So too is the idea of turning this not into a nonfiction middle grade book (which would be the usual route) but a fun story set between four friends. Even so, I can say with certainty that the idea of linking menstruation to the basic human right of having access to pads and tampons struck me as practically revolutionary. I guess the most famous book for kids to feature periods is Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, particularly since Judy Blume had to update the sanitary napkin belt info in its more recent reprints. Feeling cramps tends to be paired with the idea that the heroine is just stressing out about something else.

In the field of children’s literature, if it gets mentioned then it’s a side note or a joke. Why are the school’s machines in the bathrooms always empty of tampons and pads? What are kids who don’t have access to a lot of money supposed to do when they need them? Why doesn’t the administration care? What starts out as an annoyance quickly grows into a cause, but how do you get the world to notice something it simply doesn’t want to see?

Abby in particular sees Sasha’s problem and then starts to notice other issues. Abby, Brit, and Christine are exactly the kinds of friends you wish you had in high school. How about the one where you get your period one day at school while wearing white pants and it feels like EVERYONE notices? Sasha’s worried enough about making friends at her new school and now this? Fortunately, her misfortune leads to meeting three amazing girls. What’s your worst nightmare? There are so many to pick and choose between. I didn’t know I needed a graphic novel for kids on period parity. Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve been missing until it’s arrived. And it exhibits a kind of bravery, both on the part of the creators and, to a certain extent, the publisher, that is rather rare. Since that time we’ve had book stunners like A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée, and other titles in the vein of The Hate U Give. Then came the election of 2016, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Women’s March, and any number of other factors that suddenly made those old “protest novels” look downright quaint. For a long time that was pretty much as far as a book for children would go when it came to civil disobedience. Examples that come immediately to mind vary from the fluffy ( Frindle and The Homework Strike) to slightly more serious topics ( The Day They Came to Arrest the Book). Which is to say, a novel in which the kids in the book decide to take a stand against an injustice. The nice thing about children’s literature is that it often replicates, on a smaller scale, themes and topics that you’ve find in more mature fare.

Go with the Flow by Lily Williams