I know you’ve heard the stories from your grandparents about how they walked to school uphill both ways, in the snow, barefoot. Well I kept thinking about that the whole time I was reading The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. When I was a kid we didn’t have cell phones and Xbox 360s. My family had a rotary dial phone until I was in high school for goodness sake. Instead of an Xbox I had a Coleco Vision. Back in those days video games didn’t have all of these realistic graphics. In our games, we did the same thing over and over again with each level getting a little bit faster until we finally lost the game. And we were thrilled with those games.
My friends and I didn’t spend hours in front of the television or computer. There were no computers back then, unless you consider the Speak and Spell to be a computer. All through elementary school we didn’t even have a remote for our TV. Then finally we got a remote…with a cord. If you didn’t watch where you were going you’d trip right over that freaking cord, fall to the ground and then the remote would come swinging in to your head. It was quite a fiasco. Plus it was a big huge remote where you would push in a button for whatever channel you wanted. You didn’t press the “1″ and then the “2″ to get to channel 12. Instead you pushed the button under the number 12 until it was depressed. And we didn’t have 200 hundred channels of programming. We had maybe thirty channels including just one HBO, not the three or four variations there is now.
Back in my day we had to use our imagination to find things to keep us entertained. So The Daring Book for Girls really brought back some memories. They included a lot of activities I did when I was child. Some things I had completely forgotten about, like friendship bracelets. I made many friendship bracelets when I was in school, but have long since forgotten how to make them. But thanks to Andrea and Miriam I can know teach my daughter how to make them.
They included some of my favorite games from the playground such as four square, double dutch jump rope and tetherball. I spent every single recess playing these games when I was a child. Plus they’ve included fourteen games of tag. FOURTEEN. I didn’t even know there were fourteen versions of tag.
Do you remember slumber parties and the games we used to play? Well Andrea and Miriam have taken us right back to our nightgowns and Rainbow Brite pillow cases with their slumber party games. And the’ve included the best of the best. You know what I’m talking about. Bloody Mary and Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board. And they don’t just tell us how to play. They also give us the history on these games. And if you’re sketchy on the details of Truth or Dare, the rules are right here.
But the book isn’t just filled with games. There’s also some history. There’s the history of writing and writing in cursive italics, weather, the Bill of Rights, a short history of women inventors and scientists, modern women leaders and a short history of women Olympic firsts.
You will even find some “boy” things in the book. Things every girl needs to know so she doesn’t have to rely on a man. Things like putting together your own toolbox and how to change a tire.
There is also info for girls to use when they become woman such as the basics of finance (interest, stocks and bonds), how to negotiate a salary and public speaking. According to the book, 75% of people suffer from stage fright so just about everybody could benefit from these tips. I love how they tell you to “pull a Brady Bunch” and imagine everybody sitting in their underwear.
I wish I could tell you all of the great activities this book teaches you. It’s a fantastic book with tons and tons of ideas. You will never run out of things to do with your daughter. We can now say goodbye to our TV because we have 275 pages of things to do together, including a complete list of books that will change our lives. You definitely need to add this book to your home library.
Learn more about this great book:
- The Daring Book for Girls website
- The publisher’s website for the book
- Andi and Miriam were on the Today Show
- Additional information including publicity schedule:
Andi’s author bio page and Miriam’s author bio page at Harper Collins.
