This is a great guide to growing up, covering all those difficult topics. For ages 8 and over this will provide the information needed and debunk some of the myths around puberty. With each chapter covering a different area of puberty it will be perfect for any child who has unanswered questions that they may not want to ask a parent or teacher.

Growing up is a subject that some find very difficult to talk about and so these conversations often go unspoken and it’s left to the adolescent to find their own way. This is the perfect book for any parent, guardian, family member or friendship group that want to talk about growing up but don’t know where to start! It’s a step by step guide on everything any girl will need to know about womanhood!

The book is more than just a growing up guide, it’s a girl’s club that invites anyone and everyone to take part. I love that this diverse group of girls have their own quirks and personalities as everyone who reads the book is bound to relate to one of more of the characters. They all interject with their own ideas, thoughts and feelings about the different topics and as a reader you genuinely feel like you get to know the girls of Bunk 9.

The book is littered with beautiful illustrations and the overall presentation is what makes the book so much fun. There are funny stories, diagrams and even a boys section! As a parent it would be a great way to introduce the topic of puberty and could even be a book that you explore with your child to help them digest and understand everything together.

I absolutely loved this book! I think it's a great learning tool for girls and can help empower them from the inside out. It's great for girls to know their anatomy and to understand what is happening with their bodies. My childhood was pretty modest in this way, my family unwilling to see anything having to do with genitalia as anything other than sexual. My mom even told me once that tampons were for nosebleeds, and she wasn't joking. I vowed to never be that way with my girls, to always educate them and answer their questions honestly and truthfully. This book is definitely one that I will go to when these sorts of questions begin to arise. I've already recommended it to a friend that has a daughter about to enter the puberty stage.

Great book!

A must book for young girls to read about what they want to know. About the bodily changes and the things they needed for that...... A great gift for young girls...........

This was a cute, fun read. Great for kids who might be a little older say grade 5 and up. Younger kids wouldn't be focused enough to stay with this book.

This is a fun book for elementary age students. There is adventure but also the feelings of trying to fit in and learn the ropes. I look forward to recommending this to the students I see.

I read this with my daughter so that I would have the perspective of a parent and the target audience. Puberty is not something my daughter is comfortable with and she's not afraid to express that emotion. This book did an excellent job of providing accurate information and tips that I respected as a parent and done in a way that she was open to. That's not an easy task. Some young women find themselves facing puberty as an exciting time to look forward to, but others face it with various combinations of discomfort for any number of reasons. This book pretty much addresses them all but not in a lecturing way or "in your face" manner. Nuchi write with wit, charm, tenderness, and encouragement. This is a book that I would proudly put on my bookshelf for any one to pick up and thumb through in the hopes that it would help another young woman. There's really not a person that I wouldn't recommend this book to.

A useful book for growing up. Not patronising, just tells it as it is. The cover doesn’t look like a classic ‘growing up’ book which I think makes it more appealing.

A must-read for all girls (and boys, parents, and everyone else, but first of all girls)! A book about growing up, puberty, and boy, I wish I had this book when I was younger.

I already tried this book some months ago when I got accepted for an e-arc on Netgalley. Sadly, the format didn't work out for me as it kept crashing my tablet/my pc programs. So I vowed to buy the book as soon as I could when it came out.

This is such an important and also very fun book. Because not only does it talk about a topic that is important to girls, but it also does it in a fun way. Namely with the whole camp and Bunk 9 stuff. Most of the book is about puberty, but we also see bits of the camp, they tell us about counsellors, about the layout at the camp, about the food, friendship, who snores, make comments about people going naked to check stuff (and not to do that), and about tons of other things (including some romance). The author really makes it feel like this is truly a book written by a group of girls at a camp. And I love that. Because most puberty books (that I saw/read) were pretty stiff and dry. It feels weird to read them and it is also a bit too clinical. This one makes a bit party of it all and I love it. You really feel like one of the girls.

The book is split up into weeks (there are 7 weeks of camp + one Last Day in total). Each chapter is about a different subject. From feelings to boobs to vaginas (or vulvas) to food and health and more!

I just loved the little notes with comments from the girls (or conversations) that dotted the pages.

One thing that stood out was the deodorant chapter. Do they not have those deodorants in America that doesn't stain/leave white spots? I know back when I was in the puberty this chapter would have been brilliant as you didn't have much choice in deodorant back then, but these days there are tons of fun and lovely smelling deodorants that don't stain your shirt, so you don't need to do all that stuff they do in the deodorant chapter nor do they have to worry about it staining shirts.

