Nia & The Numbers Game: A Teenager's Guide to Education, Relationships & Sex

Gr 8 Up—A guide designed to aid African American teen girls in navigating puberty, relationships, and the transition from high school to college. Henry explores the experiences and needs of young African American women through a combination of "Let's Talk" sections directly addressing readers, quizzes, and workbook pages. Henry walks teens through the imaginary life of Nia, a teen growing up in Metro Atlanta, as she navigates coming-of-age pressures. The book touches upon periods, STDs, birth control methods and their effectiveness, college readiness, study habits, and healthy relationships. Each chapter has a different symbolic number attached to it (hence, the numbers game) but the headings, ultimately, are not overly significant. Though much of the factual information in the book is informative and accurate, the story sections often feel overly sermonizing and under-written—Nia primarily learns from the mistakes of her less careful friends, who seem to exist only to get STDs, get pregnant, switch colleges, and generally suffer significant setbacks, while Nia stays serious, celibate, and focused on her studies. Her persistence is rewarded with a medical doctorate and a wedding proposal from a successful medical school classmate. Henry omits any information about mental health, domestic violence, the LGBTQ community, drug and alcohol abuse, and many other topics relevant to teens, making it a less than comprehensive guide.