Conversational text, lively design, and photos of a person of color make this growing-up guide stand out in a crowded field.
A circus artist offers tips for girls navigating puberty, from managing self-consciousness to staying safe.
Ibrahim, who grew up in Australia and now lives and performs in England as the leader of a hula-hoop troupe, provides a chatty, intimate introduction for preteens. In short chapters, she talks about physical details (shapes, sizes, and body parts, including Erkas’ clever cut-paper illustrations of a variety of vulvas); periods and how to manage them; pee and poop; hair and its removal; bras; perspiration; sleep; eating; exercise; meditation; style; gender identity and expression; crushes; moods; and more. This wide-ranging package of advice stands out for its personal stories. The author shares her own embarrassing moments: wetting her pants; menstrual leaks; a yeast infection; chafed thighs. The takeaway for readers is that this kind of thing happens to everyone, but you can get over it. The illustrations include photos of the author, a dark-skinned woman, including then-and-now pictures and one in which half her face is made up and half is natural, a striking demonstration of the twin magic of makeup and Photoshop in the virtual world. While American readers may not be familiar with this Guinness World Record–holding hula-hoop champion, they will certainly recognize and share her preteen concerns.
Conversational text, lively design, and photos of a person of color make this growing-up guide stand out in a crowded field. (Nonfiction. 8-13)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-283943-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy.
Through the author’s own childhood diary entries, a seventh grader details her inner life before and after 9/11.
Alyssa’s diary entries start in September 2000, in the first week of her seventh grade year. She’s 11 and dealing with typical preteen concerns—popularity and anxiety about grades—along with other things more particular to her own life. She’s shuffling between Queens and Manhattan to share time between her divorced parents and struggling with thick facial hair and classmates who make her feel like she’s “not a whole person” due to her mixed White and Puerto Rican heritage. Alyssa is endlessly earnest and awkward as she works up the courage to talk to her crush, Alejandro; gushes about her dreams of becoming a shoe designer; and tries to solve her burgeoning unibrow problem. The diaries also have a darker side, as a sense of impending doom builds as the entries approach 9/11, especially because Alyssa’s father works in finance in the World Trade Center. As a number of the diary entries are taken directly from the author’s originals, they effortlessly capture the loud, confusing feelings middle school brings out. The artwork, in its muted but effective periwinkle tones, lends a satisfying layer to the diary’s accessible and delightful format.
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 8-13)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-77427-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevieand Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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