A great intro to periods with clear explanations, a reassuring tone, and relatable stories.
This illustrated book for tween girls demystifies topics around menstruation with real-life stories.
Co-author Sommer founded the organization Grow & Know to promote puberty education around the globe. In her fourth book for early adolescents, she joins debut co-authors and Grow & Know researchers Schmitt, Hagstrom, and Gruer to create a work aimed at an American audience. The guide tells readers what to expect from their changing bodies—such as getting taller and growing breasts and additional hair—and how their emotions may feel like a roller coaster. This is followed by tips on good self-care, such as the need to use deodorant and/or antiperspirant. Further chapters go into detail about what happens to the body during menstruation, how to deal with issues such as leaks or cramps, and how to use products such as pads and tampons. In another chapter, eight girls from the United States tell the true stories of their first periods in their own words. Additional information includes “Period Myth Busters,” which identifies true and false beliefs, as well as a Q&A that addresses such questions as “Why does my period skip sometimes?” a chapter about boys (“So what’s going on in his body??”), and a glossary. The overall message is that puberty and menstruation are perfectly natural and normal. The relaxed, friendly tone will help allay young people’s worries even when it comes to anxious scenarios: “If a leak stains your clothing, don’t worry, it happens to everyone! Tie a shirt around your waist to cover the stain until you can change.” The book often advises asking an adult for help, but readers will most likely be especially interested in the gamut of personal-experience narratives, which can vary quite a bit; for example, some girls know what’s happening to them, while others think they’re terribly ill. Debut illustrator Scheffler enlivens the book with a cheerful, cartoon-art style depicting diverse characters.
A great intro to periods with clear explanations, a reassuring tone, and relatable stories.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 107
Publisher: Grow & Know INC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
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