Welcome to Your Period
Empowering, educational, gender-inclusive primer on periods.
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this book.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Welcome to Your Period, by Yumi Stynes and Dr. Melissa Kang, is a guide for preteens and teens all about periods. Full of accurate, gender-inclusive information about menstruation, this book has a reassuring, shame-free conversational tone that will appeal to preteens and teens. Topics include: the basics, getting ready for your first period, managing and tracking your cycle, period challenges, hygiene, puberty, and so on. Topics that might surprise readers and parents include managing not-so-open parents, how to be a good ally for non-bleeders, gender identity, environmental impact of menstrual products, and periods and sex. The "Periods and Sex" chapter acknowledges that readers might one day have sex, though it's not defined or described. A few pictures feature full or partial nudity in nonsexual contexts (showering, etc.). Language is mild; "kick ass" is used one time. The book is also available in a Spanish, titled ¡Hola menstruación!
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What's the Story?
WELCOME TO YOUR PERIOD opens with an authors' note about how to use the guide (anyway you like). The opening chapters cover what a period is, who gets them, when it starts and how long it lasts, how to prepare for, celebrate, and manage your period once it comes, and so on. Later chapters discuss "period challenges" like pain, emotions, heavy flows, etc. as well as medical conditions like uterine fibroids, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a condition that affects a woman's hormone levels. Throughout the book, "Ask Dr. Melissa" sections include questions from preteens and teens and answers from the author. Text boxes feature supplemental text: Black ones show insights from the authors lives, red boxes have quotes from teens, and purple boxes explain and define chapter terms and concepts. End pages include a "period boss pledge," a graphically arranged glossary, snappy slogans for "period pride," and acknowledgements.
Is It Any Good?
This cheerful, information-packed guide to having a period is like curling up on the couch with a cool auntie and getting all the goods about menstruation. Welcome to Your Period also covers ample and sometimes surprising ground, including interesting and useful topics that aren't often seen in more general books about puberty. Jenny Latham's bright, often silly pictures coupled with a clever, attractive layout that varies longer text with text boxes and subsections will engage readers at different levels.
What really sets this book apart is the authors' attention to their audience. Stynes and Kang use gender-inclusive language like "most adolescents" and "people with uteruses" and illustrations include gender-nonspecific young people. Don't miss the awesome end pages, which include a well-designed, teen-friendly glossary, an empowering "period boss" pledge, and snappy slogans to build period pride, like "Anything you can do, I can do bleeding!" This comprehensive guide is highly recommended for any kid with a uterus and their loved ones.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what sections or topics in Welcome to Your Period you're comfortable talking about with one another. What are some things you might not want to talk about with your loved ones? Who (or where) else are you comfortable going to for accurate, safe information? (Discuss internet safety, if applicable.)
How does this book differ from books about bodies, puberty, and sex? Is this book all about periods useful to you? Why or why not?
What are some sections that surprised you? What did they make you think about or appreciate?
Book Details
- Authors: Yumi Stynes, Dr. Melissa Kang
- Illustrator: Jenny Latham
- Genre: Body Awareness
- Topics: Activism, High School, Middle School
- Book type: Non-Fiction
- Publisher: Walker Books U.S.
- Publication date: January 12, 2021
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 10 - 14
- Number of pages: 176
- Available on: Paperback, Nook, Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: April 2, 2021
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