Daring

I confess, I received a free copy of The Daring Book for Girls from HarperCollins for the express purpose of writing a review on my blog. If you read some of the same blogs as I do, you've probably read a few reviews of this book already...but if not, read on.

The book arrived and both of my children jumped up and down excitedly. You see, it doesn't matter what's inside the box that came to our house. It doesn't even matter who the package is for. It's excitement at the highest level.

With that kind of welcome for a book I hoped it would live up to the hype.

First impressions of the book? It's pretty. But not too girly. It has a nice, soft-blue cover with glittery silver writing. Miss M, of course, found the book beautiful. And she assumed it was hers, because it was glittery. Apparently glittery things cannot possibly be for MOM.

But the real treasure is inside the book. It's technically for pre-teens and teenagers I suppose, but I found some things in there that I didn't know. Okay, a lot of things that I didn't know.

I never learned how to make those friendship bracelets as a girl. Now, I have instructions. Do you know how to put your hair up using only a pencil? Well, I do now. How about the real rules for hopscotch and four-square? Yep, they're in the book. Remember those paper "fortune tellers" we used to make? You had to pick a number and you'd move the triangle pieces back and forth that number, pick again and open the flap to read the fortune. Turns out they're called "Cootie Catchers" or Origami fortune tellers. I'd forgotten about them. But how much fun will it be to make one of these and try it with my kids?

But it's not only filled with these sort of frivolous things (which are still important, because, after all, you should still be frivolous as long as you can) but it's also filled with more substantial information. How to negotiate a salary, how to change a tire, important women in history, Robert's Rules, the Bill of Rights and more are included.

I'd like to give a copy of it to my best friend's daughter, who is almost eight, but I don't want to part with my copy!

The book reminded me of my old Girl Scout handbook, the one that had all the badges in it with instructions of how to earn the badge. I had such a great time going through that book as a kid and learning all the stuff in there.

The Daring Book for Girls is the modern girl equivalent. And that is high praise from me.

Miss M is going to love it when she's older and can read it herself. For now, her mom is going to enjoy trying some of the things in there...and re-living a bit of childhood--the daring way of course.