I loved it when the chapter with boys came up and we find out that the boys stole The Book from the girls to write their own chapter and talk about what changes for boys. That was just the best, I was already wondering how the girls would talk about that subject, but now it was up to the boys to do it, and they did it with lots of hilarity and penises. :P

One thing I would have liked to see, and something that I would have loved to read about during my puberty, is make-up. What kinds there are, how to use them, what you can do with them, make your own make-up. It is part of puberty/growing up to try out these things. I know that I was very curious on how to apply make-up and I would have benefited from a fun book like this to tell me the whats and hows.

The art? Fabulous! Fantastic! And so so much fun. Then again as soon as I found out it was Meg Hunt, whose picture book: Interstellar Cinderella I loved, I just knew I would love this one as well. And I did! She did an amazing book at making this book even more fun, interesting, and colourful. Plus I just adore how she drew the girls.

So yep, highly recommended! A fantastic book about growing up/puberty.

Bunk 9's Guide to Growing Up is a great new guide to growing up and body changes for girls. It's comforting, reassuring, and easy to read for girls ages 8-12. It's a fun book that girls will actually want to pick up and read, even reluctant readers. The facts are imparted in a gentle and sensitive way and aren't too graphic. This is a definitely a good "starter's guide" to puberty. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy.

I wish that I had something like this when I was growing up. I really appreciated that all perspectives were shown in the voice of girls, and that it normalized all different experiences.

Bunk 9's guide to growing up is a very important book full of fun, important & essential information. There are 9 girls in the Silver moon camp and they give you all the information you need to sail smoothly through puberty.
The book is divided into different sections that cover different phases of puberty.
I found the little notes on the side very cute & funny. It's also illustrated which made it even better and easier to understand the topics that are new for the kids who are just experiencing puberty.
Also I liked the fact that it didn't just focus on interest in the opposite sex but also that you can have interest in the same gender and that's completely normal too!
It is definitely a book that I would get for my younger niece & nephews!
Thank you to Netgalley, the author & Workman Publishing company for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book approached the awkwardness and uncertainty of upcoming puberty in a fun way. I will absolutely be holding onto this when my daughters start to have more questions about their bodies and their emotions. The writing was informative, approachable, and I will even say that I learned a thing or two that I hadn't really previously considered. Exceptional presentation and delivery.

Subtitled "Secrets, Tips, and Expert Advice on the Good, the Bad, and the Awkward," written by the endearing if fictional girls of bunk nine at the Silver Moon Camp Sisterhood, and illustrated adorably by Meg Hunt, this book was freaking awesome! it;s a fast, simple, easy read and packed with useful information - useful, and essential.

I like to think I know a lot about women, but anyone who knows about women also knows there is always so much more to learn, and while many parts of this were quite familiar to me, many other parts were an eye-opener, and served only as yet another reminder of what women have to put up with even if they lived in a world which was totally devoid of men!

The girls of bunk nine are: Abby (from Eugene OR), Brianna (from Austin TX. Yeay!), Emma L (from NYC), Emma R (San Jose, CA), Grace (Princeton NJ), Jenna (Philadelphia PA), Lea (Paris, France), Makayla (Charlotte NC), and Sage (Eugene, OR, and full of sage advice...). They are smart, diverse, feisty, teasing, assertive, full of good humor, and more importantly full of tips and good advice.

Different chapters cover different aspects of these changes, and they go into detail but are never too long or too detailed. The chapters are amusing, with observations 'penned in' by various girls in the bunk, and by some boys too. In chapters labeled for the week of camp, we get to learn of Puberty in general, of hygiene, breasts, menstruation (shouldn't that be 'womenstruation'?!), boys, health, and feelings - in short, completely comprehensive as it ought to be.

Be warned, this book is explicit, both in in the text and in Meg hunts colorful depictions. The book is presented as a 'hand-written' guide book to be passed from girl to girl (and to be chased-down mercilessly if the boys in bunk 8 ever get their hands on it!) But the boys did, so again, be warned, they added their own chapter about how boys change as well during this time. I thought this was a smart move on the part of the author, because girls need to understand this just as much as boys need to understand what girls are going through.

I don't have any daughters I'm sorry to report, unless you count two pet girl rats whom I adore. I wish I did have daughters, but I guess my brutal Y chromosomes viciously overpowered my gentile X's and Oh! I feel so dirty. But if I had had daughters I would have no problem handing this book to them once they reached the age of seven, eight, or nine, depending on their development and progress.

My view of this is that I and my wife would have covered a lot of this with said daughter(s) before they reached that age, not as lecture, or worse, a series of lectures, but as the simple act of honestly answering all her questions without evasion in age-appropriate 'sound bites' to keep her moving along.

