Growing Up: All about Adolescence, Body Changes & Sex

This is a book that every teen should have. It's beautifully illustrated and broken into different catagories which makes it easy to follow, easy to understand and very factual. Don't leave it up to chance that they will learn what is real. Prepare them and they will be the wiser for it. It's better to get the facts from this than from misinformation from peers.

This book looked too advanced for my 10 year old (maybe it isn't) but I read it with my 13 year old son. The lay-out and illustrations make this a good choice for younger teens, colorful pictures and small subject-boxes for related topics on each page make it interesting to look at, unlike the straight text of books intended for older teens. This book kept my ADHD son's attention very well, sparked questions for discussion, and offered all of the information (and more) that he was looking for. We were able to discuss embarrassing subjects objectively and discreetly with this book. The game-plan is to use "What's going on down there" as the next step, but this was a good starting point for my son. This book will be kept on hand for use with my younger children when they are old enough for it.

My mom presented me with this book when I was about 9 years old, and I've used it for reference all though my middle school years. Almost everything that I could have possibly needed to know was in this book, and the information was presented in a frank, honest tone without being too clinical or demeaning. What was most helpful was the female anatomical section, which was extraordinary in allowing me to understand and properly identify what exactly was going on inside me. My only complaints about the book are that it is dated (I believe it was published in the late 1980s) and British - which, for an American, proved to be a bit of an obstacle; most of the slang terms listed were words I'd never heard of, and information about abortion and age of consent laws were exclusive to Great Britain. Overall, however, I would highly recommend this book to any parent searching for sex education instructional material for their child (the book is gender-neutral; my younger brother benefitted greatly from the book as well).

I needed a book that my nine-year-old daughter and I could use together as she enters adolescence: not too complicated, not too simple, but clear and honest in ways with which we both were comfortable. I read six other similar books before choosing Growing Up, which was the best by far. It does just what we needed it to do without getting past her level of maturity and readiness. The illustrations and explanations are easy to understand. Every issue I wanted to address is covered in this book. My daughter loves it and so do I. I commend it to other parents.