceptable. (Nonfiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-60958-042-1
Page Count: 103
Publisher: American Girl
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
An inviting guide for children (and their parents) to cultivating happiness and helping others.
An illustrated manual focuses on seizing happiness.
McCloud and illustrator Weber reissue on its 10th anniversary the sequel to their 2006 book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? The work lays out three rules for readers—children as well as adults—to find happiness in their lives. All three revolve around the author’s concept of people having buckets they can either fill for themselves or others. Rule 1: Be a bucket filler. “Every time you say or do something caring or thoughtful, you add good thoughts and feelings to someone’s bucket,” McCloud writes, adding a crucial detail: “This makes your bucket fuller.” Rule 2 stems directly from this: Don’t dip into buckets, your own or others, because “while bucket filling adds good stuff to buckets, bucket dipping takes the good stuff out.” And Rule 3 is a bit counterintuitive: Use the “lid” on your bucket, because “if you haven’t learned how to stop others from dipping into your bucket, how will your bucket ever stay filled?” In all cases, the author elaborates on the rule in question, giving dozens of variations and examples of how it applies in everyday life. Opportunities to fill buckets abound. As McCloud points out, every instance of simple kindness helps to fill buckets. And likewise, dipping into buckets can be common: Are you complaining? Are you selfish? The author’s valuable reminder throughout this section is that engaging in these kinds of dipping behaviors depletes your own bucket—and ultimately diminishes your happiness. The section on the third rule—being aware of the lid on your bucket—is the book’s most intriguing and nuanced part, assuring readers that using their lids isn’t an act of selfishness but quite the opposite. The manual, featuring Weber’s colorful images, will be illuminating to children trying to figure out their responsibilities to others—and will clarify the thinking of adults as well.
An inviting guide for children (and their parents) to cultivating happiness and helping others.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9960999-9-8
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Bucket Fillosophy
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Imperfect but potentially helpful.
A mental health guide for early-adolescent concerns.
While many mental health guides for the age group extol the mind-body connection, emphasizing sleep, a healthy diet, and exercise to ward off anxiety, this book goes beyond these principles to explore ways to reshape negative thoughts into more positive ones. Assembled by a team at the London-based self-help publisher, the conversational text is divided into chapters on kid-relevant topics. The first and lengthiest chapter considers parents, such as why they are annoying and don’t always follow their own rules. Through real-world scenarios, examples from literature, and a scattering of art reproductions (all with White subjects and mostly European in origin), the authors ask readers to see things from a different perspective—in this first chapter, to consider their parents as adults who are fussy out of love and want good lives for their children. Subsequent chapters focus on screen time, bullying, anger, friendship, divorce, body image, the pressures of gender norms, and more related topics. In each chapter, important questions or ideas, such as “Gender doesn’t say what you are supposed to be like,” are highlighted; numerous chapters also include space for self-reflection. Stewart’s friendly, full-color illustrations are consciously diverse in representation of race and family structure. Intermittent Briticisms will not deter readers, but the text does stereotype homeless people in one instance and at the same time persistently uses the term “addiction” instead of “substance-use disorder,” and an anti-perfectionism exercise strews words such as “twits,” “idiots,” and “stupid” about liberally.
Imperfect but potentially helpful. (Nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-912891-19-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: School of Life
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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