The Girl Guide: 50 Ways to Learn to Love Your Changing Body

Ibrahim, a performer and hula-hoop acrobat, offers a fact-filled and stalwartly body-positive guide to the physical and psychological changes that come along with growing up. She openly discusses topics like breasts, acne, wearing braces, periods, butts, hormones, and heartbreak, drawing intimately from her own experiences. Sharing her moments of mortification, she urges readers to shake off their own embarrassment over body-related issues: “Nowadays I don’t know why we women are sometimes embarrassed about talking about our vaginas.” Ibrahim shuns dieting, promotes physical activity, and demystifies body-related changes, while reaching out to readers with a reminder that if they are going through it, someone else is too. Photographs of Ibrahim—a powerful image shows one side of her face without makeup or filters and the other side Photoshopped—are included throughout. Erkas’s stylized graphics nicely dovetail with Ibrahim’s wise, funny, and abundantly honest narrative. Ages 8–12. (May)