Appealingly laid out in black and white with color washes and photos, comics-style graphics, and pull quotes, this chatty,...
Menstruation is viewed through a feminist lens in this nonfiction work by white, Swedish YouTube celebrity Henry.
An earnest, accessible take on getting and managing a monthly menstrual period is offered in this guide that uses both anatomically correct terms (“vagina,” “uterus”) and slang (“vajayjay,” “Down There”—as this is a translation, readers may wonder what the original Swedish terms are). It also refers to people awkwardly throughout as either “uterus-carriers” or “dick-owners,” a dichotomy that makes clear the audience is presumed to be a cisgender one. Segments explain in practical terms how ovulation and menstruation work and provide facts about such topics as cramps, PMS, endometriosis, and the various products available for absorbing the blood of a period, such as menstrual cups, tampons, panty liners, and sanitary pads. However, what sets this apart from other works that explain the basics of these processes is its extensive examination of the societal attitudes (including a short section that looks at these cross-culturally) that often cause shame around this natural bodily function and how it can be used in sexist ways to discount women who speak their minds: “Ooh, someone has her period!” Henry suggests many funny, razor-sharp comebacks to this kind of belittling.
Appealingly laid out in black and white with color washes and photos, comics-style graphics, and pull quotes, this chatty, frank, exhaustive exploration provides both solid information and plenty to think about. (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5107-1422-9
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
A well-intentioned description of life before birth. The illustrations make use of photographs (including ultrasound) and artist’s drawings, often in the same image, and these are well used to clarify the text. How babies grow and develop inside the womb is both described and illustrated, and while the tone is one of forced cheer, the information is sound. Also offered are quite silly exercises for children to experience what life in the womb might be like, such as listening to a dishwasher to experience the sounds a baby hears inside its mother’s body, or being held under a towel or blanket by an adult and wiggling about. The getting-together of sperm and egg is lightly passed over, as is the actual process of birth. But children may be mesmerized by the drawings of the growing child inside the mother, and what activities predate their birth dates. Not an essential purchase, but adequate as an addition to the collection. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-8)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-894379-01-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
A harrowing, often gruesome, exploration of some of the darkest moments in medical history.
Readers may think twice about going to their next doctor appointment after reading this creepy, unsettling account of human medical experimentation.
In a dramatic, engrossing narrative, Wittenstein describes many cringe-inducing examples of the ways doctors have exploited the marginalized, powerless and voiceless of society as human guinea pigs over the centuries. African-Americans, indigenous peoples, concentration-camp inmates, orphans, prisoners, the poor, the mentally ill and disabled have been subjected to injections of lethal diseases, ingestion of radioactive materials, exposure to poisons, surgical procedures and other horrors. Some experiments did lead to important discoveries and breakthroughs, but readers are challenged to consider the costs of violating individual rights for the cause of advancing medical knowledge. Drawing on a variety of sources, including contemporary newspaper articles, medical journals and, in at least one case, a personal interview, the author lays out this troubling history. She also documents the evolution of medical ethics and the establishment of procedures for things like clinical trials for new drug treatments. Sidebars offer additional information, filling in the cracks on related issues such as eugenics and thalidomide babies. Photographs, some not particularly well reproduced, illustrate the account.
A harrowing, often gruesome, exploration of some of the darkest moments in medical history. (source notes, bibliography, suggestions for further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4677-0659-9
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2013
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