Customer Reviews

Sweet Secrets: Stories of Menstruation

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Sex education teachers O'Grady and Wansbrough have produced an ideal gift for young girls preparing to bloom into womanhood, a book that is as entertaining as it is informative.

Sweet Secrets is about menstruation. Your cycle, your period, your curse, your monthly visitor, your Aunt Flo...whatever phrase you use, you know what it is and unless with few medical exceptions, every girl is going to get it whether she likes it or not. Sweet Secrets could be considered a technical manual for a girl growing up: basic terminology is introduced, and behaviors such as PMS are explained.

What endeared me to this title, however, was the positive approach O'Grady and Wansbrough take to the monthly event that annoys me when it arrives and worries me when it doesn't. First menstruation is a "sweet secret" because it is a girl's own private advancement into adulthood, a rite of passage celebrated in many cultures. An accompanying mini-anthology of essays by women and teenagers emphasizes the poignancy of growing into womanhood while offering sympathy and encouragement.

If you have daughter fast approaching her teens and feel apphrensive about explaining to her the facts of life, let this book be a guide for the both of you, a "sweet secret" to share.

Sweet Secrets: Stories of Menstruation is the brainchild of Canadians Kathleen O'Grady and Paula Wansbrough. Sweet Secrets laces facts with short stories by various authors about girls having their first periods. The facts are straightforward...Best of all, though, the short stories that form the bulk of Sweet Secrets give girls multiple perspectives on the event - from that of a girl who is flat on her back in a body cast when she gets her first period to that of a girl who has ten minutes between the national anthem and homeroom announcements to cope with her first period alone - so that *whatever* happens when the young reader gets hers, it falls within the spectrum of normal.

-excerpt, by Karen Houppert, reporter for the Village Voice and author of _The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruation.

Addressed to adolescent readers, Sweet Secrets is a charming anthology of personal and fictional stories of menarche (first menstruation) told by women aged 16 to 93, from diverse cultural backgrounds.

The authors present factual information on the physical and emotional changes of puberty in a candid, anecdotal style. This handsome, readable book also features observations on menstruation's cultural and religious significance in ancient and aboriginal societies....

These uplifting tales of women's celebrations, unusual in a puberty education piece, set a new standard for progressive and enlightened learning.

The unique and sensitive approach to menstruation offered in Sweet Secrets guarantees its place as a valuable resource for those seeking help in discussing menstruation with preteen girls.

--Besty Harvie

The book Sweet Secrets was in a word amazing.

The book is aimed at young girls anticipating their first period...

The first part of the book contains basic information (Aaghh what is going on in my body?), how to deal with it emotionally, and provides some ways different cultures celebrate/reject menstruation.

The second part of the book is an anthology of short stories dealing with girls getting their first period. The range of girls and experiences is quite vast....

Throughout the entire book there are sidebars which dispel a lot of the myths surrounding menstruation. There is also excellent health information....

The very best thing about this book is the feeling of empowerment that it will give girls.

--Michelle Teixeira

"Anne Frank referred to the onset of her first period as a "sweet secret," and anticipated its arrival with "wonder, joy, confusion and fear". This new anthology combines adult reminiscences and candid adolescent reactions to menarche and menstruation with factual explanations and multicultural and anthropological data. It covers the emotional aspects of menstruation in addition to the usual sex-and-hygiene agenda of health class.

...this book builds on ground broken by other pioneers, especially Period, from Volcano Press. This work's value lies in its friendly combination of first-person anecdotes, interviews and stories.

...The factual information in the first section is straightforward, and additional sidebars scattered among the stories cover sex, hygiene, cramps, herbal remedies, and alternatives to commercial sanitary products....The book will be a useful and welcome addition to the growing body of material on puberty and sexuality for adolescent girls and a nice bridge for discussion with adults. The impressive list of contributors includes doctors, social workers, teen advocates, and feminist journalists, and of course, the teens who shared their own experiences.[...]

excerpt from Mary Beaty, Quill & Quire book reviews.

Highly Recommended.

Sweet Secrets does not dispense with physiology, but it does bring an emotional and cultural perspective to bear on its subject. Contributions by women of various ages and cultures lead to a multifaceted profile of the experience of menstruation.

This lively, comprehensive and thoughtful book is an empowering resource for the young woman of the 1990s.

Highly Recommended.

-- Sheree Haughian

There are many informational books about menstruation, but this one stands out from the rest.

More than a compilation of cultural and anatomical information, this work contains twenty anecdotal stories about menstruation. Told with warmth and honesty, these stories make up the body of the book...The combination of anecdotes and factual information is unique and informative.

This book provides a fresh approach to this important female milestone.

--Rachelle M. Bilz