Reviews for The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls (AmericanGirl Library)

The average rating for The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls (AmericanGirl Library) based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-06-08 00:00:00 Fredrik Silvearv When we were little, American Girl publications were a pretty big deal in our house. I had a subscription to the magazine and my sister and I had dolls and books that corresponded with those dolls. Of course, as I started to grow up the American Girl phenomenon was no longer something I was interested in, but this book was still really really helpful. My mom bought it for me and left it on my bed when I was at school. She understood that some of the issues of being a pre-teen (or just hitting the teenage years) was something I would be uncomfortable talking to her about. Learning about some of this stuff through a book that I trusted was a lot easier than asking my mom about the pros and cons of tampon-usage and what type of product I should use when my armpits smell. I love that this book doesn't give really heavy advice that could misinform girls about eating disorders and emotional turbulence. I like how they always provide the advice of talking to a parent, teacher or other trusted adult when needed. I'm glad that American Girl was there for me and I hope it will still be around for girls for years to come.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-05-19 00:00:00 Frank Marcopolos This book is part of the American Girl franchise and it shows. Some positives and negatives: The information seems well-balanced for the most part. There's talk about diversity (but ethnic, not gender-based, size-based, or anything-else-based), the urge to compare oneself to images of women/girls in the media, deets on boobies (shapes, sizes, care, how long they take to grow, bras, etc.), eating disorders, periods, etc. But it also does some all-over grooming advice that I found tedious and overly girly. I'd say the period info is inadequate in terms of its discussion of menstrual products, which is limited to pads, tampons, and panty liners. Also, it shows only a calendar for keeping track of your menstrual cycle, and there are lots of better online resources for that that go into details beyond when you start bleeding. Probably due to the age range of the audience, there is nothing about STIs and that sort of thing, although anyone can get a YI or UTI. I would have liked to have seen something about UTIs and YIs in there. There is nothing about gender dysphoria, and that is a shame. The tone and voice of this little book are spot on, as far as I can tell. Its general philosophy is summed up on page 10: "You may feel like you don't have any control over your growing body. Not true! You are the boss when it comes to taking care of these basics." It also seems to be pretty empowering in other ways. On page 9, we see: "Remember that your body is a work in progress. Try not to focus on what it looks like. Instead, think about all the great things your body can do." And on p. 11: "Your body is yours and yours alone. You have the right to protect it and keep it private from anyone." It seems to use proper terms for things, and explains very simply when words might be only vaguely familiar (ex., Hormones are "chemicals your body produces to change you from a young girl to a woman"--simplistic). The format seems great overall; lots of large print and images to break up the text. Information appears in bite-sized portions, for the most part. All the image are cartoon drawings, but they do show actual nipples and vulvae and even a uterus. There is a mixed range of ethnicities represented, but the body types are all pretty much identical in their athletic, non-fat appearance. Everyone also looks super girly. It just seemed to portray a very standardized feminine-but-athletic body type that I found somewhat troublesome. How realistic and helpful is it to portray bodies that all look the same when young girls are concerned about normal variation? There was nothing in there about what to do if you don't feel like a girl. I think it tries to be empowering and non-judgmental, but within a very unenlightened frame of reference. To quote a friend: The stuff AG puts out is "wholesome and positive, but largely empty [...:] As a corporation, they're trying to be empowering and wholesome without being particularly challenging, I think, and that's why there's no real messages about trans issues or etc. etc. They don't want to push too many buttons." In short: It's probably all right by most people's standards, but this is not the book I would give to my pre-pubescent daughter. Wish I could have given it 2.5 stars, but alas.