.jpg)
The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls
Categories: Just For Moms, That's Entertainment
I'm sure you remember The Dangerous Book for Boys... It featured instructions on building a go-kart, a Navajo code-talker's dictionary, and more. It was a smash hit in the UK and in the States. It was then followed by The Daring Book for Girls, which offered a similar set of instructions targeted at girls who aren't content to sit around knitting and making pom-poms and perfume.Well, if you happen to be (or want your daughters to be) the sort that does enjoy knitting and making pom-poms and perfume, then I've got the book for you. The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls is just that -- more glorious than daring. There is, for example, a section on making basic rose-petal perfume. There are also tips on preparing a picnic basket.
The section on "The Great Outdoors" starts off with a discussion of falling: "Start by perfecting the stage faint, itself an invaluable accomplishment and a useful exit strategy for all manner of uncomfortable situations (non-completion of maths homework, getting out of PE, wanting the morning off school)."
I think when the time comes, I'll be much more likely to get Sara the Daring book, or perhaps even the Dangerous book. A lot of people I know, however, would be far more interested in this volume for their daughters than the other two. If you're in the UK, it's available from Amazon for a mere ten quid. And, stay tuned for my upcoming masterpiece, The Exhausting Book for Parents!
Recent Posts
- Reviews: What's New This Week (11/20/2009)
- Twitter Follow Friday on ParentDish! (11/20/2009)
- Diabetic Student Wins Fight For Extra Gym Classes (11/20/2009)
- Suri Cruise Stumbles in Her High Heels (11/20/2009)
- Sports Traditions as Important During Holidays as Turkey, Gifts Under the Tree (11/20/2009)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
caitlin 8-23-2007 @ 12:35PM
Roger, you might want to check out the "Hypothetical Dangerous Book for Girls" at Ask Moxie. The Ask Moxie list (comments are also well worth a read) seems way more balanced. I've been half tempted to start a wiki to flesh some of those out. (http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2007/05/the_hypothetica.html )
I haven't read this yet, but the summary on Amazon makes me doubt that it lives up to it's claim of being to being " great enough to satisfy the whims of diehard tomboys and devoted flower fairies". All things mentioned in the blurb seemed like they appeal only to the "flower fairies".
And re avoiding uncomfortable situations and "non-completion of maths homework".... WTF? On one hand, we want to encourage our girls to become more interested math and science and on the other hand we're telling them to improve their fake fainting skills to deal with not finishing a math homework assignment instead of asking for help if they're having trouble with it?
If I had a daughter, that right there would be enough reason not to buy the book. Being a girl doesn't magically excuse you from responsibility. There are plenty of other places for girls to learn how to do girly things without hearing messages like that. There's Craft magazine ( craftzine.com ), and several books in that niche. We even have women bring their daughters along to StitchNBitch once they're old enough. I also remember doing a ton of crafty things in Girl Scouts.
Reply
SKL 8-23-2007 @ 11:41PM
Can we give girls a little credit? Don't you think the thing about fainting and math homework might have been a joke? And that our daughters are smart enough to figure that out?
If you are afraid of your daughters seeing gender stereotypes in the books they read, you had better not let them read any classics or any books at all that were written prior to 1970. Seems to me it would be better to just explain to them the historical context of the steretypes or, better yet, give them the benefit of the doubt that they can figure this out for themselves.
Reply
caitlin 8-24-2007 @ 11:50AM
Well, if it was a joke, it was one in poor taste. Girls already get enough "it's ok if you can't do it" when it comes to math and science without throwing more of it on them, even under the guise of a joke.
I currently tutor 3 girls in math (and I also help one with her phsyics) and tutored several others when I was in college through our math department. The current ones are 12, 15, and 16, but I have also tutored women in their 20s and early 30s. While they are not fainting to get out of math|physics homework they didn't do, they did complain of nausea, headaches, cramps, fictional dead great aunts, or pretty much anything they thought might get them out of it. When you're scared of something, it's much easier to use an excuse than figure out how to deal with it.
That's why the math thing bothers me so much. These girls are perfectly capable of doing their math, but they have this block that tells them they can't and asking questions isn't going to help. I don't have a problem with crafting. As I pointed out, there are other places to learn it without feeding a math phobia.
Reply
SKL 8-24-2007 @ 6:12PM
I think I know more boys who are afraid of math than girls. The difference is that the girls (on average) care more about their academic deficiencies. But that's a different topic for a different day.
Reply