Yes dear readers, I'm going to review this book in two parts. I don't want to write the world's longest post about this pretty good book.

This book came out as a response to the "Dangerous Book for Boys" that came out earlier this year. I haven't read that book (see reasons here) but was excited to hear that Andi and Miriam were tagged to write a girls version of the book. I was disappointed, much less than others, to hear the title was daring instead of dangerous. But I figured that I would give it a chance.

When the book showed up in my mailbox I immediately turned to the table of contents. What does a daring girl need to know? Well before I could even make it there, I ran into the "DISCLAIMER" on the copyright page. We know we're raising our kids in a different time when a book that encourages anything that might end with a slight bump to have a disclaimer. Anywho, back to what a daring girl needs to know. Rules of basketball, tag, pirates, explorers, building a campfire...ok, all things a daring girl should know. But the one thing that really made me go "WTF" was Robert's Rules. Robert's fucking rules? What's so daring about that?

I flipped to the section and spot the basics of Robert's Rules. OMG, do I dread being in meetings where they follow RR to a T. Then it hits me...shit, they're right! Without knowledge of RR, there's no way to properly question a motion, propose an idea, or add on an amendment (friendly or one meant to kill a motion). A girl who knows RR is kick ass and would be daring enough to propose an awesome motion. It's not tight-rope walking, but I've been in far too meetings where I spent too much time figuring out the RR pattern and less on the actual motion.
Overall the book spends a lot of time looking back at the childhood of GenXers as Judith Warner points out. But by sprinkling in things from the "I wish I had known" list, Buchanan & Peskowitz is really trying to pull today's girls out from their text messages and giving them some useful knowledge for their future. I agree with Warner as she lists her favorites, "There’s “How to Negotiate A Salary,” “Every Girl’s Toolbox,” “Public Speaking” and “Finance: Interest, Stocks and Bonds” (favorites of mine)."

I almost even tried, one more time, to do a back walk-over (p. 60-61) because the directions seemed to simple. I kept thinking, why didn't ever figure it out before? Especially the hint to use a wall at first. Damn! Why didn't I think of that? There were even hints of climbing ropes. Another failure in my gym career.

I did try whistling with my fingers...failure...again. I did finally figure out the trick to putting my hair up with a pencil/pen/chopstick. Just in time for me to cut my hair.

It is overly cheesy in many aspects, but I wouldn't say that it is as dumb as the NY Times thinks it is. Ella's only 4, so not quite ready for reading about being daring, she's too busy being daring on her own. But I suspect when she finds this book on our bookshelf, she'll have some fun with it.

Disclaimer: I did receive this book for free in exchange for a review via MotherTalk.com.

Technorati tags: Daring Book for Girls, book review, feminism, daring, Mother Talk, Andrea J. Buchanan, Miriam+Peskowitz

Labels: Books, feminism