Everything a Girl Needs to Know about Her Periods
Gr. 5-9. This small, square book offers a breezy overview of menstruation. A few cursory introductory spreads review body changes girls can expect during puberty. The majority of the book, though, focuses on the menstrual cycle, offering a description, day by day, of what many young women experience over a month's time. It's disappointing that a book designed to inform and reassure girls features only stylized illustrations of supermodel-glamorous young women with idealized Barbie physiques. The diagrams that accompany the text are also weak, and the book's interactive cover, with a movable wheel of period facts and a foldout calendar, isn't ideal for library circulation. But Feinmann encourages readers to become familiar with their bodies not only during their periods but also throughout the month, and she includes some interesting, rarely encountered facts: gums and mouth tissues may be more sensitive just before menstruation, for example. Younger girls with similar questions on the topic will want Lynda Madaras' excellentReady, Set, Grow![BKL O 1 03].Gillian EngbergCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved