Books for Tweens and Teens

I’ve been collecting books for tweens and teens on *all of the things* for many years now – for the various schools I have worked at and for my own children. I am not a doctor, psychologist or high school teacher (definitely no expert) but between a shelf full of books with *all of the things* and hopefully good communication, I’m going to give the  parenting of teens my best shot.

Books give us the words when we have none or are wanting to ensure we say the right things. Books which deal with being a teen, written by authorities in the area, are a far more reliable source of accurate information than peers or the vast, unfiltered, murky sea of information online.

As well as being written by those with experts, I also have a personal criteria for puberty books – I like them to be informative, engaging, authentic and research based. Below is my list of ‘must-haves’ for the bookshelf of your tween or teen.

I first gave some of the books below to PudStar with a Biome skincare kit and my favourite deodorant in the world (why did I not know about this dry deodorant business a long time ago?!) so she could start a simple face and body routine with ethical and no-fuss products. Mostly she just uses them to make her side of the bathroom bench look classy – but, like the books, they are there when she wants or needs them.

Many of these books appear marketed to a female audience. Publishers make decisions about cover design and content in order to best position their product in a competitive market. I have said it before and I’ll say it again – books are books and books are for all. The information in these books is solid and frankly, I think these books could/should be read by all young people.  Understanding the way bodies of all persuasions work is information that we should be arming all our young people with.

If you are looking for some books for younger children, you absolutely MUST own ‘The Amazing True Story of How Babies Are Made’ for a totally no nonsense look at bodies and reproduction. It’s like an updated version of ‘Where Did I Come From’ and my full review is here. For even younger children I really love the board books ‘Boys Will Be…’  and ‘Girls Are Pretty…’.

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Books for Tweens

(please review content for suitability for your child)

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Books for Teens

(please review content for suitability for your child)

Finally…one thing PudStar and I did with a group of friends a little while ago was make some of our own skincare products – tweens and teens need to actually shower and I don’t know about yours…

We used some of the books below to make our own lotions, potions and generally darned great smelling things. Raw products were from Biome’s range of DIY ingredients here. We had a second day of making *all of the things* with the cousins and also made soap and beeswax wraps. Best.holiday.fun.ever and everyone smelt pretty amazing.

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DIY home and Bath Products

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This post was originally published in September, 2019 and has recently been updated.