Sweet Secrets

Sweet Secrets: Stories of Menstruation is the brainchild of Canadians Kathleen O'Grady and Paula Wansbrough. Sweet Secrets laces facts with short stories by various authors about girls having their first periods. The facts are straightforward...Best of all, though, the short stories that form the bulk of Sweet Secrets give girls multiple perspectives on the event - from that of a girl who is flat on her back in a body cast when she gets her first period to that of a girl who has ten minutes between the national anthem and homeroom announcements to cope with her first period alone - so that *whatever* happens when the young reader gets hers, it falls within the spectrum of normal.-excerpt, by Karen Houppert, reporter for the Village Voice and author of _The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruation.

Highly Recommended.Sweet Secrets does not dispense with physiology, but it does bring an emotional and cultural perspective to bear on its subject. Contributions by women of various ages and cultures lead to a multifaceted profile of the experience of menstruation.This lively, comprehensive and thoughtful book is an empowering resource for the young woman of the 1990s.Highly Recommended. -- Sheree Haughian

There are many informational books about menstruation, but this one stands out from the rest.More than a compilation of cultural and anatomical information, this work contains twenty anecdotal stories about menstruation. Told with warmth and honesty, these stories make up the body of the book...The combination of anecdotes and factual information is unique and informative.This book provides a fresh approach to this important female milestone. --Rachelle M. Bilz

The book Sweet Secrets was in a word amazing.The book is aimed at young girls anticipating their first period...The first part of the book contains basic information (Aaghh what is going on in my body?), how to deal with it emotionally, and provides some ways different cultures celebrate/reject menstruation.The second part of the book is an anthology of short stories dealing with girls getting their first period. The range of girls and experiences is quite vast....Throughout the entire book there are sidebars which dispel a lot of the myths surrounding menstruation. There is also excellent health information....The very best thing about this book is the feeling of empowerment that it will give girls. --Michelle Teixeira

"Anne Frank referred to the onset of her first period as a "sweet secret," and anticipated its arrival with "wonder, joy, confusion and fear". This new anthology combines adult reminiscences and candid adolescent reactions to menarche and menstruation with factual explanations and multicultural and anthropological data. It covers the emotional aspects of menstruation in addition to the usual sex-and-hygiene agenda of health class. ...this book builds on ground broken by other pioneers, especially Period, from Volcano Press. This work's value lies in its friendly combination of first-person anecdotes, interviews and stories. ...The factual information in the first section is straightforward, and additional sidebars scattered among the stories cover sex, hygiene, cramps, herbal remedies, and alternatives to commercial sanitary products....The book will be a useful and welcome addition to the growing body of material on puberty and sexuality for adolescent girls and a nice bridge for discussion with adults. The impressive list of contributors includes doctors, social workers, teen advocates, and feminist journalists, and of course, the teens who shared their own experiences.[...] excerpt from Mary Beaty, Quill & Quire book reviews.