Growing Up God’s Way for Girls by Dr. Chris Richards and Dr. Liz Jones

This resource book is meant to help girls through puberty with a Biblical mindset. There are nine chapters.

1. An Introduction to Puberty
2. Marriage
3. Puberty and How it Starts
4. How Your Body Changes
5. How the Body Changes in Boys
6. Physical Intimacy
7. Changes in the Way You Think
8. Going Out and Beyond
9. Preparing for the Future

This simple and straightforward book walks girls who are approaching puberty through the changes that are happening in their bodies and why. I so appreciate how this is rooted in scripture and points to God’s wonderful design throughout the book. It is strong in its focus that God’s plan is, most likely, for them to become a wife and mother. It also takes a Complementarian stance on marriage and encourages girls in their (possible) future roles of home-making.

There are illustrations of the female and male changing anatomy, including where a tampon is inserted. Some of the more sensitive subjects that are covered are menstruation, breast enlargement, pubic hair, all of the male reproductive organs, and the act of intercourse including ejaculation.

There are a couple of words that sound a bit unnatural to a US reader, as this was written by two Brits, but nothing too confusing. There are a few phrases that I think are either poorly worded or confusing. When encouraging girls to make Biblical decisions about their purity, it reads that they don’t want to “do anything that might spoil this opportunity.” When trying to relay the importance of the decision of who you marry, they use Psalm 15:4 to support saying, “Christians should be known as one who keeps her promises even when it hurts her to do so.” Because this isn’t expanded upon, this could be a very confusing statement for a young girl who uses the words “promise”  and “hurt” in very different contexts than an adult would. I would clarify that if you make a promise to someone and realize it’s a dangerous promise, this is NOT one you should keep.

The section on being sanitary during menstruation seemed to make tampons the better option, which I found a little odd. It also labels dating as “going out” which is a term that isn’t used by everyone.

Overall, I think this is a good resource (although personally not my first choice) for a book covering puberty and sex. I appreciate that it views all of its topics through a Biblical lens and is not terribly long-winded, one of the shorter books on this subject. I would definitely recommend going through this book with the child, or at least talking about the chapter after she reads it.

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