Sweet Secrets: Stories of Menstruation

Sheree Haughian is an elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Dufferin County Board of Education and the author of The Private Journal
of Day Applepenny, Prisoner.

In the past, information about menstruation was often delivered to young
girls in the form of a discreet pamphlet that was factually correct,
accompanied by labeled anatomical diagrams, and overwhelmingly clinical.
Sweet Secrets does not dispense with physiology, but it does bring an
emotional and cultural perspective to bear on its subject. Contributions
by women of various ages and cultures lead to a multifaceted profile of
the experience of menstruation—a process that has been viewed as a
“curse” in some patriarchal societies, but celebrated as a sacred
rite in others.

This lively, comprehensive and thoughtful book is an empowering
resource for the young woman of the 1990s. Highly recommended.