Period: The quick guide to every uterus by Ruth Redford and Aitana Giraldez

This brief and inclusive guide walks kids through the basics of puberty, menstruation, and includes practical tips on dealing with periods at school, using different types of menstrual products, and commonly asked questions. The four people primarily featured in the comic are two female-presenting kids with brown skin and dark hair, one white, pink-haired student with a "she/they" pronoun pin, and one white student with a pixie-cut who acts primarily as a calming and knowledgeable advisor.

The comic panels are mixed with panels of information and generally do a good job presenting the information, although there are some odd juxtapositions where it's unclear how the text is flowing.

I have two cons to this title - first, although a person in a wheelchair is pictured at one point, there is no information on handling your period with a physical disability or challenge. Secondly, and this is a major issue for me, on page 10 when the book goes over puberty and lists what will happen, while it includes "might" before hormonal changes and feelings, the book states "You start to have sexual thoughts and feelings." This isn't even about someone being asexual or aromantic - making this sound like a part of puberty that happens automatically to everyone with a uterus, along with getting a period and growing breasts, is misleading to kids who are worried about whether they're developing "normally" with everyone in their age group. The book is careful to be inclusive otherwise and this could have been solved with a simple addition of the word "might" as used regarding other feelings, or "some people might" would be even better!

Verdict: This is a good overview and is very brief, so there's not a lot of room to expand on the concepts. It's reasonable that the information wouldn't be in depth. Except for that one statement, I would recommend this wholeheartedly as an addition to collections on puberty. Libraries might still choose to purchase it as a supplemental text, but I won't do so until it's been updated.

ISBN: 9798887700441; Published 2023 by Mayo Clinic; Borrowed from another library in my consortium