Book Review: She’s Twelve Going on Twenty

I am always a bit leery when I pick up a parenting book from an author I am not familiar with. So, I did not know what to expect when I agreed to review She’s Twelve Going on Twenty by Kim Camp for Thomas Nelson. My reservations began to fade before I even finished the introduction.

She’s Twelve Going on Twenty: Nurturing Your Daughter Through the Tween Years covers many of the same topics nearly every teen parenting book covers. But this book focuses heavily on the spiritual aspects of parenting. What does the Bible say about you as a parent? How can we use biblical principles to train up our daughters in godly wisdom in our current culture?

I love that Kim Camp does not pretend to have it all together. She has seen her children walk through troubling years. She has endured a divorce. The principles she shares do not come from her own successes, or even her own failures. They are born instead out of what she knows of God, His Word, and His work in her family and in the lives of other families.

I will say that “She’s Nine Going on Nineteen” might have been a better title for this book. Picking it up, I expected it to be written to me as the mom of a twelve-year-old. Although it is very appropriate for my relationship with my oldest, it is primarily written to moms of tweenagers, especially focusing on girls in the nine to ten age bracket. I would recommend this book to moms of girls ranging in age from eight to fifteen or sixteen.

I will gladly recommend She’s Twelve Going on Twenty to fellow moms. This solid, biblically-based book offers a wonderful reminder of what biblical parenting should look like in our lives!