Why It's Great to Be a Girl: 50 Things You Can Tell Your Daughter to Increase Her Pride in Being Female

I have friends expecting girls this summer (one of them is expecting TWIN girls) and this book will be among my gifts. Disclosure: I know this author but haven't been in touch with her for years because we moved out of the area. But I bought the original version of Why It's Great to be a Girl, published in the mid 1990s, so I'm in a good position to compare the original with this new and expanded version. The original was a fun and enlightening read but this one is even better. It's directed at girls between 6 and 16, while the original was more targeted at the mothers of young girls. Again, if something doesn't interest you, such as medical breakthroughs made by women, you can skip ahead to something that does interest you. Like the earlier edition, Shannon has "bonus" pages -- these are fast, fun facts, such as that girls are better at expressing their thoughts through instant messaging (yes, a university did a study on this!). It's also interesting to read in the Introduction how her daughter Madeline has changed since she was a preschooler, when the first book was written, to the present, when her daughter is in college. Shannon originally wrote the book out of frustration that her daughter was encountering sexism even at age four. I am a runner, and I did notice that "Females are the most active athletes" is missing from this edition. Apparently, that is no longer true. Kind of sad. Still, there's a whole lotta good stuff in this book to make you, your daughter, niece, etc. feel really great about being a girl.

This is a great book which has a little bit of women's history (Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, etc.) and many biological facts to celebrate the abilities and achievements of girls and women! Each of the 50 facts is on a single small page for easy reading. Especially good for middle school age girls. Very interesting review by the boy reader! It's clear that in our society boys are taught to think that if they aren't the best at everything, they "suck." Very sad, especially since there is no male-bashing in this book.

Becoming a woman in a man's world isn't easy - there's tons of heros and stories about boys and men and not as many stories about girls. Everyone knows boys are stronger than girls, or are they? This book is a fun and empowering perspective on Why Its Great to be a Girl! Boys, fear not! The book isn't down on men, its up on women!!