Expressive black-and-white illustrations enlivened by a winkingly all-red palette make for a quick, enjoyable read. Until she meets Christine, Brit, and Abby—3 best friends—who help her out with a public “flow” problem. Sasha who’s somewhat shy and just trying to fit in, early in the school year, has her first period at school. We wrote a story about friendships and periods for kids to relate to and learn from and they can’t do that if they don’t have access to the book.

This warm, candid friendship story isn’t shy about the message it’s trying to send―that periods need not be a dirty secret. I understand that this is intended as a book to empower people with periods and address the injustices they face. I just feel it would have been stronger in 2020 if issues of trans periods were addressed in a more nuanced way. I brought this book to my art class kids after one of them came in with her first period ever and she was the first of anyone she knew to get one. You’re just kind of throwing it out there like, “Oh, yeah, the tampon tax is a thing people talk about!Though it’s mainly for middle and high school students, I highly recommend it for all ages, genders and orientations. She decides to take action for the half of the school that bleeds, but her protest goes too far and alienates her friends. When we do not provide stories like that of Go With The Flow or any of the other amazing books on the NBC Texas Banned Books list, we limit readers ability to be seen, heard, and build empathy.

Long story short, if the kids in your book are teenagers then the book will not and cannot be marketed to kids.I cannot beleive that someone thought periods were so much of a taboo that middle schoolers (The typical starting age) couldn’t handle it. Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. She received her first undergraduate degree in engineering from UCLA and her second in animation from California College of the Arts. Go with the Flow is the type of book certain to be lauded by adults who wished they had had such a book in their own youth.