A bilingual (Navajo-English) book from the Navajo Curriculum Center, on the Kinaalda, the Navajo girls' puberty ceremony, is intended for Navajo students at the secondary and junior college level and contains a section introducing the ceremony and sections on early life experiences and the initiation into womanhood. All text in the three sections is in both Navajo and English, accompanied by drawings of Navajo life, people, and activities during the ceremony. The author is a Navajo woman who has participated in the ceremony as an initiate and as a member of a sponsoring family; her observations drawn from her personal experience were supplemented with interviews of senior family members. The book contains the fullest documentation of the puberty ceremony that it is possible to record from the Navajo view. The introduction gives the origin story of the Kinaalda and briefly describes the contemporary ceremony. Descriptions of Navajo child development combine elements of formal schooling and informal, traditional instruction at home; the author offers suggestions on teaching methods best suited to the Navajo child's needs. The third section outlines the ceremony and describes the ceremonial events from their inception to the 4-day "holy period" which follows the ritual. (MH)