I was delighted to hear this book was coming to life – to create some awareness around a topic that is useful for all women, especially the young. You see when I wrote Fertilise Yourself, I quickly discovered something; it wasn’t women (and men) ready to have babies that I needed to convince good health was a must, it was young women who needed the education and support. This starts from the get go and if we can nail it, will change the way for the future around hormone health and long term fertility. I’m delighted to give you some more insight into this new book today.
Cycling to Grandma’s House
Luna has just been assigned a challenging school project: to find the most incredible characteristic about being a girl and then present it to her class. Luna races home to ask for advice from her mother, who suggests she do her project on an experience that Luna shares with other girls all around the world: menstruation. As she summons the courage to talk to other girls and women from various cultures about their first period, she embarks on an exciting journey that will change her life forever.
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A powerful new Australian children’s book is breaking a long held taboo by tackling the issue of menstruation and menarche (the first menstrual bleed by a woman).
Cycling to Grandma’s House is written by award winning community development practitioner, teacher and writer Jac Torres-Gomez, with illustrations by Erin-Claire Barrow.
Jac Torres-Gomez wrote the book to help parents, carers and teachers start talking to children about menstruation in an interesting, open and positive way.
Currently, there is a lack of educational, mainstream information and dialogue around menstruation throughout the world. Too often, young girls receive no information at all about menstruation and are left to cope alone and, often, in fear.
“As a mother to a young daughter myself, my dream is that she, as well as other children, can pick up and read Cycling to Grandma’s House and finally hear something positive about what it means to grow into a woman, instead of only hearing about the negatives,” Jac said.
Cycling to Grandma’s House is a cheerful and adventurous story that follows Luna on her quest to discover the most incredible thing about being a girl.
The delightful picture book allows children to become more familiar with the meaning of menarche and helps reduce any anxiety and fear related to this time. It also introduces children to some basic cultural celebrations related to menstruation.
Cycling to Grandma’s House includes helpful tips and notes for parents and educators to make starting this crucial discussion with children that much easier.
The picture book has already captured global interest, with requests received to translate the book into Portuguese, Spanish and Slovakian.
Cycling to Grandma’s House is self-published and is available to order online through Lulu and Amazon.
For more information visit: http://crimsonmovement.com/home/projects/cycling-to-grandmas-house/
How would you like to win a copy?
We are lucky enough to have one copy to giveaway to a lucky reader. All you need to do is tell me in the comments below why you would like to win. Easy peasy!
25 Comments
As a mum of two young girls having a book that relates to them developing into young women would be a blessing.
To ensure my daughter & niece’s grow up to be well informed and not be scared. Raising strong, confident & happy women is the goal 🙂
wow! I’d love to share this book with my children , although they’re still young (daughter 5, son 3), They see me chart my cycle daily and I take the opportunity each month when I menstruate to talk and let them ask questions. I think it’s important to educate both sexes, and to remove any if the myths surrounding the female cycle, we also talk about the lunar cycle and how it relates.
I am a mum of a beautiful teenage girl and we both know how important it is to be fertile- not just for making babies but for our hormonal health- thanks to the wisdom & teaching of people like Nat Kringoudis. We are now on a mission to share this information with all the other beautiful girls & their mums’ in our lives. Can’t wait to read & share this sweet book with them!
This book looks like a great tool for my parenting toolbox!
As a mum and as a woman I want menstruation to be as ‘normal’and accepted by my daughters (& their children!) as I’m encouraging Breastfeeding to be.
My 2 year old loves mummy’s nappies (cloth pads) and by using age apportiate laungage now I hope to take the scariness and dirtiness from the topic by them time they are experiencing it.
Here’s to this book becoming a staple in ‘sex ed’ as ‘Where did I come from’!!
A lesson I’m only just learning myself, I’d love to share this story and philosophy with other women like me who have inherited bleeding disorders or other difficulties with menstruating.
A lovely post Nat.
Hi Nat, I have a 15 year old who copes easily with all things happening to her…. Her 12 year old sister, however, is terrified about getting her period, and no matter what I say I am having trouble alleviating her fears – I wonder if this book might help!
My beautiful daughter Courtney is almost eleven and we have talked about menstruation, but I know she is not happy about it. Having two older brothers, she keeps saying she wishes she was a boy! I would love to be able to ease her mind about it and this book sounds wonderful. Blessings, Jane Orr.
