Description

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This flip book for boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 12 has questions asked by girls in one half of the book; flip it over and questions asked by boys are on the other side. Contains honest, informative, and reassuring answers to questions pre-adolescents have about puberty, friends, feelings, sex, pimples, babies, body hair, menstruation, bras, and much more.

Straightforward, age-appropriate answers to REAL questions from preteens are provided by an experienced nurse-and-physician team who have been giving popular seminars to moms and daughters, and dads and sons, in Seattle and Palo Alto for more than twenty years. Each of the questions in the book has been asked--many of them frequently!--by kids during their seminars. Filled with fun, full-color illustrations throughout.

About the Author

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Julie Metzger is a registered nurse with a master's degree in pediatric nursing. She has worked extensively in the fields of parent education on adolescent development, sexuality, parenting, and communication between parent and child, and is a favorite speaker to a wide array of community groups and schools on all aspects of preteen health issues. She also, along with coauthor Dr. Robert Lehman, founded the Great Conversations speaking series.

Dr. Robert Lehman is an adolescent health specialist with a clinical faculty position at the University of Washington. In addition to teaching Great Conversations classes, he has devoted his career to providing direct health care services to youth, teaching health care professionals about the special needs of adolescents, and addressing teen health issues and policies on local, regional, and national levels. The author lives in Seattle, WA.

Praise For…

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[Starred Review] Real kids ask real questions of professionals who know not only how to talk to them, but also how to relate knowledgeable, age-appropriate answers in an engaging manner. The book offers information for girls on one side and for boys when it is turned over (or vice versa), which suits the binary nature of the topic perfectly. Illustrations are on target and intelligently used. The comprehensive book covers anatomical and emotional changes, reproduction as a biological process, sex, masturbation, dating, and some of the emotional differences between boys and girls. Other gender-specific topics are also included. The information is presented in a friendly, compassionate manner, and the book is a great way to start a conversation with preteens or tweens. It serves as a model for answering their questions and lets parents know what kids are really thinking. If you can only afford one book on puberty for this age group, this is the one to have.
School Library Journal

"The dos-à-dos format (girls’ queries on one side, boys’ on the other) has the advantage of allowing readers to concentrate on their own issues but also to explore the ways others think."--Kirkus Reviews, starred

For more than two decades the UW grad and registered nurse [Julie Metzger] has taught a two-night class on puberty and sexuality that’s become a rite of passage for preteen girls and their mothers in Seattle, and along the way she’s fielded thousands of queries—some funny, some poignant, and all fascinating glimpses of the hormone-addled minds of kids. This spring she and Dr. Rob Lehman (he teaches the class to boys and their dads) answer nearly 400 of them in their first book, Will Puberty Last My Whole Life? (Spoiler alert: The answer to that one, mercifully, is no.)
Seattle Metropolitan

...pick up the book Will Puberty Last My Whole Life? by Julie Metzger, RN, MN, and Robert Lehman, MD. They've collaborated to answer the questions most children have about what is going to happen to their bodies... If your child has a question, the answer is most likely in this book... Growing up, puberty can feel like the most confusing and embarrassing thing ever. Probably the best asset of this book is the explanation about normalcy. There is a constant emphasis that no matter how awkward and embarrassed they feel, what they are going through is a totally normal part of life.
Cafe Mom

A lively, well-designed manual on puberty and sex, designed for preteens.
The Seattle Times 

What's cool about this book is it's for boys and girls, so you flip it and you get questions from each...Great advice and an interesting topic.
Q13 Fox, Seattle