The What's Happening to My Body Book for Boys by Lynda Madaras - review

The What's Happening to My Body Book for Boys by Lynda Madaras

Holla! Dance around! Oh baby! Mmm! Get down with your bad self!

The new edition of Lynda Madaras's excellent "Oh my god what's that hair doing there?" book is finally available at the library where I work, and from the jobber I buy books from! Thank you, oh thank you. I have read ALL the puberty books, and this one is the best one out there for boys, but I never could use it before, and here's why:



Adolescent boys are just coming to tentative grips with their masculinity - this kid, and his best pal Duckie there in the background, are not the boys they're going to consult when they have questions about acne and condoms. And GOD knows they don't want to be seen carrying this kid around. At the public library, I have seen boys actually recoil when I have offered this book to them. Parents have taken one look and winced.

Last year, when our school expanded to seventh grade, the reading specialist tasked me with three requests: World War II, beauty and hygiene, and puberty. So I read ALL the puberty books. What's Going on Down There?, The Boy's Body Guide, the AMA's Boy's Guide to Becoming a Teen ... and this was the one that addressed all of the issues. (It comes down to surprise boners - most puberty books do not address the sudden and unwelcome trouser tent, a phenomenon that boys can be too embarrassed to ask about in sex-ed class. It needs to be in a book that they can consult privately.)

Thank you to my system and thank you to my book vendor. The rest of Lynda Madaras's body and hygiene books are also available with this new cover.