Books for Younger Girls
Note: There are many more resources available than the ones provided in this guide. Always check out suggested resources before sharing them with your children in order to ensure that they are a good fit for your family’s values and needs.
Beautiful Girl: Celebrating the Wonders of Your Body by Christiane Northrup and Kristina Tracy. Offers this simple but important message: that to be born female is a very special thing and carries with it magical gifts and powers that must be recognized and nurtured. Dr. Northrup believes that helping girls learn at a young age to value the wonder and uniqueness of their bodies can have positive benefits that will last throughout their lives. By reading this lovely book, little girls will learn how their bodies are perfect just the way they are, the importance of treating themselves with gentle care, and how changes are just a part of growing up. ~ from the publisher.
Highly recommended for ages 4 – 8 or 10.
It’s Not the Stork! A Book about Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families, and Friends by Robie Harris, illustrated by Michael Emberley. Ages 4 and up
It’s So Amazing: a Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families by Robie Harris, illustrated by Michael Emberley. Ages 7 and up
It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex & Sexual Health. Robie Harris & Michael Emberley. Ages 10 and up
This delightful series answers nearly every question children and young teens may have about birth, babies, bodies, families and healthy sexuality. With lively, comfortable language and sensitive, engaging artwork, Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley address readers in a reassuring way, respectful of a child’s healthy desire for straightforward information. The information is up-to-date, age-appropriate, and scientifically accurate, and always aimed at helping kids feel proud, knowledgeable, and comfortable about their own bodies. ~ from the publisher. Note: Some families will shy away from the frankness of this book for preteens. Most chlidren want this information and will enjoy the positive, earthy tone. ~ KK
The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls, Valorie Lee Schafer and Norm Bendell, American Girl Publishing. Ages 8+. What growing girls want to know about their bodies – from hair care to healthy eating, bad breath to bra buying, pimples to periods. It offers guidance about basic hygiene and health without addressing issues of sexuality.
The Period Book: Everything You Don’t Want to Ask (But Need to Know), Karen Gravelle and Jennifer Gravelle, Walker and Company, 2006. Ages 4 – 8, but OK for older too.
It’s a Girl Thing: How to Stay Safe, Healthy and In-Charge, Mavis Jukes, Knopf Books for Young Readers
Real Beauty: 101 Ways to Feel Great About YOU, Therese Kauchak, American Girl Publishing
The Feelings Book, The Care and Keeping of Emotions, by Lynda Madison, ages 9+. How to handle powerful feelings and focus on developing positive self-esteem. Girls’ comments and questions appear throughout.
Girl Stuff: A Survival Guide to Growing Up, by Margaret Blackstone, (2006) Grades 5-8. This resource for girls approaching puberty falls between Mavis Jukes’s popular Growing Up (1998) and her It’s a Girl Thing (1996), broadly covering female physical, emotional, and social development and sexuality. Much of the information is shared by pairing frank, realistic questions that readers might ask with accurate, straightforward answers packed with facts. Topics include body hair and odor, nutrition and eating disorders, menstruation, friendship, peer pressure, stress, alternative medicine, and skin care. Relationships, sexual identity, and birth control are also discussed but in less detail. – School Library Journal
Reaching for the Moon by Lucy H. Pearce. The girl’s version of Lucy H. Pearce’s much-loved first book, Moon Time: a guide to celebrating your menstrual cycle. Written especially for girls aged 9-14 as they anticipate and experience their body’s gradual changes
Menarche: A Journey to Womanhood by Rachael Hertogs. A book for mothers and daughters to read together, with suggested activities.
Katie’s Journey – Moon Lodge Dreams by Spider. The author dedicates the book to her daughter, and it shows her love and understanding for the young woman in bloom. Katie’s Journey will guide all entering their moontime in a gentle and compassionate way, making the first period and menstruation a time of joy and celebration, rather than a shameful or confusing time of life.
Websites for Younger Girls
http://www.newmoon.com/ Subscription-based magazine and website that is ad-free and has positive messages about what it means to be a girl.
http://www.girlshealth.gov/ A website for preteen girls about health, run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
http://www.kidshealth.org/ Ages 8-12, covers health issues including puberty.