In celebration of the new Double-Daring Book for Girls (by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz), I have been sent a copy for the book launch. This book, like the first book, is full of interesting facts, activities, games, and also a good range of stories about bold, adventurous women through history and their various pursuits.
Judging from the subject matter the popularity of the ‘daring’ range of books for girls is based on a combination of parental nostalgia and a sense that the modern lifestyle has cocooned children. The games and activitities encourage lots of outdoor play and creativity, which is once again on my agenda in this house because we are so sedentary at the moment that we remind me of that Lemonheads song, I Lied About Being the Outdoor Type. Aaaanyway. The activities in this book range from making things (eg. lava lamps) to acquiring new skills (eg. surfing) and include enough diversity to interest girls who prefer more physical outlets to those who prefer more scientific ones. The book also offers some activities more suited to daring adventures like ‘How to Make a Rope Ladder’ and ‘Being a Private Eye’. Criticisms of the book? Well, not surprisingly it is a little US-centric. And I’d still like to see a little more danger in these daring books for girls, but overall they’re a great couple of books and the perfect present for a tweens’ birthday or for school holidays.
This book is obviously more suitable for primary school aged girls than my own four year old daughter but I needed to try the book out so we went with building rock towers. We actually really enjoyed it – the spotting and collecting of suitable rocks, and then the sizing and balancing of them into towers. Plus, I felt the wholesome satisfaction that comes with seeing your child play outdoors with rocks, like I’m such a good mother. The book includes some interesting information about the history of rock towers too which gave the activity a bit of substance. We hadn’t managed to find many flat rocks on our walk so the maximum we successfully stacked in our rock tower was six. Can you beat that? Huh? Not that impressed, you say. But can you do that one-handed while breastfeeding your other child? Ah, see.
This book is available from Amazon.
Making rock towers outdoors one-handed while breastfeeding a newborn is definitely Mother of the Year material.
Does anyone know where to get a nomination form?
(I haven’t read any of the Daring books, so I’m still wondering: why do they have to be for Boys and Girls, why not just Daring Books for Kids?)
I love these books. I have given the original ones many times as gifts. So empowering, so much fun!
I have looked at these books, but Fred, at six, still seems a bit young so never bought.
I have a niggling worry though. I do wonder if this doesn’t in a sense contribute to that sense that girls have to be good at everything.
I will have to give these books a look. I’ve always thought they looked neat.
And yes, I’m impressed. 🙂
Benefited from the topic, thank you
The fact that you actually left the house is impressive 😉