Hair in Funny Places by Babette Cole

This book deals with the topic of puberty. Now any book about this topic has to handle the issue in a very particular manner. Since this is the second book I read by Babette Cole, I realize that she uses an off beat humor to try and make the topic easier to the reader. She is frank, but doesn't take the topic too seriously. Cole does this by using simple sentences that are right to the point with images (sometimes graphic) to show the body changing.

That being said there are many images of naked boys and girl to refer to as they are growing up. I didn't find this as disturbing as the other Cole book because it wasn't giving children ideas about how to act. She is simply stating the facts.

The lines that I didn't like where about how when a males and females reaches a certian age and things happen to them when she says "it meant one day she could grow up to be your mommy." I didn't like this because of the suggestion about being a parents. Also, the changes don't happen to everyone so in a way I think it might be false hope. Families and how people create families today is so diverse that I think it makes it seem limiting.

Personally I thought that the images of "mr. and mrs. hormone" were rather gross and frightening. I don't think that kids should be scared of the changes that are going to happen to them or of what is going on in their body. It isn't a disease, just normal changes.