Amber's Guide for Girls: Advice on Fame, Family, Fashion and More!

Yes, Amber Mariano (nee Brkich) of Survivor Australia and Survivor All-Star fame has written a book. Amber's Guide for Girls is a short booklet meant to guide young girls through the trials of being a teenager faced with peer pressure, worries about their future, and dealing with parental restrictions. Most of the book focuses on trying to get girls to make good decisions and to follow their dreams. At first, this advice seems a little hypocritical seeing as the author earned a substantial amount of money and met her husband while playing a game. However, the author downplays these events as her having been blessed and instead looks to her real achievements of completing college, staying true to herself, and working hard in her relationships as well as her goals of continuing her charity work, starting a family, and creating her own business. Though definitely not a piece of great literature, it was nice to see that the author is trying to do something positive with her fifteen minutes of fame. Although the author is obviously counting on her name to sell this book, you can tell that she does actually care about her topic and has put a good deal of herself into the book.

I would definitely recommend this book to young girls...probably nine and up. The style is easy to read, very much like the American Girl magazines I used to love as a kid, and the advice is sound. The section on fame was a little misplaced because most people don't become famous, but Amber ties it in well to the rest of the book. I especially liked her emphasis on dressing in a way that fits you and doing good for other people. People often forget about the doing good part. However, I do wish there were more pictures of Amber instead of drawings. They didn't look remotely like her. Read the book!

Reviewed by Haylee Lawler (11) for Reader Views (6/06) This kid's self-help book helped me a lot. It was really easy to understand. I learned to believe in myself and how to make my own fashion clothes. Which is great! You taught me how to make my own goals, dreams, hobbies, relationships, fame, life and family. I learned that school is important for my education. I learned that believing in yourself is good because other kids may think you're not cool, but you don't have to listen to them. Always believe in yourself, you are your best cheerleader!! Peer pressure is hard to understand and very tricky. Like when sometimes someone you think is your friend want you to do something wrong like drugs, have sex, or drink, and you don't want to. You find out that they really aren't your friends after all. Your real friends wouldn't try to pressure you into doing something you don't want to. Music, which I love, is my own expression of me. I like Jesse McCartney and Keith Urban. I learned that even though when my mom and dad get on to me to clean my room, they are only doing it because they love me. I might not like it but I love them anyway. I also learned that being famous is hard, but I want to be famous just like you. I want to write books, I already write short stories, and I want to be a movie star. I also like drawing clothes. One of my favorite saying in "Amber's Guide for Girls" is when dealing with your fashion style "If you feel good in it, then go with it." Thanks for writing this book, for making it easy for a young girl (I'm only 11) to really understand, for all the really cool make-up tips, hair tips. The fashion advice is AWESOME!!! You make it not so hard to stand up for me, because if I don't stand up for me then no one will. I am the most important person in my life I know that now, but it doesn't hurt to have great friends, a good little sister (even if she can be annoying), and GREAT parents. I have all that so, I think I'm doing pretty good!!

"Amber's Guide for Girls" is undeniable proof that Mariano is the greatest artist/author alive today. The title alone had me hyperventilating with raucous laughter for I don't know how long. This book, like all of Mariano's work, whisks me away to a magical place, where I like to pretend that I am a prepubescent girl, and I endlessly relive the timeless time in which Amber reveals to Rob that she doesn't like to kiss Rob on Saturday morning because Rob's face is scratchy. How true that is! It's as if Amber has some technologically advanced cloak of invisibility, and moved undetected about my home during my childhood -- every chapter is a literal reenactment of a scene from my early youth! Guys, this is an essential buy. Before "Amber's Advice on Stuff" I was a nobody, a loser, a lonely, pathetic man with no one to hold me. Now, by simply repeating "I'll Shovel the Cards" puns at strategic moments in bars or at bus stops, I have become every woman's treasure. What a blessing this book has been. I give this literary triumph 25 and seven-eigths stars!

Thanks to Amber's guide, I've overcome many faults to be the person I am today. The guide also works for boys, SO DONT BE DISCOURAGED BECAUSE IT SAYS "guide for girls". Amber introduces you to music you probably have never heard before, her family, and her life growing up. Amber has a truly inspirational story, going from a small town girl to be a millionaire thanks to Survivor.