Girl Stuff: A Survival Guide to Growing Up - Hardcover

Blackstone, Margaret; Guest, Elissa Haden

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152018301 ISBN 13: 9780152018306

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000

Synopsis

This in-depth question-and-answer book offers an informative, fact-filled guide about the physical and psychological changes girls face as they become adolescents.

About this title

About the Author

Margaret Blackstone has written picture books as well as medical and parenting reference books. She lives in New York City.

Elissa Haden Guest is the author of several young adult novels and also writes screenplays. She lives in San Francisco, California.

Reviews

Grade 5-8-This resource for girls approaching puberty falls between Mavis Jukes's popular Growing Up (1998) and her It's a Girl Thing (1996, both Knopf), broadly covering female physical, emotional, and social development and sexuality. By covering such a wide range of topics in a compact book, the authors don't go into extensive detail in any particular area, but do an admirable job touching on a plethora of subjects of interest to this audience. Much of the information is shared by pairing frank, realistic questions that readers might ask with accurate, straightforward answers packed with facts. Topics include body hair and odor, nutrition and eating disorders, menstruation, friendship, peer pressure, stress, and alternative medicine. The chapter devoted to acne and skin care is filled with practical, safe, and effective techniques for dealing with related problems. Relationships, sexual identity, and birth control are also discussed but in less detail. Black-and-white spot drawings appear throughout. The accessible format, attractive design, and chatty narrative make this a worthy addition to the girls' development canon.
Katie O'Dell, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Conversational, nonjudgmental, accurate, practical, and broad in scope, this title gives girls an idea of what they can expect, physically and emotionally, as they become young women. Targeted to a younger audience than Lynda Madaras' titles, this book contains comparable information on the physical changes, for girls and boys, that take place with puberty. In the one section that feels clinical and less kid-accessible, the authors discuss the mechanics of sex and its emotional ramifications, birth control, homosexuality, and sexually transmitted diseases. But most of the book concentrates on such preteen concerns as body hair, acne, choosing a bra, menstruation, changing relationships, peer groups, and stress. Good health, safety, and emotional well-being are emphasized throughout, with frequent admonitions to discuss problems with a trusted adult. Some readers, however, might find the occasional editorial "we" intrusive. The cartoon-style illustrations by Barbara Pollak are hip and racially balanced, although the labels on some diagrams are difficult to read. Solid bibliographies for teens and parents are included, as is a list of organizations. Catherine Andronik
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152018301
• ISBN 13: 9780152018306
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Pollak Barbara
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 170