I took a look at four books on puberty and reproduction with the help of my children, ages 7, 12, and 15. The books are Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole; What's Happening to My Body by Lynda Madaras, a title which has both a girl book and a boy book; and two books by Robie H. Harris, It's So Amazing and It's Perfectly Normal. I'll paste this review for all four books since it contains comparisons. We are keeping Cole's book, still considering Madaras's book, and returning Harris's two books.
My favorite of the four books is Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole of Magic School Bus fame, and I confess that it led me to think of a number of inappropriate MSB titles for it that made me snicker like the target age group. But I digress. This book is written in simple question and answer format under different sections. For instance, early in the book, there is a heading Finding Out About Sex with two questions: Is it normal to be curious about growing up? and Is it okay to ask about sex? With these questions, she simply answers that yes, it's perfectly normal, without falling into the pitfall that other books on puberty and reproduction can fall into, making children self-conscious and embarrassed with their constant stressing of how self-conscious and embarrassed the child probably is. Instead, the matter-of-fact tone assures children that it's all good. Asking About Sex and Growing Up covers the questions simply in a conversational tone and seems largely unbiased to me. For instance, in many of the questions, she mentions different points of view, such as how some people are opposed to sex before marriage while others disagree. This leaves room for parents to further discuss these issues in light of their own beliefs. This book does discuss abortion, but I felt that Cole kept her bias on this topic to herself, too. After reading her answers to four different questions about abortion, I'm not sure what she personally believes about it, which is as it should be in an educational children's book. She also covers topics like sexual abuse and STDs. I also love that she has a section stating that the most important thing to know about sex is respecting both oneself and others. Overall, I really like this book. I like that it is not specific to either boys or girls, instead covering all the information for both sexes. I also feel like it could be used for either secular or religious households because she does maintain a respectful understanding that people of different beliefs feel differently about many of these topics.
Second place goes to What's Happening to My Body, though I'm still not 100% sure about this one for reasons I'll explain. First, I'll comment on the positives. One of the things that I particularly like about this one is the inclusion of quotations at the beginning of each section from different adults who have completely different points of view. For instance, the first chapter begins with four quotes about puberty from four adult men who all had different opinions on what puberty was like for them. I think that can be helpful to let children know that whatever they think of what their bodies are doing, it's okay. Like Cole's book, this book is really detailed and goes into all kinds of topics, including masturbation. Both Cole and Madaras are matter-of-fact about this issue and assure kids that it's not harmful and, most importantly, that there's not anything wrong with them if they do so. And since I mentioned this topic in the reviews for the other books, I'll mention that this book does not discuss abortion at all though there is information about abortion and Planned Parenthood in the Resources section. I am confused at some of the negative reviews, however. Many of the topics, including slang words for genitals, that people reported do not seem to be in my edition of this book. However, other topics are present that I'm disturbed by. I'm not convinced that the book needed to include a discussion of hymens, blue balls, or boys masturbating together. Because of these topics, I might let my 15 year old son read the book, but I would not let my 12 year old read this one.
I expected the Robie H. Harris books to be preferred by my children because of the simple, cartoon style of the books. However, none of my children cared for these books at all. The older two said that What's Happening to My Body was far more detailed--they didn't always appreciate the extra details, but they agreed that if we're reading books for information, more details beat fewer. They also simply didn't find the two cartoon characters at all amusing and questioned their inclusion. Their preference is why we chose against these books. However, I have my own issues with these books, and that issue is in the bias. Don't get me wrong here--I knew that It's Perfectly Normal contained information about abortion before we got it, and I felt that Cole's book mentioned above handled the topic well. That said, I particularly didn't like that this chapter is biased while pretending that it's not biased. The chapter begins by defining abortion as "a medical procedure performed for the purpose of ending a pregnancy," and it mentions that it can be an emotional decision. So far, so good. But this is followed by a full page speaking of abortion with positive descriptions and a long list of reasons people might want an abortion. Another page and a half is devoted to discussion of court cases and laws. And in one single paragraph, children are told that some people think abortion should be illegal, that they believe "that an embryo or fetus has a right to life--a right to grow in a woman's body and to be born whether or not that woman wants to have a baby." So, emphatically not unbiased. As this is a book for the education of children, and the cover states that the book is for ages 10 and up, I personally feel like the discussion about abortion could have just had the first paragraph--it's a medical procedure that ends a pregnancy and people's feelings about it are not always simple. No more is necessary for the stated age group. Even worse, she mentions that sometimes an abortion happens on its own, which is called a miscarriage or spontaneous abortion. That may be accurate, but equating a miscarriage with the medical procedure in a book written for 10 year olds is out of line. I was also disgusted to see it mentioned in It's So Amazing, which is for ages 7 and up. This one has only a paragraph about abortion, but even that is inappropriate for the age group in my opinion, and this page, which also discusses adoption, ends with the cartoon characters agreeing that they "like to have lots of choices." So in the end, I agreed with my children regarding the amount of information contained in these books compared to the others, and I also dislike them for these additional reasons.
In the Cole review, I mentioned a common pitfall of puberty and reproduction books, that of potentially making children self-conscious about the subject by harping on how the reader is probably self-conscious. All four of these books avoid this pitfall. One thing that I did like about Harris's books (even though my children didn't) is the cartoon characters, specifically that the bird is excited and wants to know more while the bee seems to feel like the entire subject is TMI. All of these books attempt to make it clear that a child's feelings about this subject are fine, regardless of what those feelings are, and I imagine that they are largely successful.
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