If she's satisfied with the answer, you're done! If she has follow-up questions, tackle those head-on in the same way. It's the only sensible way to deal with this. Tell her what she needs to know, imbue in her the advice that not everyone wants to talk publicly about some of these things, so there's a time and a place, and a choice of friends and other people with whom these things can be discussed.

In this way, you teach her no shame, and she learns caution and wisdom, and you let her know that you're the source of trustworthy, straight-forward information, and she will readily come back for more answers when she's ready for them. Whatever approach you take, you'll have a lot better answers to give after reading this book! She may or may not have more questions, or she may prefer to share it with her friends and talk about things with them. Either way you've done your job (as long as you're sure her friends parents won't object to her sharing the book or what's in it!).

If I have a criticism of the book, it's not in the occasional use of an old song title for a section header (Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes on page 17 and Get Back later - although the song title was just Changes). Actually I'm not sure if that last one did refer to the Beatles song and it's not really important whether girls in this age range ever heard of the Beatles or David Bowie, because this book is for parents too! That criticism I reserve for Middle Grade or Young Adult authors who older than their intended reader, yet are too lazy to research the kind of music these girls would actually listen to, and instead make up some lame excuse that has their main characters addicted to precisely the same music the authors knows and likes. Yuk! That didn't happen here!

No, the one criticism I had was in the color scheme. Overall I really liked it - it was bright and sparkly and attention-grabbing, but I have to question, purely in terms of legibility, some of the color choices for some of the splash balloons. Light blue on light gray, and pink on light blue tend not to work!

Here's is where there is another major difference between men and women other than the pubertal changes and most obvious gender differences, ans it's one that's not well known. Women tend to see subtle shades of color better than men do. Evolution has given them better-tuned color receptors in their eyes. We have three types of receptors, and guess what? Two thirds of your color reception comes from the X chromosome! Guys only have one of these and if the color receptor genes are faulty, they're screwed! Women have a back-up on their second X chromosome, Men have no back-up X! This is why men tend to color blindness far more than do women!

In the light of this knowledge, I have to ask if these color schemes looked good to the author and the illustrator because they're women, but looked bad to me because I'm a guy?! It's definitely possible! In the case of the light blue text on light gray background I quite literally could not read it until I enlarged that balloon greatly. Then I could make it out, and the final insult hit me. It was advice specifically referring to dads! LOL! The one thing aimed directly at dads was not legible to them because we don't see shades as well as women! Was this done on purpose?! This was on page 24. Other such instances, although not quite as bad, were the note 'taped' to the bottom of page 35, light blue on pink, and also on page 84, pink on light blue. although this was, for me, easiest of the three to read. Note that this is in the ebook version, which is all we amateur reviewers get to see, so I can't speak for the print version. And I can only speak for myself of course, maybe my color vision is just muddy?!

On a note that has nothing to do with this but which is fascinating, I learned from recently reviewing a book about the human genome, that there are women who are tetrachromatic. There are not many, maybe 3% of women, but what a thrilling thing to have a fourth color channel! Assuming the brain can avail itself of the information! Dr Gabriele Jordan of Newcastle University in Northern England is actively investigating this phenomenon.

In conclusion, this book is in my opinion the perfect primer for young girls who are nearing puberty or who are already in it. I was impressed by how full of information it was. Obviously as a lifelong male, I haven't been through female puberty, so how do I judge it? For how inclusive it is, how diverse, how wide-ranging, and how intelligently it's presented. And how visually too: the text flooded the page without swamping it, and was very eye-catching and inventive.

I was, for example, pleased to see that when talk turned to one aspect of puberty - interest in the opposite sex - there was also repeated mention of interest in the same gender, which is what even hetero children can experience. The constant reassurance about this being normal and expected was wonderful. That and the endless good advice, the hints, tips, and revelations, and the honesty and humor all contributed to make this a super-special read. I advise parents to buy it, read it and give it to your daughter(s) - and sons because they need to wise-up too! I recommend it.

What a super book for young ladies who are getting ready for the changes of puberty. It is written in a fun and informative style and will appeal to those aged 10 and up.
I would recommend this as a way of finding out about growing up but without the awkwardness of asking mums if they feel a little embarrassed.

If I were 11 again I would have liked to read this book. It is informative but not in the grownup way. It feels like a conversation between friends, and sometimes a little strange but puberty is strange. The book covers the changes with puberty in a good way, and it stresses that none is the same which is something grownups forget sometimes.

The book cover most of the differences of being a girl, how the bodies are different and that there is nothing wrong with that. As well it covers feelings and how they are yours and ok. Still just reading the book might not answer all of the questions puberty comes with, and the book handles that in a great way by saying that one should talk to an older girl/women who already have been through puberty. Either being mom, sister, teacher, or a friends mom, anyone you are comfortable talking to. Maybe the moms should read the book to, knowing that they should not be offended if the daughter choose to talk to someone else.

