IT'S PERFECTLY NORMAL

Harris, Robie H. (2009). It’s Perfectly Normal. Boston, MA: Candlewick Press.

The Bird and the Bee are having a conversation on a science book the Bird wants the Bee to read.  The Bird thinks it’s great, but even though the Bee thinks it’s gross he takes a look at it anyway.  The Bird is very curious and open-minded, on the other hand, the Bee seems uptight and embarrassed, and he’d rather avoid conversations on certain subjects, especially about sex.   

They discuss embarrassing conversations such as homosexuality, birth control, abortion, puberty, menstruation, miscarriages, adoption and much more.  Their conversations and language are light enough for young readers, although some might argue on age appropriateness of the book content.  It includes cartoon like illustrations, it answers a lot of questions about changing bodies, growing up, sex, and sexual health. 

I didn’t realize this book went into explicit details about what sex is.  It gives the reader incite on not only what kinds of sexual reproduction organs a human has, but it goes into some detail about strong feelings of sexual desire and having crushes on people of opposite and same sex.   Havighurst developmental tasks are shown here as Harris takes the reader from birth to adolescent development, getting along with peers, relationships with the opposite/same sex, interactions with parents, adapting to one’s physical body and consequences of actions. 

The theme of the book is reassuring readers that no matter how different they look, they are normal.  This is apparent when the Bird tells the Bee that bodies come in all different sizes, shapes, and shades.   Adolescents are developing at a faster rate than others.  The book explains how different people are and the exact name and gives great definitions of the vocabulary content.  By the end of the book the bee is impressed that people care about kids enough to write about and is actually relieved that it is over.  And they both agree that it’s perfectly normal to talk about all those embarrassing questions people have.  This book is one of the required YA novels.

Take a look at Robie Harris’ website, it contains information about her books, how she makes them, and why she writes what she writes.  http://robieharris.com

This book is also available in Spanish:

Other books by Robie Harris include: 

IT’S SO AMAZING! and IT’S NOT THE STORK!