My Little Red Book [Hardcover]

Rachel Kauder Nalebuff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 2009

MY LITTLE RED BOOK is an anthology of stories about first periods, collected from women of all ages from around the world. The accounts range from light-hearted (the editor got hers while water skiing in a yellow bathing suit) to heart-stopping (a first period discovered just as one girl was about to be strip-searched by the Nazis). The contributors include well-known women writers (Meg Cabot, Erica Jong, Gloria Steinem, Cecily von Ziegesar), alongside today's teens. And while the authors differ in race, faith, or cultural background, their stories share a common bond: they are all accessible, deeply honest, and highly informative. Whatever a girl experiences or expects, she'll find stories that speak to her thoughts and feelings.

Ultimately, MY LITTLE READ BOOK is more than a collection of stories. It is a call for a change in attitude, for a new way of seeing periods. In a time when the taboo around menstruation seems to be one of the few left standing, it makes a difficult subject easier to talk about, and helps girls feel proud instead of embarrassed or ashamed. By revealing what it feels like to undergo this experience first hand, and giving women the chance to explain their feelings in their own words, it aims to provide support, entertainment, and a starting point for discussion for mothers and daughters everywhere. It is a book every girl should have. Period.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These brief, engaging and oh-so-revealing anecdotes (90 in all) about first-time periods are written by a vast array of authors, professionals and youth. Edited by a freshman at Yale with a global mission (the Do More section at the back lists women's health and reproductive-rights charities), and modeled wittily on Chairman Mao's Little Red Book, these short essays tenderly cover the gamut of grief and embarrassment, joy and disappointment that accompanies the onslaught of menses, written by women from ages 15 to 101. Mostly, these authors concur that Mom didn't tell us much; we didn't expect the big moment even if we had been prompted by reading Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret; and suddenly becoming a woman proved rather more irritating than momentous. These accounts are touching and brave—The Curse, 1939, in which Lola Gerhard writes of starting to bleed cluelessly in the orphanage where she lived and being simply handed a big bandage and a belt (That was it for sex education); enduring the Old World ritual of being slapped by one's mother or ostracized, as one Indian author writes in Locked in a Room with Dosai, 1962; a more enthusiastic reaction by feminist mothers. Gloria Steinem's reprinted If Men Could Menstruate (1978) acts as a fulcrum, while others determined to break the silence rage, reminisce and resolve to banish the shame for their own daughters. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—After finishing these recollections by women of their first menstrual period, readers cannot help but be struck by three things: what a defining moment it was, how far society has come, and how often Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (Yearling, 1970) is mentioned as a source of information and comfort. The 18-year-old editor recounts her story of her 12-year-old self caught unaware while waterskiing and dropped off, by her embarrassed grandfather, at a pharmacy where she found herself searching for sanitary products in an aisle featuring incontinence supplies. The women queried are as well known as Erika Jong and as little known as Nalebuff's younger sister. The earliest recollection is Henrietta Wittenberg's, remembering in her 100th year, of her worry in 1916 about sitting on a man's lap. The most recent story, from 2008, is Jacquelyn Mitchard's memory of getting the "curse" and her contrastingly comforting words to her sixth-grade daughter. Some memories are magical (snorkeling with a dolphin in the Caribbean Sea); some are heart wrenching (a Holocaust survivor's escape from a Nazi strip search); others embarrassing at the time but humorous in retrospect. For most female readers, the stories will be poignantly familiar. The subject index is particularly informative and includes YA authors and "Unusual Customs." A glossary of euphemisms is fun and enlightening, and the bibliography contains health resources, fiction and nonfiction, and informative Web sites.—Jackie Gropman, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library System, Fairfax, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Twelve; First Edition edition (February 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446546364
• ISBN-13: 978-0446546362
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #421,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Doorway February 22, 2009

By Desirea J. Rodgers

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I started reading MLRB last night and could not put it down! Actually, I did have to put it down after a couple of hours to go to a friend's birthday gathering. I met my friend and several other girlfriends at a coffee shop. Soon after we sat down, I began to tell them about the book -- they were so intrigued and it began a beautiful discussion on first-period stories that lead into puberty and eventually how we feel about our bodies today. I then went home and showed my husband and a male friend of ours and that led to an open discussion about what it is like for young girls growing up and eventually led into how we will talk with our daughter in years to come. I have to say, I found both my husband and our friend reading the book throughout the night, they would even read sections of the book aloud. I never thought I would sit in a room with two men while we laughed with an eleven year old girl as she kept her "secret" and then were deeply touched by her courage surrounding her fist period. This book is another door opening on issues of sexuality, womanhood, shame, and value of girls and women that not only speaks to girls and women but to men as well.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Talk More February 21, 2009

By Deborah Freedman

Format:Hardcover

Books by Robie Harris and others are, thankfully, available on shelves to ably help parents explain and children understand the the birds and the bees; they are necessary, medically accurate, and attentive to the feelings of children as their bodies grow and change. But... if you were a twelve year old girl and full of questions you were too embarrassed to ask anyone, would you be all that eager to read those books, even if they were immediately accessible, and had very conscientiously been given to you by an adult you love and trust? Maybe. It would be a good thing if you did. But I think that stories are what we crave. And that twelve year old girls would much rather read ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME MARGARET. Or, MY LITTLE RED BOOK - a collection of stories from girls and women of all ages from all over the world, about their first periods.

Of course twelve year old girls are not necessarily the only audience for this book, but I came away feeling that they are the ones who would relish it the most. It's the real scoop, as though told to you by your best girlfriends, your mom, your grandmother. Because the honest stories are both all the same and all different, they are reassuring. And all are stitched together and edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, eighteen at the time the book was written, whose friendly and sincere teenage voice enhances the open tone of the book. And while the stories themselves are compelling, I think it is that openness that is the book's greatest strength. Because it invites and encourages women and girls to share their stories with each other, and most especially celebrates talk between mothers and daughters. It has the potential to open up a dialogue that might have seemed a bit uncomfortable or even daunting, and to ease the way into even more difficult conversations that will need to come later.

MY LITTLE RED BOOK is clearly intended to be that opening. Readers are encouraged to share their stories with each other, and for the cyberly inclined, they are also encouraged to visit www.mylittleredbook.net and contribute even more perspectives. "Learn More" and "Do More" sections are included at the end of the book, and proceeds are being donated by the author and contributors to charities that promote women's health and education.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The real secret February 19, 2009

By Diane

Format:Hardcover

I laughed, I cried and then I ordered the book for all my friends so we could talk about the beginning, the end, and the real beauty and wonder of being a woman.