Tween Girls and "The Period Talk"- Gotcha Covered!

Here comes a cliche: I sure wish this book had been around when I was a tween. Of course the word "tween" wasn't around when I was a tween. In preparation for my period, the filmstrip I watched in school mostly featured an illustration of a uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries that seen from a distance (the back of the classroom) looked a lot like a longhorn steer to me. The pamphlets I was given were overly scientific and did not answer the questions my girlfriends and I had about what it was really going to be like. Gotcha Covered! Everything You Need to Know About Your Period by Lisa McGuinness and Chris Boral is a great resource for today's tweens and their parents. It is written for a nine to twelve year old reader. While talking respectfully to girls, the authors still have a casual tone. Couple that with matter of fact information about what to expect and how to handle embarrassing situations, and you'll end up with a prepared girl not a scared or confused one. The book is short, only 34 pages which is ideal. I think it will inform without overwhelming. It even provides a few laughs, such as in these section titles. "A New Kind of Shopping Spree" and "Did My Jeans Shrink a Size?" That last one is about bloating, and is, in fact, a question I ask myself monthly, decades after I was a tween. While I'm not necessarily looking forward to having this talk with my own daughter someday, Gotcha Covered! will make it easier.