The Daring Book For Girls eBook edition
The Daring Book for Girls is an eclectic mix of games, crafts, history sports and general knowledge. The book, written by popular "mommy bloggers" Andrea Buchanan, and Miriam Peskowitz, takes us back to a gentler, more innocent time.
My sister brought me the print version exclaiming "you gotta see this book." I picked it up and started browsing. It was a trip down memory lane. We both remember long-forgotten childhood pleasures: cootie catchers, friendship bracelets, scoter building and willow whistles. The format reminded us of the old Girl Scout manual (without the planet diagrams) that we used to have laying around the house. I was charmed.
While there is certainly an old fashioned feel to the book; there are come jarringly contemporary sections like negotiating a salary, finance and public speaking. Admittedly, useful and important but not exactly in context with pressing flowers.
The acid test, of course, was putting the book into the hands of my neighbor and her three little girls aged 7, 9 and 10. The result was fascinating. The 7 year old was intrigued by pressing flowers, paper airplanes and whistling with two fingers. The 10 year old experimented with putting her hair up with a pencil and bandana trying. The 9 year old picked it up, thumbed through it and wandered off to check her Zwinky site.
Their consensus was that it was "OK". Their Mom on the other hand loved it! She is hoping that it will be an antidote to the "Mommy, I'm bored" summer ahead.
Obviously this is no where near conclusive but I suspect that it may be indicative of a more general response. Girls like it; Mom's love it. Which, all things considered, is probably good news for the authors since the Moms are the ones with the money to buy the book.
For the official stuff you can read the publishers blurb:
The Daring Book for Girls is the manual for everything that girls need to know—and that doesn't mean sewing buttonholes! Whether it's female heroes in history, secret note-passing skills, science projects, friendship bracelets, double Dutch, cats cradle, the perfect cartwheel or the eternal mystery of what boys are thinking, this book has it all. But it's not just a guide to giggling at sleepovers—although that's included, of course! Whether readers consider themselves tomboys, girly-girls, or a little bit of both, this book is every girl's invitation to adventure.
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