What I liked most about the book was how it explained that it is ok to not be comfortable, and that you should not do anything you do not want to do when it comes to your body.

This is a fun little guide that many tweens and teens will enjoy checking out. I think that the artwork on the front will really make this fly off the shelf as it will appeal to the readers who enjoy graphic fiction and diary-type books.

An excellent guide to growing up, I love the format this book is told in and the artwork is beautiful. While this book did include a couple things that had no business being there I'm willing to ignore it because other people would probably say it belongs there.
This book has everything a gal needs to know about puberty, self-care, and just life in general and you feel a real connection to the girls of bunk 9 as they share their experiences and embarrassing moments.
I recommend for ages 11 and up
4 stars

“While we're hoping for a baby let's discuss how we will handle the tricky subject of puberty!” Said no happy couple ever. But before you know it, that tricky stage of life is upon your much wanted baby, and you realise that while you meant to read the books, watch the advice vlogs, ask your auntie how she talked to your cousin about it, or speak to a school nurse that you just never quite found time. But “Pow!” it's upon your household, like a pervasive storm cloud.

Fear not! The girls from bunk 9 are here to save the day. Bunk 9's guide to growing up surprised me. When I opened the book I looked at the concept and was worried that it was somewhat patronising in its approach. I'll be honest and tell you that I did have some big doubts about its validity as a support tool. But as I read on I realised that actually, the authors had achieved a perfect balance between fact, anecdote, science and humour. It's also got a little bit of summer-camp story woven around the necessary details to highlight some of the ways in which the girls changed during their 7 weeks in camp. This offered a really nice way to bring a child into the book without them necessarily wanting to know the science side of things. This brought a comfort factor to the book, rather than the intimidating experience that comes with many puberty books.

The book is divided into 8 Chapters which are presented as an introduction, seven weekly entries as if composed of some kind of summer camp diary, and a summary chapter called “Goodbye”. The chapters cover Puberty, Hygiene, Boobs, Periods, Boys, Health and Feelings. The main body of the book contains a factual outline of what puberty involves, and this is scaffolded by entries which are portrayed as if written by 9 girls from a summer camp. Each girl offers her own anecdotes, experience, knowledge or opinion, this is meant to represent the diverse experience of puberty and emphasises that it is a personal and unique experience with each girl developing at a different age, in a different sequence, and coping with the changes that they experience in different ways. The author goes a step further to reinforce that each growing-up journey is different yet similar by discussing cultural approaches to puberty around the world. While this is not necessarily information which a child needs to know, it offers the book something a little unique and quite special. We were really impressed with this idea. Other unique qualities that the book offered alongside the typical puberty guide material were beauty and hair tips, discussions around social issues, diet, skin care, kicking bad habits, and personal conduct – e.g. online safety, kindness, good moral behaviour and so on. The language has been made child-friendly and removes the intimidation factor, though my daughter and I both found this fairly patronising in certain sections, and I think that is my biggest criticism of this book, but it doesn't detract significantly from the informative capacity or the enjoyment of the book. The only thing which did disappoint me was that the relationship section placed emphasis on boys. While the traditional male-female pairing is still the most commonplace, it would be so nice to see the stereotypes dropped in books.

By far our favourite section of the book was the week that focused on Boobs. The author discusses everything from breast shape to bra stuffing, bra type to different slang words for boobs. It includes the practical and the sensible about bra fitting, breast care, possible problems and what to do about them and everything that you really want your daughter to know... it's just that it's laced with the sort of words that you don't necessarily want your daughter to know! My sons absolutely cringed as my daughter's and I read the chapter out and cried with laughter. If a book makes a big brother cringe then a girl knows she's found a hit! The other really nice things about this section are the tips for putting your bra on, and confidence building reasons to love your boobs no matter what you end up blessed with. Bringing this review back to the real purpose, it is safe to say that in terms of well thought out detail each week is of equal standing to the breasts week. The authors cover a lot of things that I haven't seen covered at the same time as the science in one book to offer a really comprehensive guide for growing girls.

I am glad that I read this book with my daughter. It gave me a timely reminder about the errs of judging a book by the cover. I'm a convert who will be purchasing this in hard copy for her daughter when it is released.

I teach puberty at school and this would be a really useful book to have in the classroom! It is written in the style of a journal with lots of different girls so hopefully the reader will be able to relate to one of them. There are useful diagrams and drawings which explain things like what menstruation is and what the female body looks like as it goes through puberty.