As a student midwife, mother of three girls, and founder of a non-profit advocating for women’s childbirth rights, it is my fundamental belief that changing the fear based birth culture in our country begins with giving power and confidence back to women. Do you know when that starts? During the formative years of childhood – especially during this beautiful transition from child to woman. I would love to win a copy to share with my daughters, clients, contacts, and school groups. How amazing would it be to have a self love class for our young girls!!! I’m feeling inspired today! Thank you for the opportunity to receive a copy!
I would love to win this book to share with my almost 10yr old daughter and any future daughters I may have. As much as we try to normalise menstruation and being a female in our house it would be great to have something to show our daughter that it isn’t a taboo subject amongst others.
I would love to win this book. I have two girls who have not reached punditry yet and when the time comes I would like to be able to give them the book and sit down with them to discuss any questions they may have.
I would love to provide my daughter with factual information presented in a format that she loves – a book! I think this is also a non-threatening way for my husband to have open communication with his daughter about menstruation. This book will also be a useful tool to teach our young son (once he is old enough to understand) about the female body so that he can be respectful & understanding of girls!
This sort of thing excites me and pleases me. Being a mother of 2 young girls, it amazes me that we are not taught by anyone or anything about OUR BODIES! I want my girls and all little girls to grow up knowing exactly how their bodies work and are meant to work.
It amazes me that schools will provide sex education from year 5, and yet there is never any allocation for what i would call ‘Your Body Education’! With resources & people like this and you, i hope to be able to continue to help other women and their daughters. xx
As the mother of a tween, men starting from a young age who already thinks being a woman is a chore, I would like to show her how special being a woman is.
This is brilliant! I have been thinking for a while, Nat, that you need to write a book aimed at teenage girls, educating them, in a very easily accessible way, about the risks associated with the Pill that mainstream medicine doesn’t warn about and how to understand your menstrual cycle, know when you are ovulating etc. I often think about how I will go about guiding my little girl (currently only 2.5 years old!) when she is older to make informed decisions about her body (unlike her mother as a teenager!). This book seems like the perfect first step in that process and I would LOVE to win a copy for her for when she is a little older. One way or another, I definitely look forward to laying my hands on a copy of this wonderful book! Thank you for casting your light upon it.
As a mother of a 6yo daughter, this is one conversation I am not looking forward to having! This book would make a somewhat awkward subject a lot easier to approach when the time comes.
I would really love a copy of this book, so I could read it with my 10.5 year old girl, who is starting to get curious about changes that take place during puberty. We’ve talked about breast growth and pubic hair, but it’s really hard to talk about menstruation in a way that doesn’t make it seem “scary” and “difficult”.
Many thanks for all of your wonderful work educating our next generation of women.
A topic that deserves more attention. My Mom never talked to me about menstruation, thank goodness for books like “Dear God, it s me Margaret” or i would have been clueless. I hope i can share this with my daughter well before she gets her first period.
I work with Grandparents who are caring for Grandchildren. These topics are often neglected for kids in out of home care particularly when there is a generation gap. It would be so great to have a tool like this to support them in teaching their young women about the ways of womanhood. The less these kids have to tackle on their own the better chance they have in life.
Hi Nat
Would love to win this for my 11 year old daughter, she has yet to get her period but the topic is coming up more frequently lately. Would love for her to read this and have a positive start to womanhood, self confidence and self love.
Thanks for a chance!!
Meri (dreamcreatelive) on Instagram
I recall to this day the fear when “it” came. I had no idea what was going on. I also recall my embarrassed mother handing me a plain brown paper wrapped “kit” containing a pad, elastic belt and a booklet to read and figure it all out.. As a grandmother of four still young girls, I am appreciative that a book like this is available to my daughters to supplement their much. more open approach
As the mum of two girls heading into this journey I love the sound of this book. As a parenting education with responsibilities for a parenting library state wide I would really like to see if this book would be a good addition to our library in WA. I am very aware of the limited books on this topic currently available!
A topic that is close to my heart! I have been doing my own research into menstruation on and off for a few years now, have started sewing my own cloth pads and have 2 young girls of my own for who i will be making sure i break the cycle of shame and embarrassment.
As an aspiring teacher, and older cousin to beautiful little girls, I don’t want them coming into puberty scared, like I was just over 10yrs ago! I wish I had a book like this back then, and sometimes even now on why we have such an amazing body in which we should embrace!
Hello, was just popping back to get the details for this book – But wondered who won? 🙂
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