Good Books about Puberty?

[phathui5]

Ds#1 turned ten this month and I think that we really need to cover some information about puberty with him.

Dh and I are pretty conservative in terms of religion, so I would like it to stay away from talking about sex outside of marriage, at least at this point. I'm just looking for something basic.

[littleteapot]

I don't know how to help you with religious only books, but I wanted to suggest:

Body Drama
and, Deal with it!

I bought both of these for my sister for her 'coming of age' at 14. Before I gave them to her I read through them both and took several pads of sticky notes to write down my own opinions, thoughts, experiences and other notations... I stuck them all over the pages of both books, intending for her to read them and feel like I was right there with her talking about each issue.

The books are amazing, I can't recommend them highly enough - however they are not religious. They talk about sex and sexuality as a fact of life (including masturbation and GLBTQ issues), but I'd strongly strongly suggest you at least take them out of the library and look through them... she found them really helpful, not only that but she told me later that every single one of her female (and even some of her male) friends borrowed them. They were passed not only through her friend circle, but her classes, her school... through everyone! AND SHE KEPT ALL MY NOTES ATTACHED!! FOR YEARS! So now all of her friends know everything I wrote about my life to help make the issues more approachable for my sister. This includes topics like eating disorders, depression, suicide, sex, virginity, masturbation and pretty much anything else I talked about in there. Oops.

Oh well, at least it's for a good cause.

[Callimom]

Originally Posted by littleteapot

I don't know how to help you with religious only books, but I wanted to suggest:

Body Drama
and, Deal with it!

I bought both of these for my sister for her 'coming of age' at 14. Before I gave them to her I read through them both and took several pads of sticky notes to write down my own opinions, thoughts, experiences and other notations... I stuck them all over the pages of both books, intending for her to read them and feel like I was right there with her talking about each issue.

The books are amazing, I can't recommend them highly enough - however they are not religious. They talk about sex and sexuality as a fact of life (including masturbation and GLBTQ issues), but I'd strongly strongly suggest you at least take them out of the library and look through them... she found them really helpful, not only that but she told me later that every single one of her female (and even some of her male) friends borrowed them. They were passed not only through her friend circle, but her classes, her school... through everyone! AND SHE KEPT ALL MY NOTES ATTACHED!! FOR YEARS! So now all of her friends know everything I wrote about my life to help make the issues more approachable for my sister. This includes topics like eating disorders, depression, suicide, sex, virginity, masturbation and pretty much anything else I talked about in there. Oops.

Oh well, at least it's for a good cause.

What an awesome thing you did for your sister. I love the sticky notes.
Karen

[beanma]

We love the Robie Harris books. I think It's So Amazing or It's perfectly Normal would be right for this age range, but again, they're not religious and do touch on a variety of topics. Would be worth checking out of the library and see if they work for you. I think they're fantastic books. We started with the first one "It's Not The Stork" when dd1 was 5 and dd2 was 2. Now we've also gotten into some gender-specific books just for girls. I'm sure there are some just for boys, too, but I don't know any titles.

Best of luck!

Love the sticky notes, too!