Hayley Long (text); Gemma Correll (illus), Being a Girl, Hot Key Books, 1 June 2015, 192pp., $16.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781783420001
Playfully written and illustrated, this book is a guide to moving through the teenage years. It’s broken into chapters from being a girl and proud of it, to periods, hair, heart matters, sex and finally being a woman. Although written by an adult (a Year 12 teacher and a YA author), it also integrates the advice of a bunch of Year 12 girls, helping to deliver some do’s and don’ts, and hints on surviving in the Western world.
The trouble with adapting a British book like this in Australia is that cultures differ, even ones where English is the native language. And we already have an excellent and clearly-laid out puberty book in Kaz Cook’s Girl’s Stuff that has recently been updated. The language and the humour in Being a Girl does not always translate, particularly the colloquial terms the author uses to describe body parts and items relating to them. Nonetheless, many issues like falling in love and dealing with excess hair are managed in familiar ways. This wouldn’t be my first choice of book to give to a pre-teen but it could be an adjunct.
Reviewed by Pam Harvey