FREE PERIOD

This spirited coming-of-age story brings menstruation and period equity to the fore.

When mischievous and self-involved eighth graders Helen and Gracie’s big end-of-middle-school prank backfires, their fed-up principal delivers a surprisingly restorative punishment: “I am sentencing you to care.” The two BFFs have the month before summer break to “accomplish something that matters to the school.” Helen and Gracie join the Community Action Club, whose members are working to have free menstrual products available in every school bathroom. The chapters, alternately told from Helen’s and Gracie’s first-person points of view, depict their growth out of codependency and toward independence and empathy as their commitment, understanding, and care for the project increase. Secondary characters, including a villainous school board member, sympathetic family members, cliquey classmates, and swoony crushes, are entertainingly portrayed. The dialogue is quick-moving and hilarious, but the pun-filled jokes can verge on corny and repetitive. There are reflections on family, gender, and social class, but there’s less emphasis on racial equity (Gracie and Helen are cued white). When the project goals are in crisis, and the club members really need to be heard, the girls’ previous antics cause others to doubt them and their motivations. This is when they candidly learn lessons about allyship, strategy, disappointment, and the complex decision-making processes and compromises that can accompany collective action.

Punchy, electric, and smart social commentary.